Welcome to my “love for reading” all-time reading list!
I have a love for reading. Ever since I could remember, reading has been my escape. My escape from school, work, stress, and some other things that have happened in my life.
A Lifetime Of Reading Books
A lifetime of reading books can be a truly enriching and fulfilling experience. Books have the power to transport us to new worlds, introduce us to new ideas, and help us understand ourselves and others.
As we grow and change throughout our lives, the books we read will likely reflect those changes. In our youth, we may turn to books that are full of adventure, fantasy, and excitement. As we enter adulthood, we may seek out books that help us navigate the complexities of the world and our place in it. And as we age, we may find solace in books that offer wisdom, reflection, and understanding.
Throughout a lifetime of reading, we may also develop certain preferences and tastes in books. Some people may be drawn to classic literature, while others may prefer the latest bestsellers. Some may enjoy reading non-fiction, while others may be more interested in fiction. Regardless of these preferences, the beauty of a lifetime of reading is that there are always new books to discover and enjoy.
Reading can also be a solitary activity, but it doesn’t have to be. Joining a book club or participating in online book discussion groups can provide a great opportunity to connect with others who share your love of books. This can also open up new perspectives and help you appreciate books in a new way.
Overall, a lifetime of reading books can be a wonderful journey of self-discovery, growth, and connection. Whether you read for pleasure, education, or both, the books you read over the course of your life will leave a lasting impression and shape who you are.
I do not know anyone who actually reads the same things as me.
In my later years, I read a lot of non-fiction books. Even though there are people who read the same genre, it is hard to find them. I do read all types of genres though I tend to stick with non-fiction most of the time. I do want to encourage more people to read non-fiction.
A great nonfiction book will inspire you to delve deeper into the topic. You will have a tendency to find more books on the subject. And a good nonfiction book will teach you to be a critical thinker and reader.
The nonfiction books on this list appeal to a wide range of readers. Others read more like novels and some are very scientific in nature. It is my hope that there is something for everyone on this list.
“The book to read is not the one that thinks for you, but the one which makes you think.”
Harper Lee
Since 2018, I decided to track my reading using Goodreads. Below is the list that I have compiled of my reading from 2018 to 2022. You will notice that most of them are non-fiction. For the year 2022, I have read some historical fiction and you will see them in the list.
My Goodreads Reading Challenges:
Goodreads 2023 Reading Challenge
Goodreads 2022 Reading Challenge
Goodreads 2021 Reading Challenge
Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge
Goodreads 2019 Reading Challenge
Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge
Checkout the GOODREADS 100 BOOKS YOU SHOULD READ IN A LIFETIME and see if you have read any of the books in the list.
Below is the list of books I have read through the years. There are books that I have read that are not in the list because I cannot remember them anymore. Way back in high school, I finished off all the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books in my school library during my lunch break, most of them in one sitting! I remember complaining to the librarian to get more books as they have run out of books to read for me.
I hope you find the time to browse through the list. Who knows? You might find books that you have to read in the list. Thanks!
NOTE: This will be a work in progress. I will be updating this page once I have finished a new book.
Books that I have read (love for reading):
Books are listed alphabetically by author, and then by book name.
A
Richard J. Aldrich, GCHQ {AMAZON}
David Alvarez, Spies in the Vatican: Espionage and Intrigue from Napoleon to the Holocaust {AMAZON}
Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest {AMAZON}
Scott Anderson, The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War—A Tragedy in Three Acts
Christopher Andrew, Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 {AMAZON}
Christopher Andrew/Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive & the Secret History of the KGB {AMAZON}
Cecilio T. Arillo, Greed & Betrayal: The Sequel to the 1986 EDSA Revolution
Lance Armstrong, It’s Not about the Bike: My Journey Back to Life {AMAZON}
Shaun Attwood, Pablo Escobar: Beyond Narcos {AMAZON}
B
Michael Bar-Zohar, Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service {AMAZON}
Michael Bar-Zohar/Nissim Mishal, No Mission Is Impossible: The death-defying missions of the Israeli Special Forces
George Beahm, I, Steve: Steve Jobs In His Own Words
Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations {AMAZON}
Ronen Bergman, The Secret War with Iran: The 30-Year Clandestine Struggle Against the World’s Most Dangerous Terrorist Power {AMAZON}
Carl Bernstein/Bob Woodward, All the President’s Men {AMAZON}
Darrell L. Bock, The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities {AMAZON}
Robert David Booth, State Department Counterintelligence: Leaks, Spies, and Lies
Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
Mark Bowden, Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America’s War with Militant Islam
Mark Bowden, Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam
Mark Bowden, Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw {AMAZON}
Mark Bowden, The Finish: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden {AMAZON}
Rusty Bradley, Lions of Kandahar: The Story of a Fight Against All Odds {AMAZON}
Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Bill Browder, Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice {AMAZON}
Dan Brown, Angels & Demons {AMAZON}
Dan Brown. Deception Point {AMAZON}
Dan Brown, Digital Fortress {AMAZON}
Dan Brown, Inferno {AMAZON}
Dan Brown, Origin {AMAZON}
Dan Brown. The Da Vinci Code {AMAZON}
Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol {AMAZON}
C
James Carroll, Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews {AMAZON}
Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 {AMAZON}
Larry Collins/Dominique Lapierre, Ô Jérusalem {AMAZON}
Larry Collins/Dominique Lapierre, Freedom at Midnight {AMAZON}
Lynn “Buck” Compton/Marcus Brotherton, Call of Duty: My Life Before, During and After the Band of Brothers {AMAZON}
Tim Pat Coogan, 1916: The Easter Rising {AMAZON}
Tim Pat Coogan, Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland {AMAZON}
Tim Pat Coogan, The Twelve Apostles: Michael Collins, the Squad and Ireland’s Fight for Freedom {AMAZON}
Henry S.F. Cooper Jr., Thirteen: The Apollo Flight That Failed {AMAZON}
Gordon Corera, The Art of Betrayal: The Secret History of MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service {AMAZON}
Bernard Cornwell, The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Stories #1)
Bernard Cornwell, The Pale Horseman (The Saxon Stories #2)
Bernard Cornwell, Lords of the North (The Saxon Stories #3)
Bernard Cornwell, Sword Song (The Saxon Stories #4)
Bernard Cornwell, The Burning Land (The Saxon Stories #5)
Bernard Cornwell, Death of Kings (The Saxon Stories #6)
Bernard Cornwell, The Pagan Lord (The Saxon Stories #7)
Bernard Cornwell, The Empty Throne (The Saxon Stories #8)
Bernard Cornwell, Warriors of the Storm (The Saxon Stories #9)
Bernard Cornwell, The Flame Bearer (The Saxon Stories #10)
Bernard Cornwell, War of the Wolf (The Saxon Stories #11)
Bernard Cornwell, Sword of Kings (The Saxon Stories #12)
Bernard Cornwell, War Lord (The Saxon Stories #13)
Michael Crichton, Eaters of the Dead
Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park
D
Roméo Dallaire/Samantha Power, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda {AMAZON}
Saul David, Operation Thunderbolt: Flight 139 and the Raid on Entebbe Airport, the Most Audacious Hostage Rescue Mission in History {AMAZON}
Aimen Dean, Nine Lives: My time as the MI6’s top spy inside al-Qaeda
John W. Dean, Blind Ambition: The White House Years
Patrick Delaforce, The Battle of the Bulge: Hitler’s Final Gamble {AMAZON}
Bryan Denson, The Spy’s Son: The True Story of the Highest-Ranking CIA Officer Ever Convicted of Espionage and the Son He Trained to Spy for Russia {AMAZON}
Alan Deutschman, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs {AMAZON}
T. Ryle Dwyer, Big Fellow, Long Fellow. A Joint Biography of Collins and De Valera: A Joint Biography of Irish politicians Michael Collins and Eamon De Valera {AMAZON}
E
Juan Ponce Enrile, Juan Ponce Enrile: A Memoir
F
Henry Freeman, Alexander The Great: A History From Beginning To End (One Hour History Military Generals #1)
Paul Freiberger/Michael Swaine, Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer
Paul Freiberger/Michael Swaine, Fire in the Valley: The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer {AMAZON}
Matti Friedman, Spies of No Country: Israel’s Secret Agents at the Birth of the Mossad
G
Mark A. Gabriel, Islam and Terrorism: What the Quran Really Teaches About Christianity, Violence and the Goals of the Islamic Jihad
Mark A. Gabriel, Islam and the Jews: The Unfinished Battle
Mark A. Gabriel, Jesus and Muhammad: Profound Differences and Surprising Similarities
Ian Gardner/Mario DiCarlo, Deliver Us From Darkness: The Untold Story of Third Battalion 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment during Market Garden (The untold story of Third Battalion 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment from Toccoa to Berchtesgaden Series) {AMAZON}
Martin Gilbert, The Second World War: A Complete History {AMAZON}
Gershom Gorenberg, The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977
Adrian Greaves, Isandlwana: How the Zulus Humbled the British Empire {AMAZON}
H
Gary R. Habermas, The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ {AMAZON}
S.J. Hamrick, Deceiving the Deceivers: Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, and Guy Burgess {AMAZON}
Isser Harel, The House on Garibaldi Street {AMAZON}
Max Hastings, Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45 {AMAZON}
Michael Hastings, The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan {AMAZON}
Diana B. Henriques, The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust
Andy Hertzfeld, Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made {AMAZON}
David E. Hoffman, The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal {AMAZON}
John Curtis Holmes, Porn King: The Autobiography of John C. Holmes
Andrew Hosken, Empire of Fear: Inside the Islamic State
Eddie Huang, Fresh Off The Boat {AMAZON}
I
Walter Isaacson, Leonardo da Vinci {AMAZON}
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs {AMAZON}
Walter Isaacson, The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution {AMAZON}
Walter Isaacson, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made {AMAZON}
J
Keith Jeffery, The Secret History of MI6 {AMAZON}
Jang Jin-sung, Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee – A Look Inside North Korea {AMAZON}
George Jonas, Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team {AMAZON}
Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea
K
Greg Kading, Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls & Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations by the Detective Who Solved Both Cases {AMAZON}
Leander Kahney, Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level
Oleg Kalugin, Spymaster: My Thirty-two Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West {AMAZON}
Yaakov Katz, The Weapon Wizards: How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower {AMAZON}
Piper Kerman, Orange Is the New Black
Thomas Keneally, Schindler’s List
Vikas Khatri, World Famous Spies Spymasters
John Kiriakou/Joseph Hickman, The Convenient Terrorist: Two Whistleblowers’ Stories of Torture, Terror, Secret Wars, and CIA Lies
Aaron J. Klein, Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel’s Deadly Response {AMAZON}
Chris Kyle, American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History
L
Henry Landau, The Spy Net: The Greatest Intelligence Operations of the First World War (Dialogue Espionage Classics)
Steven Levy, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution – 25th Anniversary Edition {AMAZON}
Steven Levy, Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything {AMAZON}
Damien Lewis, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: How Churchill’s Secret Warriors Set Europe Ablaze and Gave Birth to Modern Black Ops
Michael Lewis, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
Henry Lincoln, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Holy Blood, Holy Grail Illustrated Edition: The Secret History of Jesus, the Shocking Legacy of the Grail
Jim Lovell, Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13
Andrew Lownie, Stalin’s Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess {AMAZON}
Marcus Luttrell, Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10
M
Ben Macintyre, A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal {AMAZON}
Ben Macintyre, Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory (AMAZON}
Ben Macintyre, Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis’ Fortress Prison {AMAZON}
Ben Macintyre, Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain’s Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War {AMAZON}
Ben Macintyre, The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan {AMAZON}
Ben Macintyre, The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War {AMAZON}
Richard Marcinko, Rogue Warrior
Jim Marrs, Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy
George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1)
George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2)
George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3)
George R.R. Martin, A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire #4)
George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire #5)
George R.R. Martin, Fire & Blood (A Targaryen History, #1)
George R.R. Martin, The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones
George R.R. Martin, The Princess and The Queen, or, The Blacks and The Greens
George R.R. Martin, The Rogue Prince, or, a King’s Brother
Kati Marton, True Believer: Stalin’s Last American Spy
Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals {AMAZON}
Mark Mazzetti, The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Sean McMeekin, The Russian Revolution: A New History
Andrew Meier, The Lost Spy: An American in Stalin’s Secret Service {AMAZON}
Antonio J. Méndez, Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History
James A. Michener, Centennial
Primitivo Mijares, The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Scott Miller, Agent 110: An American Spymaster and the German Resistance in WWII {AMAZON}
Tim Milne, Kim Philby: The Unknown Story of the KGB’s Master Spy {AMAZON}
Yuri Modin, My 5 Cambridge Friends: Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Blunt, and Cairncross by Their KGB Controller {AMAZON}
N
Sean Naylor, Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command {AMAZON}
O
Bill O’Reilly, Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever
Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East {AMAZON}
Victor Ostrovsky, By Way of Deception: The Making of a Mossad Officer {AMAZON}
Mark Owen, No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden {AMAZON}
P
Sean Parnell/John R. Bruning, Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan {AMAZON}
Virginia Patel, Becoming Steve Jobs: Amazing Lessons on How to Be Like Steve Jobs
Chuck Pfarrer, SEAL Target Geronimo: The Inside Story of the Mission to Kill Osama bin Laden {AMAZON}
Kim Philby, My Silent War: The Autobiography of a Spy
Chapman Pincher, Their Trade is Treachery {AMAZON}
Chapman Pincher, Too Secret Too Long {AMAZON}
Gareth Porter/John Kiriakou, The CIA Insider’s Guide to the Iran Crisis: From CIA Coup to the Brink of War {AMAZON}
Declan Power, Siege at Jadotville: The Irish Army’s Forgotten Battle
Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire
Stewart Purvis, Guy Burgess: The Spy Who Knew Everyone {AMAZON}
R
Evan Ratliff, The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. {AMAZON}
Nick Redfern, Assassinations: The Plots, Politics, and Powers behind History-Changing Murders
Monte Reel, A Brotherhood of Spies: The U-2 and the CIA’s Secret War
Paul Rees, Robert Plant: A Life
Stuart A. Reid, The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination
Stella Rimington, Open Secret: The Autobiography of the Former Director-General of MI5 {AMAZON}
Linda Robinson, Masters of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces {AMAZON}
Herbert Romerstein/Eric Breindel, The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America’s Traitors
Clinton Romesha, Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor {AMAZON}
Joshua Rubenstein, The Last Days of Stalin
Cornelius Ryan, A Bridge Too Far {AMAZON}
S
Bo Sánchez, My Maid Invests in the Stock Market…and Why You Should, Too!
Jeremy Scahill, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army {AMAZON}
Jeremy Scahill, Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield {AMAZON}
Michael Scheuer, Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror {AMAZON}
Michael Scheuer, Through Our Enemies’ Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America {AMAZON}
Delphine Schrank, The Rebel of Rangoon: A Tale of Defiance and Deliverance in Burma {AMAZON}
Victor Sebestyen, Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire {AMAZON}
Kenneth Sewell, Clint Richmond, Red Star Rogue: The Untold Story of a Soviet Submarine’s Nuclear Strike Attempt on the U.S. {AMAZON}
Randy Shilts, And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic {AMAZON}
Hampton Sides, Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission {AMAZON}
Paul Simpson, A Brief History of the Spy
Bill Sloan, Undefeated: America’s Heroic Fight for Bataan and Corregidor {AMAZON}
Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, Annette Lawrence Drew, Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage {AMAZON}
Andrew Ross Sorkin, Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis — and Themselves {AMAZON}
Ali Soufan, The Black Banners (Declassified): How Torture Derailed the War on Terror after 9/11 (Declassified Edition)
Doug Stanton, Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan {AMAZON}
Stewart Steven, The Spymasters of Israel {AMAZON}
William Stevenson, A Man Called Intrepid {AMAZON}
Clifford Stoll, The Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage {AMAZON}
Morten Storm, Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda and the CIA {AMAZON}
Randall Sullivan, LAbyrinth: A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., the Implication of Death Row Records’ Suge Knight, and the Origins of the Los Angeles Police Scandal {AMAZON}
Nick Sutton, The Delorean Story: The Car, the People, the Scandal {AMAZON}
Daniel Szechi, The Dangerous Trade. Spies, Spymasters and the Making of Europe
T
Jake Tapper, The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor {AMAZON}
Frederick Taylor, The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961-1989 {AMAZON}
The New York Times/Alexander Star, Open Secrets: WikiLeaks, War and American Diplomacy
Gordon Thomas, Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad {AMAZON}
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring)
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (The Two Towers)
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (The Return of the King)
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
Peter Tomsen, The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the Failures of Great Powers {AMAZON}
Richard C.S. Trahair/Robert L. Miller, Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations
Leon Trotsky, My Life: An Attempt At An Autobiography {AMAZON}
V
Marc E. Vargo, The Mossad: Six Landmark Missions of the Israeli Intelligence Agency, 1960-1990 {AMAZON}
W
David Kenyon Webster, Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper’s Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich {AMAZON}
David Wenham, Did St Paul Get Jesus Right?: The Gospel According to Paul {AMAZON}
Nigel West, GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War 1900-86 {AMAZON}
Chris Whipple, The Spymasters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future {AMAZON}
Del Quentin Wilber, Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan {AMAZON}
Susan Williams, Spies in the Congo: America’s Atomic Mission in World War II {AMAZON}
Dick Winters/Cole C. Kingseed, Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters {AMAZON}
Bob Woodward/Carl Bernstein, The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate’s Deep Throat {AMAZON}
Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 {AMAZON}
Peter Wright, Spy Catcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer {AMAZON}
Steve Wozniak, iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It {AMAZON}
Y
Jeffrey S. Young/William L. Simon, iCon: Steve Jobs, the Greatest Second Act in the History of Business {AMAZON}
Mosab Hassan Yousef, Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices {AMAZON}
Z
Mitchell Zuckoff, 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi {AMAZON}