1. Foundation by Isaac Asimov. A science fiction book that definitely sets the stage for many other similar types of books that would come later. It is this book that creates the field of psychohistory, which is a brilliant concept of understanding the future through the psychological understanding of history. (read 1/28/1990)

2. The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker. The story starts with a mailroom clerk, and then explodes into a fantasy novel that is completely out of this world. I highly recommend it. (read 7/22/1980)

3. Venus in Furs by Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch. Often seen as an erotic novel, Masoch's obsession with a woman who dominates him while wearing furs is much more about his masochistic demeanor (and also where we get the word "masochist" in the first place. But even more interesting is the series of letters between Masoch and a fan who desires to be "the woman in furs" of his fantasies, which leaves one with the impression that his masochistic tendencies are also his tragic flaw, in that he is willing to give up pretty much everything to a fantasy he is most likely never going to achieve. (read 9/11/1990)

4. An Autobiographical Novel by Kenneth Rexroth. Literally, the king of name-dropping. This guy new everyone, and he talks about everyone during the beat movement in a way that his semi-autobiography becomes a part of the movement itself. (read 11/23/1990)

5. The Iliad by Homer. The birth of the epic. Well, not the birth, but very much at the beginning of the age. It tells the brilliant story of the Trojan War and the struggle of Achilles for a sense of personal justice. (read 11/27/1990)

6. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart. Possibly the greatest modern-day telling of the story of Merlin and King Arthur. Begins a series that stretches from The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment, and The Wicked Day. (read 1/9/1991)

7. Aeneid by Virgil. The Iliad-like telling of the foundation of Rome and the justification for everything that would come after. It does a wonderful job of linking mankind and godkind together in a powerful epic. (read 1/15/1991)

8. The Republic by Plato. Arguably, one of the greatest books ever written. It tells of Plato's ultimate society, using Socrates once again as his vehicle for explaining how it would work. (read 3/19/1991)

9. The Stand by Stephen King. People know him as a "horror" novelist, but this is by far his greatest work ever. It redefines Armageddon through very human events that take place after a plague has destroyed most of the world's population. The expanded edition has much more material King was not able to have published the first time around. (read 5/26/1991)

10. Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. One of the early King Arthur epics. Well done and survives the test of time. Do keep in mind there are two volumes to this work. (read 6/15/1991)

11. Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing. Great psychological book of a group of people who survive some type of apocalyptic destruction and are rebuilding what is left of their lives. (read 11/25/1991)

12. Travels by Michael Crichton. Most people know of his fiction, but this first nonfiction work of his is brilliant, and you really get an insight into this man's thought process, starting with his adventures in medical school to climbing the peaks of mountains. (read 12/24/1991)

13. The Starship & the Canoe by Kenneth Brower. The story of Freeman Dyson and his son, who haven't spoken in years, but are brought back together by the author in hopes of reconciling a man who wants to travel to Alaska by canoe and his father who wants to create rocket engines fueled by nuclear explosions. (read 4/16/1992)

14. If You Love This Planet by Helen Caldicott. A great book that explains how to make things better rather than just complain about how things are. You might even say this is the book that convinced me that conservative-only thought was no longer right for me. (read 6/5/1992)

15. When God War a Woman by Merlin Stone. Great book using early stage feminism. It is amazing how many times this book is mentioned by others, even though they have obviously never read it. (read 8/1/1992)

16. Briefing for a Descent into Hell by Doris Lessing. This book will mess with your mind. I read this during a confused phase of my life, and it just opens more and more doors in your head by the way it continues to present new avenues to explore. I can't tell you how many times I found myself thinking, "Okay, I finally understand it" only to realize I was wrong. (read 10/29/1992)

17. The Discoverers by Daniel L. Boorstin. I've not read another book like it since that has so much powerful information in one book. Actually, that's not true. His follow-up book The Creators is equally as powerful and informative. There's a third The Seekers, but to be honest, I never got through it because I didn't care about the subject as much. (read 11/25/1992)

18. The Tao of Pooh. A very unassuming book that has a lot to say about Taoism and life in general. Its sequel, The Te of Piglet is very depressing and nowhere near as entertaining as The Tao of Pooh. (read 4/17/1993)

19. The Cry for Myth by Rollo May. Although he is a psychologist, and the book is more of a book on psychology, there are higher level connections that can be made here that include political science as well. I have used this book as an inspiration for numerous political theories over the years, including the need that exists in America for something bigger than ourselves, a lack of a strong, coherent connection with each other and our lack of mythology. (read 4/24/1993)

20. The Annals of Imperial Rome by Tacitus. A great history written at the time, or close to when, events occurred. (read 5/23/1993)

21. Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins. A great, funny and thought-provoking novel. Not the movie. The novel. (read 8/14/1993)

22. Musashi by Eija Yoshikawa. A five part series that tells the story of the Japanese legend Miyamoto Musashi. Wonderful story. Wonderful epic of a person who really existed and completely influenced the samurai tradition of Japan. (read 9/13/1993)

23. Booked To Die by John Dunning. Recommended to me by an eccentric bookseller in El Cerrito, CA, this has to be one of the better books I've read. It is a mystery of a bookseller who gets embroiled in a plot much bigger than himself and the books he keeps around him. (read 11/26/1993)

24. On the Road by Jack Kerouac. A classic from the beat generation. Great book. (read 1/2/1994)

25. Dragon Within the Gates by Stephen C. Joseph, MD. A nonfiction account of how New York City handled the introduction of the AIDS virus and all of the bureaucracy that existed during the process of getting the disease under some type of control. (read 1/7/1994)

26. A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. A brilliant fiction book about a man who falls in love with a hand model before embarking on a quest to find an elusive sheep last seen during the Second World War. (read 2/11/1994)

27. Catapult: Harry and I Build a Siege Weapon by Jim Paul. Two Bay Area scientists decide to build a catapult, and then all the fun ensues, involving the government, the military and a desire to chuck rocks into the water. (read 2/14/1994)

28. The White Plague by Frank Herbert. Often cited because of his Dune novels, this book has nothing to do with the Dune series, and involves a man whose response to his family being killed by terrorism in Great Britain is to unleash a virus that kills every woman alive in Ireland. (read 3/26/1994)

29. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. Another brilliant book by the master of strange fiction involves a man who discovers an underground scientist who has the ability to create a deadly machine of noise. (read 4/4/1994)

30. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Great epic novel by one of the masters. Was the inspiration for one of the main chapters of my novel The Deck Const: Rumors of War. (read 6/5/1994)

31. The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. Hokey mysticism masquerading as the answers to everything. So, why am I including it? It is a book that begins a process of writing about something with a simple story to tell something much greater than the story itself. It is a process earlier used by Robert Heinlein's Number of the Beast and then Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. (read 8/14/1994)

32. The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. Very subtle, but powerful story of a village of people who live in a dirt village that take a wandering butterfly collector prisoner, forcing him into a relationship with a woman who has previously lost her husband. (read 9/15/1994)

33. History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. Although I may not be able to pronounce his name ever, the book is good, solid and filled with great information. Considered one of the early historians, he does a wonderful job of capturing events that happened during this period. (read 3/10/1995)

34. The Origin of Humankind by Richard Leakey. Some great theories in this book, including one not so insignificant one that claims meat eating may have been why humans were able to increase the mass of their brains, and thus, evolve into the creatures that we are. (read 3/14/1995)

35. Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami. The author is a bit strange, but the story is very contemporary Japanese. Wonderful story of what happens to children who are abandoned in coin lockers in bus stations of Tokyo. (read 8/15/1995)

36. The Collector by John Fowles. A man takes a woman hostage until she falls in love with him. Was a movie made from the book, but the book is far superior. (read 7/24/1996)

37. Belgarath the Sorceror by David and Leigh Eddings. While this is somewhat of a sequel to the Belgarion series, which is wonderful in its own way, this book goes back and explains the history of the realm in the words of its most important, yet somewhat off topic, sorceror. (read 7/31/1997)

38. A Child Called It by David Pelzer. Very impacting memoir. The only problem is the gazillion sequels Pelzer put out after this, capitalizing on his fame with more books on what became a very overdone topic. First book, however, is brilliant, if one tries to put the others out of sight. (read 3/27/1998)

39. The Box Man by Kobo Abe. A man shoots a homeless man with a pellet gun and feels remorse. So, he decides to live that man's life by becoming a box man in his own house. Brilliantly constructed story. Used a reference to the story in License to Quill, the poem. (read 5/23/1999)

40. Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki. Never before have I read a great story that comes so close to being forbidden taboo. A man creates a tutoring relationship with a young woman of whom he loves, and he spends all of his energy making her happy, even though it is so obvious that he should not be doing what he is doing, no matter how pure his motives. (read 6/23/1999)

41. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Wonderful, memoir-like story of a woman writing from Heaven about her rape and death. Beautifully told. However, as I was reading this book, I couldn't shake the feeling that this author had just this one book in her, and anything else would really suck. So far, I've been right. (read 9/16/2002)

42. Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill. Prophetic, especially when he gets to the discussion concerning the need for proportional representation, which no one ever seems to discuss, even though it is such an important part of this book. Again, this is one of those books people talk about (using the word "utility") but have either never read, just skimmed or read the Cliff Notes. (read 10/31/2002)

43. The Tyranny of the Majority by Lani Guinier. Skewed by the conservatives as the "quota queen" during her appointment by the Clinton Administration, her book shows how insightful she really is/was. She puts forth a different kind of representative model, where every vote actually counts towards one's preferences, and even the status quo can remain in place. But of course, people hear the name and immediately think "quota queen", and that's the end of the story. (read 11/3/2002)

44. Divided Government by Morris Fiorina. Shows how united government isn't the greatest method to push forth successful, worthy legislation in the House and Senate. (read 3/6/2003)

45. The Politics of Congressional Elections by Gary C. Jacobson. The early edition of this book actually predicted the Republican takeover of government. The subsequent editions sort of stopped making the prediction that PAC money would make a big difference, mainly because it already happened. (read 4/7/2003)

46. The Third Wave by Samuel P. Huntington. Predicts that governments move towards democratic institutions and then there is a backlash that moves them back to authoritarian governments in waves. (read 6/16/2003)

47. Moby Dick by Herman Melville. The greatest story of a man versus a whale. (read 7/7/2003)

48. Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail by Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. Surprisingly, the success of a poor people's movement is not in organization but in sustaining it after they achieve their first, token success. (read 5/23/2004)

49. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups by Mancur Olson. Again, people are willing to get together to achieve difficult results, but then fall off once results are obtained, convinced every one else will pick up the slack. (read 6/1/2004)

50. Participation and Democratic Theory by Carole Pateman. It's amazing how you can give people a little bit of responsibility, and suddenly they are more interested in the political process. Well, she showed how that worked with laborers in Great Britain. (read 10/5/2004)

51. The Discourses by Niccolo Machiavelli. Most people only read The Prince. Therefore, they don't understand how Machiavelli is not pessimistic, strategic or evil, but he's much more about explaining the cycles of government that Aristotle talks about separately in Politics. (read 4/2005)

52. Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers by Daniel Moultrop, Ninive Clements Calegari and Dave Eggars. People really don't understand what teachers go through and why they quit. Even after reading this book, I discussed it with others who do not teach, and they were convinced they had better knowledge because they "knew" about teaching, or, my other favorite, they had a friend or relative that taught. It's amazing how outsiders see only a tunnel vision perspective towards teachers (it's all about 3 months of vacation, only working a few hours a day and having a union that makes sure you're the highest paid person ever) without realizing how wrong that vision actually is. The problem is: They will never read a book like this one, because they are convinced they already know the facts. (read 7/4/2005)

53. Café Europa: Life After Communism by Slavenca Drakulic. A female reporter's perspective of how life has changed in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. (read 9/7/2006)

54. The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient by Sheridon Prasso. Another one of those books that gives great insight into how wrong we are about a subject. What is more educational about this book is the discussions I had with people who would never read it, in which they would go out of their way to pretend to "understand" the issues the book brings up, even though they were feeding right into the stereotypes the book attempts to address. It is not enough to be "enlightened" to want to do better; you actually have to go out of your way to realize what you're doing wrong. Most people won't do that because a paradigm shift is too hard to handle. (read 4/21/2007)

55. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Another one of those books people talk about knowingly, but never actually read it. I've stopped talking about it to people because they already claim to be "experts" on subjects they know nothing about and will not go through the effort to actually read the book for themselves. (read 8/17/2007)