All the books I read in 2021. More than 80% of the books were consumed in audio format. All the books are listed in the order read. My favorite titles are bolded and there are short reviews/impressions/excerpts under some of the titles. My lists for 2018, 2019, and 2020.
Some stats at the end of the post.
- Дневник Лишнего Человека – Иван Тургенев (2nd read)
- Constantine the Emperor – David Potter (2nd read)
This book in the category of biographies that not only cover the subject in detail but can also serve as standalone history of the period. - The Letters of Pliny the Younger – Pliny the Younger
- The Conquest of Happiness – Bertrand Russell
- The Consolation of Philosophy – Boethius
- The Fall of the Roman Empire – Peter Heather (2nd read)
- King John – Marc Morris
- The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization – Bryan Ward-Perkins
A short takedown of the silly continuist thesis. - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (2nd read)
- The Annals – Tacitus
- Restaurant at the End of the Universe – Douglas Adams (2nd read)
- Life, the Universe and Everything – Douglas Adams (2nd read)
- I, Claudius – Robert Graves
- So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish – Douglas Adams (2nd read)
- Mostly Harmless – Douglas Adams (2nd read)
- Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams (2nd read)
- The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul – Douglas Adams (2nd read)
- The Demon’s Brood – Desmond Seward
- Hannibal – Patrick Hunt
- The Ghosts of Cannae – Robert O’Connell (2nd read)
- The Razor’s Edge – Somerset Maugham
- Claudius the God – Robert Graves
- The Jewish War – Flavius Josephus
- Cicero – Anthony Everitt
- How to Read and Why – Harold Bloom
- The Monkey’s Voyage – Alan de Queiroz
- Paul – Paula Fredriksen
- From Jesus to Christ – Paula Fredriksen
- Pompeii – Steven Tuck (course)
- Paleofantasy – Marlene Zuk
- How to Tame a Fox – Lee Alan Dugatkin
- The Story of the Human Body – Daniel Lieberman
- The Subjection of Women – John Stuart Mill
- The Rational Optimist – Matt Ridley
- The Evolution of Everything – Matt Ridley
- After Tamerlane – John Darwin
- The Great Game – Peter Hopkirk
- The Letters of Abelard and Heloise – Pierre Abelard and Heloise d’Argenteuil (William Levitan tr.)
- The Thirty Years War – C.V. Wedgwood
- How the Irish Saved Civilization – Thomas Cahill
- Emperor – Geoffrey Parker
- Imprudent King – Geoffrey Parker
- The Book of the Courtier – Baldassare Castiglione
- A Distant Mirror – Barbara Tuchman
- The Scientific Attitude – Lee McIntyre
- Fatal Discord – Michael Massing
Pretty detailed double biography of Luther and Erasmus. - Heretics and Believers – Peter Marshall
- The Mabinogion – Sioned Davies (tr.)
- How to Read Literature Like a Professor – Thomas Foster
- The Imitation of Christ – Thomas a Kempis, William Benham (tr.)
- Empires of the Sea – Roger Crowley
- The Magician of Lublin – Isaac Bashevis Singer
- Against Empathy – Paul Bloom
- Science Fictions – Stuart Ritchie
- The Parthenon – Mary Beard
- The Colosseum – Keith Hopkins and Mary Beard
- The Ancient Roman World – Ronald Mellor, Marni Mcgee
- The Table Talk of Martin Luther – Martin Luther, Thomas S. Kempis (ed.), William Hazlitt (tr.)
- The Bondage of the Will – Martin Luther
- The Praise of Folly – Desiderius Erasmus
- Innate – Kevin Mitchell
- The Civilization of Renaissance in Italy – Jacob Burckhardt
- When Christians Were Jews – Paula Fredriksen
- Thomas Cromwell – Diarmaid MacCulloch
- Roman Warfare – Adrian Goldsworthy
- The Wars of the Roses – Dan Jones
- The Landscape of History – John Lewis Gaddis
- Free to Learn – Peter Gray
- The Road to Serfdom – Friedrich Hayek
- God’s Philosophers – James Hannam
- The Idea of the Brain – Matthew Cobb
- Early Greek Philosophy – John Burnet
- A Vindication of the Rights of Woman – Mary Wollstoncraft
- The Scout Mindset – Julia Galef
- Vindolanda – Adrian Goldsworthy (Vindolanda #1) (2nd read)
- The Encircling Sea – Adrian Goldsworthy (Vindolanda #2) (2nd read)
- Brigantia – Adrian Goldsworthy (Vindolanda #3) (2nd read)
- Babylon – Paul Kriwaczek
- The Last Kingdom – Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories #1) (2nd read)
- The Pale Horseman – Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories #2) (2nd read)
- Lords of the North – Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories #3) (2nd read)
- Sword Song – Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories #4) (2nd read)
- The Burning Land – Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories #5) (2nd read)
- Death of Kings – Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories #6) (2nd read)
- The Pagan Lord – Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories #7) (2nd read)
- The Empty Throne – Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories #8) (2nd read)
- Warriors of the Storm – Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories #9) (2nd read)
- The Flame Bearer – Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories #10) (2nd read)
- War of the Wolf – Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories #11) (2nd read)
- Sword of Kings – Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories #12) (2nd read)
- War Lord – Bernard Cornwell (The Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories #13) (2nd read)
- The Scythians – Barry Cunliffe
- The Rise of Athens – Anthony Everitt
- Thebes – Paul Cartledge
- Hellenica – Xenophon
- A World Lit Only by Fire – William Manchester
- How to Write a Thesis – Umberto Eco
- The Ancient Celts – Barry Cunliffe
- The Travels of Marco Polo – Marco Polo
- The Birth of Classical Europe – Simon Price, Peter Thonemann
- The Inheritance of Rome – Chris Wickham
- The Face of Battle – John Keegan
- The Field of Blood – Nicholas Morton
- Matilda – Catherine Hanley
- Augustine – Robin Lane Fox
- The Great Siege – Ernle Bradford
- The Fort – Adrian Goldsworthy (Vindolanda #4)
- The Anglo-Saxons – Marc Morris
- The Grand Strategy of the Classical Sparta – Paul A. Rahe
- Genghis Khan – Frank McLynn
- The Roman Way – Edith Hamilton
- The Power of Myth – Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers
- Discourses and Selected Writings – Epictetus (Thomas W. Higginson tr.)
- The World Before Us – Tom Higham
- Letters from a Stoic – Seneca (Robin Campbell tr.)
- The Winter King – Thomas Penn
- Classical Mythology: A Very Short Introduction – Helen Morales
- Written in Stone – Christopher Stevens
- Ancient Warfare: A Very Short Introduction – Harry Sidebottom (2nd read)
- The Enemy at the Gate – Andrew Wheatcroft
- Experiencing Medieval Europe – Kenneth Bartlett (course)
- The Tragedy of Empire – Michael Kulikowski
- The Apocryphal Gospels: A Very Short Introduction – Paul Foster
- Rebellion – Peter Ackroyd
- The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan
- In Defense of History – Richard J. Evans
- Augustine: A Very Short Introduction – Henry Chadwick
- A Needle in the Right Hand of God – R. Howard Bloch
- Paul: A Very Short Introduction – E.P. Sanders
- Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introductions – John Monaghan and Peter Just
- The Dream of Enlightenment – Anthony Gottlieb
- The Red Prince – Helen Carr
- Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
- Revolution – Peter Ackroyd
- On Grand Strategy – John Lewis Gaddis
- The History of Astronomy: A Very Short Introduction – Michael Hoskin
- Ancestors – Alice Roberts
- The History of the Franks – Gregory of Tours
- In Search of a Kingdom – Laurence Bergreen
- God’s Jury – Cullen Murphy
- The Richest Man Who Ever Lived – Greg Steinmetz
- Galileo’s Middle Finger – Alice Dreger
- Who We Are and How We Got Here – David Reich
- The Cheese and the Worms – Carlo Ginzburg
- The Bible: A Very Short Introduction – John Riches
- The Waning of the Middle Ages – Johan Huizinga
- The Astonishing Hypothesis – Francis Crick
- The Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer
- Memoirs of My Life – Edward Gibbon
- Third Thoughts – Steven Weinberg (2nd read)
- Chaucer’s People – Liza Picard
- Sexual Selection: A Very Short Introduction – Marlene Zuk
- Biological Anthropology – Barbara King (course)
- The Ancient City – Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges (Willard Small tr.)
- The Black Cloud – Fred Hoyle
- Guns, Germs, and Steel – Jared Diamond
- The New World – Winston Churchill (A History of the English-Speaking Peoples vol. 2)
- Roman Architecture – Diana Kleiner (course YOC)
- Conquerors – Roger Crowley
- Orthodox Christianity: A Very Short Introduction – Edward Siecienski
- A Short History of Humanity – Johannes Krause
- Over the Edge of the World – Laurence Bergreen
- Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism – Max Weber (Talcott Parsons tr.)
- Conquest of the Americas – Marshall C. Eakin (course)
- Capitalism and Freedom – Milton Friedman
- The Return of Martin Guerre – Natalie Zemon Davis
- Early Modern England – Keith Wrightson (course YOC)
- Marco Polo – Laurence Bergreen
- On the Ends of Good and Evil – Cicero (H. Harris Rackham tr.)
- The Borgias – G.J. Meyer
- The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction – Jerry Brotton
- Inventing the Middle Ages – Norman F. Cantor
- Never Greater Slaughter – Michael Livingston
- Journeys of the Great Explorers – Glyndwr Williams
- The Age of Revolution – Winston Churchill (A History of the English-Speaking Peoples vol. 3)
- The Courage to Be Disliked – Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
- The Beginner’s Guide to Stoicism – Matthew Van Natta
- Sicily – John Julius Norwich
- Mythology – Edith Hamilton
- Europe in the High Middle Ages – William Chester Jordan
- The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England – Ian Mortimer
- How Innovation Works – Matt Ridley
- Omnipotent Government – Ludwig von Mises
- Bosworth 1485 – Michael Jones
- City of Fortune – Roger Crowley
- In the Wake of the Plague – Norman Cantor
- Life in a Medieval City – Joseph Gies and Frances Gies
- World Without End – Hugh Thomas
- God’s Shadow – Alan Mikhail
- The Borgias and Their Enemies – Christopher Hibbert
- The Secret History of the Mongol Queens – Jack Weatherford
- The Great Warming – Brian Fagan
- The Faithful Executioner – Joel F. Harrington
- Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Invisible Gorilla – Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons
- Clausewitz: A Very Short Introduction – Michael Eliot Howard
- Monasticism: A Very Short Introduction – Stephen Davis
- The Invaders – Pat Shipman
- The History of Medicine: A Very Short Introduction – William Bynum
- The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order – Samuel Huntington
- Genghis Khan and the Quest for God – Jack Weatherford
- The Anatomy of the State – Murray Rothbard
- The Bronze Lie – Myke Cole
- The Winter King – Bernard Cornwell (The Warlord Chronicle #1)
- Survival of the Friendliest – Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods
- The Sacred Band – James Romm
- Enemy of God – Bernard Cornwell (The Warlord Chronicle #2)
- The Map That Changed the World – Simon Winchester
- A Story of Us – Lesley Newson and Peter Richerson
- Your Inner Fish – Neil Shubin
- 1491 – Charles C. Mann (2nd read)
- The History of the Vikings – Christopher R. Fee
- The Travels of Reverend Olafur Egilsson – Olafur Egilsson (trs./eds. Karl Smari Hreinsson and Adam Nichols)
- Medieval Bodies – Jack Hartnell
- Exercised – Daniel Lieberman
- Range – David Epstein
- Nature Via Nature – Matt Ridley
- A Hangman’s Diary – Franz Schmidt (ed. Albrecht Keller, trs. Calvert and Gruner)
- The Hedgehog and the Fox – Isaiah Berlin
- The Origins of Virtue – Matt Ridley
- The Horse, the Wheel, and Language – David Anthony
The detail and scope of this book puts all other historians and history books to shame. Stop dumbing down ffs! - Evolution (Oxford Readers) – Mark Ridley (ed.)
- A Historian Goes to the Movies – Gregory Aldrete (course)
- The Sultan and the Queen – Jerry Brotton
- Excalibur – Bernard Cornwell (The Warlord Chronicle #3)
- The Reluctant Mr. Darwin – David Quammen
- Some Assembly Required – Neil Shubin
- The Great Mortality – John Kelly
- Ancestral Journeys – Jean Manco
- The Secret of Our Success – Joseph Henrich
- A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy – Robert E. Goodin and Philip Pettit (eds.)
- Caesar’s Legion – Stephen Dando-Collins
- Voyage of the Beagle – Charles Darwin
- Rome is Burning – Anthony Barrett
- Castles – Marc Morris
- The Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy
- Antiquity – Norman Cantor
- World War Z – Max Brooks
- The Denial of Death – Ernest Becker
- Ubik – Philip K. Dick
- Tree Story – Valerie Trouet
- The Wind in the Willow – Kenneth Grahame
- The Blank Slate – Steven Pinker
- Reformations – Carlos M.N. Eire
- Around the World in Eighty Days – Jules Verne
- Life in a Medieval Village – Frances Gies and Joseph Gies
- The Jugurthine War and the Cataline Conspiracy – Sallust (tr. Alfred W. Pollard)
- How We Think – John Dewey
- Christendom Destroyed – Mark Greengrass
- Understanding Greek and Roman Technology – Stephen Ressler (course)
- The Pursuit of Glory – Timothy Blanning
- The Greek World – Robert Garland (course)
- Iron Kingdom – Christopher Clark
- Vanished Kingdoms – Norman Davies
- The Cathedral – William R. Cook (course)
- Philosophy of Biology – Alex Rosenberg and Robert Arp (eds.)
- Francis I – Leonie Frieda
- The Complete Essays of Michel de Montaigne – Michel de Montaigne (tr. Donald M. Frame)
- The History of the Byzantine Empire – Charles W.C. Oman
- The Formation of a Persecuting – R.I. Moore
- The Classical World – Robin Lane Fox
# of books read: 261
# of pages read: 88,305- average book length: 338p (though this is affected by the inclusion of courses which have 0 page count)
- 31 out 261 books are by female authors