Where this came from

I track my reading on The StoryGraph. This list is pulled straight from my “read” shelf there, 115 entries including rereads, plus one I’d forgotten to log. Ratings are out of 5 and only appear where I gave one, which mostly means books I loved. Some of the earlier dates are best guesses, and the books at the bottom pre-date me logging dates at all.

What Claude made of it

I asked Claude to analyse my reading patterns. Here’s what it had to say, lightly trimmed:

Your fiction is comfort reading. You commit to whole series (Harry Potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Foundation, Rama, Rivers of London, Saga, Osman’s Thursday Murder Club books) and rarely pick up a standalone novel. You reread too: The Lord of the Rings twice and Rendezvous with Rama. Your science fiction and fantasy leans on the classics, Tolkien, Asimov, Clarke and Martin, with almost nothing recent. Cosy British crime with a touch of whimsy scores highest: every Osman book got a 5.

Graphic novels are a big share, especially in 2023, and a lot of them come from franchises you already like: D&D, the Witcher, Buffy, Batman. You follow worlds you enjoy into other formats.

Your non-fiction moves in phases. First productivity: Tim Ferriss three times, Getting Things Done, Deep Work, Atomic Habits, Grit. Then mental health, with Dare and both Hardcore Self Help books, each landing around a new year. Since 2023 it has moved to how the world works: Rory Stewart, Alastair Campbell, David Olusoga, The Premonition, Sapiens, The Trading Game. You’ve gone from improving yourself to understanding the system around you.

A few other things stand out. Much of this is audiobooks, judging by the narrators listed. Your ratings are generous: nearly everything rated is a 5, and the only low scores are Dracula and Joker. You’re reading less than you were, from about 20 books in 2023 to 6 a year since. And fewer than one in five of your authors are women.

Currently reading

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• A friend’s unpublished novel, which I can’t say more about yet

2026

• The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien (reread)
• The Girl from the Sea by Lee Knox Ostertag (5)
• The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien (reread)
• Clara & the Devil, Vol. 1 by Olivie Blake
• The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (reread)
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (4.5)

2025

• Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski
• Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga (5)
• Rama II by Arthur C. Clarke (4)
• The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson (5)
• Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (4, reread)
• Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov (5)

2024

• Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov
• Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
• But What Can I Do? by Alastair Campbell
• Nimona by ND Stevenson (5)
• The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman (5)
• The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey
• 100 Side Hustles by Chris Guillebeau
• Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks Fast by Barry McDonagh (5)

2023

• Politics On the Edge by Rory Stewart
• Dungeons & Dragons: Infernal Tides by Jim Zub
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari (4)
• Saga, Vol. 10 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
• The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman (5)
• Dungeons & Dragons: Mindbreaker by Jim Zub
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – The Feast of the Moon by Jeremy Lambert
• Saga, Vols. 1–7 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
• The Witcher Omnibus by Paul Tobin (5)
• The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman (5)
• The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis (5)
• Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
• Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth (5)
• Hardcore Self Help: F**k Depression by Robert Duff (5)
• Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (5)
• Hardcore Self Help: F**k Anxiety by Robert Duff (5)
• Deep Work by Cal Newport (4, reread)
• Dracula by Bram Stoker (3.5)

2022

• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (5)
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• Joker by Brian Azzarello (3)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 1: High School Is Hell by Jordie Bellaire
• The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss

2021

• The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch

2020

• Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch

2019

• The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch
• Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

2018

• Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch
• Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch

2017

• Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch
• Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Before I kept track

• Deep Work by Cal Newport
• The Garden of Rama and Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
• Foundation, Prelude to Foundation and Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
• Saga, Vols. 8–9 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• iWoz by Steve Wozniak
• Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis
• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
• Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol and Inferno by Dan Brown
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
• A Song of Ice and Fire, books 1–5, by George R.R. Martin
• Harry Potter, all seven, plus The Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• A Series of Unfortunate Events, all thirteen, by Lemony Snicket
• Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner and The Host by Stephenie Meyer