An Incomplete Bibliography: My Favorite Books

Like many, I have read more than I can recall at any one time. Books are wonderful things, and to this day, I  treasure each one I have encountered along the way. As much as anything, the books I have read helped shape my intellect and fired my imagination. The books below, all available at Amazon.com, represent a partial list of non-education books I have read and am willing to recommend to others. They're not for everyone and the list obviously omits works by such authors as Shakespeare, Melville, Twain, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Eliot, Joyce, Hemingway, etc. As I recall additional titles, the list will grow, but I make no apologies for this list as it is. As a youth, I read a great deal of science fiction. As I grew older, my reading preferences became more eclectic. The books below are all good; they have interesting plots and characters, compelling storylines, great narrative style, or helpful information. In short, I liked them. You might too. By clicking any of the titles, you will go to a page that has information and reviews about the book. By listing these titles on my site, I get a small commission from Amazon.com when someone makes a purchase. So, by all means, do.

What Waits Within -  a fiction novel

Bob Kizlik

Updated  June 29, 2007

My ratings  for each are as follows: |**** excellent | *** very good | ** good | * fair |

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  ***
Anderson, Poul. Tau Zero ****
Asimov, Isaac. The Caves of Steel ***
Asimov, Isaac. Forward the Foundation ***
Asimov, Isaac. Foundation ****
Asimov, Isaac. Foundation and Empire ***
Asimov, Isaac. Foundation's Edge ***
Asimov, Isaac. Second Foundation ***
Asimov, Isaac. The Gods Themselves ****
Asimov, Isaac. I, Robot ****
Asimov, Isaac. The Naked Sun **
Asimov, Isaac. The Martian Way and Other Stories ***
Asimov, Isaac. Fantastic Voyage **
Bear, Greg. Anvil of Stars ****
Bear, Greg. The Forge of God ****
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 ***
Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man ***
Bradbury, Ray.  The Martian Chronicles ***
Clarke, Arthur C. 2001: A Space Odyessy ****
Clarke, Arthur C. Childhood's End ***
Dick, Philip K. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said ***
Dick, Philip K. Ubik **
Farmer, Philip Jose. To Your Scattered Bodies Go ****
Farmer, Philip Jose. The Fabulous Riverboat ****
Farmer, Philip Jose. The Dark Design ****
Farmer, Philip Jose. The Magic Labyrinth ****
Farmer, Philip Jose. Gods of Riverworld ***
Heinlein, Robert. Stranger in a Strange Land ***
Heinlein, Robert. The Door Into Summer **
Heinlein, Robert. Glory Road ****
Heinlein, Robert. Starship Troopers ****
Heinlein, Robert. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress **
Heinlein, Robert The Puppet Masters ***
Herbert, Frank. Dune ****
Niven, Larry. Ringworld ****
Niven, Larry. Inferno ***
Niven, Larry and Jerry Pournelle. Lucifer's Hammer ****
Niven, Larry and Jerry Pournelle. The Mote in God's Eye ****
Niven, Larry and Jerry Pournelle. Protector ***
Pynchon, Thomas. Gravity's Rainbow ***
Sagan, Carl. Contact ***
Simmons, Dan. Hyperion ****
Simmons, Dan. Endymion ****
Simmons, Dan. Ilium ***
Simmons, Dan. The Fall of Hyperion ****
Sturgeon, Theodore More Than Human **
Van Vogt, A.E. Slan ***
Van Vogt, A.E. The Players of Null-A ***
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five ***
Zelazny, Roger. Lord of Light  ****

Biography, History, Historical Novels, and Government

Ambrose, Stephen. Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest ***
Ambrose, Stephen. Americans at War ***
Asimov, Isaac. Asimov's Guide to the Bible: The Old and New Testaments/Two Volumes in One ****
Baigent, Michael, et. al. Holy Blood, Holy Grail ****
Bierce, Ambrose. Ambrose Bierce's Civil War ***
Bown, Deni. Chronicle of America ***
Catton, Bruce. A Stillness at Appomattox ****
Clancy, Tom. Into the Storm: A Study in Command **
Clark, Richard. Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror ****
Costain, Thomas. The Last Plantagenets ****
De Toqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America ****
Daws, Gavan. Prisoners of the Japanese: POWs of World War II in the Pacific ***
Durant, Will and Ariel Durant. The Lessons of History ***
Farrow, John. Damien the Leper ***
Ehle, John. Trail of Tears: the Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation ***
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative: Fort Sumter to Perryville ***
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative: Fredericksburg to Meridian ***
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative Red River to Appomattox ***
Friedman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom **
Grant, R.W. The Incredible Bread Machine ***
Graves, Robert. I, Claudius ****
Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths ****
Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History ****
Jennings, Gary. Aztec ****
Jennings, Gary. Journeyer ****
Jones, James. The Thin Red Line **
Jones, James. From Here to Eternity ***
Koestler, Arthur. Darkness at Noon ****
Lewis, David. The Race to Fashoda: Colonialism and African Resistance *
Longstreet, James. From Manassas to Appomatox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America ***
Mangold, Tom and John Penycate. The Tunnels of Cu Chi ***
McCullough, David. 1776 **** (an extraordinary book in every way)
Moore, Harold and Joseph Galloway. We were Soldiers Once...And Young: Ia Drang--The Battle That Changed The War In Vietnam ****
O'Connor, Frank. The Big Fellow ***
Pierpont, Claudia Passionate Minds: Women Rewriting the World **
Porter, Katherine Anne. Ship of Fools ***
Potter, David. People of Plenty: Economic Abundance and the American Character ***
Radzinsky, Edvard. Stalin: the First In-Depth Biography **
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front ****
Ruark, Robert. Something of Value ****
Ryan, Cornelius. A Bridge Too Far ****
Ryan, Cornelius. The Last Battle ****
Ryan, Cornelius. The Longest Day: June 6, 1944 ***
Schlesinger, Arthur. The Age of Jackson ****
Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels ****
Swanson, James L. Manhunt : The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer ****
Tzu, Sun (James Clavell, ed.) The Art of War ****
Toynbee, Arnold. A Study of History : Abridgement of Volumes 1-VI   [ABRIDGED] ***
Toynbee, Arnold. A Study of History : Abridgement of Volumes Vii-X [ABRIDGED] ***
Tuchman, Barbara. The Guns of August ****
Turner, Fredrick Jackson. The Frontier in American History **

Science and Mathematics

Abbott, Edwin. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions ***
Asimov, Isaac. Beginnings: The Story of Origins, of Mankind, Life, the Earth, the Universe ***
Gamow, George.One Two Three...Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science ****
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science **
Gould, Stephen Jay. Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms :Essays on Natural History ***
Hawking, Stephen. A Brief History of Time ***
Hawking, Stephen. The Universe in a Nutshell ****
Henig, Robin Marantz.  The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel **
Prantzos, Nikos. Our Cosmic Future: Humanity's Fate in the Universe ***
Sagan, Carl. Cosmos ***
Stewart, Ian. Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So ****
Tierney, Patrick.  Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon ***

General Fiction

Benson, Ann. The Plague Tales ****
Berry, Steve. The Templar Legacy ****
Brown, Dan. Angels and Demons ****
Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code ****
Clancy, Tom. The Hunt for Red October ****
Clancy, Tom. Patriot Games ***
Clavell, James. Shogun ****
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness ***
Conrad, Joseph. Lord Jim ***
Conroy, Pat. The Prince of Tides ****
Cook, Robin. Coma ***
Cook, Robin. Outbreak ***
Crichton, Michael  Prey ****
Crichton, Michael. Congo ***
Crichton, Michael. Five Patients: The Hospital Explained ****
Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime ***
Eco Umberto. The Name of the Rose ****
Follett, Ken.  Eye of the Needle **
Follett, Ken. The Key to Rebecca ***
Forsyth, Fredrick. The Day of the Jackal ***
Forsyth, Fredrick. The Dogs of War ****
Forsyth, Fredrick. The Odessa File ****
Harris, Thomas. Hannibal ****
Harris, Thomas. Red Dragon ****
Harris, Thomas. The Silence of the Lambs ***
Heller, Joseph. Catch 22 ****
Hiassen, Carl Skin Tight ****
Hiassen, Carl Tourist Season ****
Higgins, Jack. The Eagle Has Landed ***
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World ****
Kesey, Ken  One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ****
Kesey, Ken. Sometimes a Great Notion ****
King, Stephen. Carrie ***
King, Stephen. Christine ***
King, Stephen. The Dead Zone ***
King, Stephen. Firestarter ****
King, Stephen. It **
King, Stephen. Pet Sematary **
King, Stephen. The Stand ****
Kosinski, Jerzy. Being There ****
Kosinski, Jerzy. The Painted Bird ***
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird ****
Lewis, Sinclair. Arrowsmith ****
Ludlum, Robert. The Bourne Identity **
Ludlum, Robert. Gemini Contenders ***
Ludlum, Robert. The Chancellor Manuscript ***
Ludlum, Robert. The Aquitaine Progression ***
McCullough, Colleen. The Thorn Birds ***
Neville, Katherine. The Eight ****
Orwell, George. Animal Farm ****
Pearce, Don. Cool Hand Luke ****
Rand, Ayn. Anthem ***
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye ****
Sheldon, Sidney. The Naked Face **
Sheldon, Sidney. The Other Side of Midnight ***
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle ***
Steinbeck, John. Cannery Row ***
Steinbeck, John. East of Eden ***
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men ****
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath ****
Wambaugh, Joseph. The Chiorboys ****
Wambaugh, Joseph. The Onion Field ***

Psychology/Self Help/Crime/Miscellaneous

Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood ****
Crier, Catherine and Cole Thompson. A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation **
Edwards, Paul. Making Money With Your Computer at Home ***
Freeman, Dr. Arthur and Rose DeWolf. The 10 Dumbest Mistakes Smart People Make ****
Gibran, Kahlil. The Prophet ****
Hopper, Vincent F. and R.P. Craig. 1001 Pitfalls in English Grammar ***
Hoffer, Eric. The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements ***
Huff, Darrell. How to Lie With Statistics ****
Leshan, Lawrence. How to Meditate: A Guide to Self-Discovery ***
Minsky, Marvin. The Society of Mind ****
Peter, Laurence J. The Peter Principle ***
Pirsig, Robert. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values ***
Sacks, Peter. Generation X Goes to College: An Eye-Opening Account of Teaching in Postmodern America ***
Sheehy, Gail. Passages **
Stanley, Thomas  The Millionaire Next Door **
Strunk, William and E.B. White. The Elements of Style **
Williams, Paul B. Getting a Project Done on Time : Managing People, Time, and Results ***

Books: Kindergarten through Young Adult

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