2025 SRP

August 29, 2025: summer is winding down. I used to have quarterly reading programs (spring, summer, autumn, and winter), but it became a bit unwieldy with all the tabs I had to put at the top of the blog linking the various periods. Now just two cycles: summer  (April - September) and winter (October - March), or thereabouts.

I can't recommend any of these books to others. We all have our personal likes / dislikes. 

The list below is about 90% all new for me. I do bring out older books from my library every cycle and re-read them. Many of the books I never complete, but I've learned how to read "better" to be able to cover so many books. 

Best find: My Winter on the Nile -- $5 at a discount book store. Copyright, 1876. Old school, of course, but really, really good writing. And I'm sure not much has changed on the Nile in 200 years. I found one new copy of this book on Amazon for $300 but can't find that copy now. Of course, I did not buy it. I have an early copy, for $5. LOL.

Best find: The Story of Semiconductors -- college text -- again, $6 at a discount book store. Probably the best book I've ever found on the subject, but again it's a college text book, not something to read on the beach. LOL. Now goes for $115 on Amazon though can be found for less through third parties.

Old book: Seven-Storey Mountain. Faith, personal. Contemporary Cistercian monk. I've had it for maybe 20 years; I re-read it (or parts of it) every year when I get in the mood for some good writing of this nature.

Middle East history: I really, really got into history of Middle east this summer. I also got into the history of India, reading three books on India but that was during the winter, so those three books did not end up on my summer reading program.

Annotated books: I'm really enjoying them. I probably have five gems -- annotated books on Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein, The Great Gatsby, Pioneer Girl (Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on the Prairie fame), and Emerson. 

Biographies: I love biographies but I generally read the first four chapters so see how they all got started, and then selectively read what I want to know about certain times in their lives.  

Books on pottery: long, long story, but the Christopher Benfly book was really simply a well-written book about the history of southeast US. Again, not recommended for general audience. I guess I simply enjoy quirky books.

Sound editing, movies: Walter Murch. Really, really incredibly. Lots of jargon. First of three volumes. Volumes 2 and 3 have been completed but will be released at "the appropriate times." Probably one at time over the next couple of years. Author is 81 years old, or thereabouts. It would be hard to believe that anyone knows more about sound / sound editing that Walter Murch and he's an incredibly good writer. can tell a good story.

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The List

Summer reading program: 2025

• Reference, math:  
• Super Simple Math, The Ultimate Bite-Size Study Guide, Smithsonian, DK Penguin Random House, glossy; a nice book for parents to review when helping their children through public school, elementary to high school.
• The Daring Invention of Logarithm Tables: How Jost Bürgi, John Napier, and Henry Briggs Simplified Arithmetic And Started The Computing Revolution, Klaus Truemper, the color edition, c. 2020.
  
• AI reading program:
  
• The Innovators: How A Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution, Walter Isaacson, c. 2015.  
• The Story of Semiconductors, John Orton, c. 2004. Incredible resource.  Link here.
• The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created The Modern World, Simo Winchester, c. 2018. 
• Chip War: The Fight For the World's Most Critical Technology, Chris Miller, c. 2022.
• Biographies:
• Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges, c. 2014. The book that inspired the film The Imitation Game.
  
• The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, T. J. Stiles, c. 2009.
• The Lunar Men, Jenny Uglow; read it years ago; reading it again.
  
• Suddenly Something Clicked: The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design, Walter Murch, c. March, 2025.
  
• The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, H. W. Brands, c. 2000. I've had this book for quite some time; I've "read" it once, but now, after reading The Lunar Men, I'm interested in reading this again.  
• The Rough Riders: An Autobiography, Theodore Roosevelt, c. 2004. Really, really good. Series: The Library of America. 
• The Seven Storey Mountain: An Autobiography of Faith, Thomas Merton, c. 1998.
• The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion, Ford Madox Ford, c. 1915.
• Dietrich & Riefenstahl: Hollywood, Berlin and a Century in Two Lives, Karin Wieland, translated by Shelley Frisch, c. 2011. Grapevine, TX, library, August 1, 2025.
  
• Annotated classics:
• Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography, Laura Ingalls Wilder, editor, Pamela Smith Hill, c. 2014; South Dakota Historical Society Press. 
• The Annotated Great Gatsby: 100th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, editor, James L. W. West III, c. April 10, 2025. Definitely not as good as I had hoped; looks like it was published simply to make a huge amount of money.
  
• Art, pottery, clay:
  
• The Traditional Potters of Seagrove, North Carolina: And Surrounding Areas from the 1800s to the Present, Robert C. Lock, c. 1994. 
  
• Red Brick Black Mountain White Clay: Reflections on Art, Family, and Survival, Christopher Benfly, c. 2012; Penguin soft cover, 2013.
  
• Art, movies:
• Suddenly Something Clicked: The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design, Walter Murch, c. March, 2025.
• We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie, Noah Isenberg, c. 2017.
• The French Dispatch, Matt Zoler Seitz, c. 2023. The Wes Anderson Series.
  
• Art, fine:
• Modern Painters, John Ruskin, edited and abridged by David Barrie. The Pilkington Press Art and Culture Series, London, c. 1987, 2000. 
• Art, music:
• This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, Daniel J. Levitin, c. 2006. The author runs the Laboratory for Musical Perceptioin, Cognition, and Expertise at McGill University where he holds the Bell Chair in the Psychology of Electronic Communication.
  
• Coffee-table book:
• Cistercian Abbeys: History and Architecture, Text by Jean-François Leroux-Dhuys, Köemann, c. 1998.
  
• Pre-history, the Mideast:
  
• Life in Ancient Egypt, Adolf Erman, c. 1971; Translated by H. M. Tirard with an introduction by Jon Manchip White; notes here.
• Assyria: The and Fall of the World's First Empire, Eckart Frahm, c. 2023.
• Stories From Ancient Canaan, Second Edition, Michael D. Coogan, c. March 15, 2012. Notes here.
• The Invention Of Hebrew, Seth L. Sanders, c. 2009. Notes here. 
• Who Really Wrote The Bible? The Story Of The Scribes, William M. Schniedewind, c. 2024, Princeton University Press. Notes here.
• Thutmose III and Hatshepsut Pharaohs of Egypt: Their Lives and Afterlives, Aidan Dodson,
  
• Pre-history, miscellaneous:
• 1177 BC The Year Civilization Collapsed, Eric H. Cline, c. 2021. Updated. Tracked here. c. 2025, The American University in Cairo Press (wow)
• WWII:
• Operation Paperclip: The Secret intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America, Annie Jacobson, c. 2014. Grapevine, TX, library, August 1, 2025.
  
• Food and drink:
  
• The Cocktail, Parragon Publishing, 2010.
  
• USAF:
  
• Lockheed -130, FlightCraft 32, British publication, $24.95, through Amazon, Ben Skipper, c. 2024.
• Religion
• Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things To Know About The Jewish Religion, Its People, And Its History, Rabbi Joseph Teluskin, c. 1991.
• Miscellaneous:
• The Immortal Game: A History of Chess or How 32 Carved Pieces On A Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Art, Science, and the Human Brain; David Shenk, c. 2006. 
• My Winter On The Nile, Charles Dudley Warner, c. 1876.
• Whatever Happened to the Metric System? How America Kept Its Feet, John Bemelmans Marciano, c. 2014. At the Southlake, Texas, library.  A great little book. Need to add it to my library.