We are never just one type of reader. A lover of young adult fantasy may enjoy browsing through cookbooks. A salesman may leave the world of modern data and reports and jump back in time through a Civil War history book.
Readers are complex people whose interests change and evolve. We go through different cycles and iterations of authors, genres, and literary formats.
Recently, my spontaneous — chaotic — reading style has led me in many diverse directions. My reading interests now are leagues different than they were even three years ago. Today, I’m sharing the subjects that have interested me in recent months. These books have shaped my writing and cultivated my understanding of the world that we live in.
Perhaps I may point you towards something you never knew you’d find interest in.
Education in the United States of America
At the top of my reading priorities is anything on the United States education system. As a lifelong student, I value the role education plays in developing a country’s youth.
This vision has guided my reading. I’m exploring where the US succeeds and fails, at all levels of a student’s academic journey:
After the Ivory Tower Falls: How College Broke the American Dream and Blew Up Our Politics — and How to Fix It by Will Bunch
The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America by Cara Fitzpatrick
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal by Bettina L. Love
Schools and Society During the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Education Systems Changed and the Road Ahead edited by Fernando M. Reimers
The Teachers: A Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession by Alexandra Robbins
When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira Katznelson
Western Philosophy
In my early college years, I began to explore Eastern philosophy. I’ve read the works of Sun Tzu, Morihei Ueshiba, Confucious, Miyamoto Musashi, and others.
I later dove into self-help literature and uncovered an interest in Western philosophy. I concentrated on the Hellenistic philosophers, with an emphasis on the Stoics.
As I’ve incorporated it into my daily reading, philosophy has felt far more approachable to me. It has moved beyond an endless foray of abstract concepts to advice I can process and apply in my everyday life.
I’m currently following two series of philosophy publications. The first is Princeton University Press’s Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series. The second is the University of Chicago’s complete works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Both series have continued to amuse me with each new entry:
Hardship & Happiness by Lucius Annaeus Seneca
How to Be a Leader: An Ancient Guide to Wise Leadership by Plutarch
Letters on Ethics by Lucius Annaeus Seneca
United States History
A younger me would tell you that I was never fond of history. The adult me would tell you that I have always had a latent interest in history. What I actually wasn’t fond of was how we teach history in schools.
The pace of modern schooling kept me from diving deep into specific facets of any given historical period. As an adult, I can explore whatever historical thread I find the most interesting for as long as I want.
In recent months, I’ve read about the aftermath of the Revolutionary War. I’ve explored the successes and failures of the New Deal. I’ve studied how the aftermath of the Brown v. Board of Education decision shaped our current educational system. I’ve also observed the presidential election cycles of the 1970s to 1980s.
This has led me to read the United States’s most revered literary texts. I’ve read key pieces of legislation such as the U.S. Constitution, the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Opinion, and the Civil Rights Act. I’ve also discovered a love for the works of Thomas Paine and Alexander Hamilton.
As my list of historical eras is diverse, so is my list of reading recommendations:
The Best Presidential Writing: From 1789 to the Present edited by Craig Fehrman
Common Sense, Rights of Man, and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine (Signet Classics)
The Constitution of the United States and Other Patriotic Documents edited by Gregg Jarrett
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter by Kai Bird
Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate by Bob Woodward
When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira Katznelson
Political Theory
Humans place themselves in ideological bubbles. Many take their current beliefs for granted. They won’t even attempt to explore the beliefs and theories of others.
I have devoted some of my time to exploring political theories, both foreign and domestic. My areas of interest have been matters of economic, educational, and foreign policy.
From contemporary authors to scholars of the Roman Republic, here’s what has my interest in the realm of politics:
Discourses on Livy by Niccolo Machiavelli
Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1884 and the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx & Frederick Engels
The Great Political Theories: From the French Revolution to Modern Times edited by Michael Curtis
How to Be an Anticapitalist in the 21st Century by Erik Olin Wright
Machiavelli and Us by Louis Althusser
The Return of the Political by Chantal Mouffe
Towards a Green Democratic Revolution: Left Populism and the Power of Affects by Chantal Mouffe
Tyranny of the Minority by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt
Why We Need the Electoral College by Tara Ross
Writing
I am always reading to learn to be a better writer. Oftentimes, it is a matter of reading in the styles, structures, or genres I wish to write in. Sometimes it also takes the form of reading about the craft of writing itself.
My current focus is on the topics of revision, characterization, and narrative structure. The following works are helping me on that journey:
Letters to a Writer of Color edited by Deepa Anappara & Taymour Soomro
Steering the Craft: A 21st-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by Ursula K. Le Guin
Writing for Busy Readers: Communicate More Effectively in the Real World by Todd Rogers & Jessica Lasky-Fink
The Written World and the Unwritten World by Italo Calvino
Memoirs
One of the genres I wish to write in is that of memoirs. The craft of memoir is one of literature’s most vulnerable. To do it right warrants the appropriate level of study.
Memoirists teach us by guiding us through their most sensitive moments. In doing so, they use the tools of storytelling to guide us all. My aim when reading the following works is to analyze how they do it:
An American Childhood by Annie Dillard
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson
Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education by Stephanie Land
One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty
Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Woolf, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater by Peggy Orenstein
Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington
Essay Collections
I read a lot of essay collections. One reason is that I like to bounce around from one topic to the next to the next in a nonlinear fashion.
I also wish to write and publish a collection of literary essays in the future. The best way I can learn to do so is by reading essay collections, such as the following:
101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest
Letters to a Writer of Color edited by Deepa Anappara & Taymour Soomro
Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People’s Business by Roxane Gay
The Written World and the Unwritten World by Italo Calvino
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