# Reading History Comprehensive reading and listening history. For taste analysis, see `~/.claude/knowledge/aesthetic-preferences.md`. ## By Author ### Cormac McCarthy | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | [[Blood Meridian]] | ebook | in-library | violence, philosophy, western | | [[Stella Maris]] | ebook | in-library | consciousness, mathematics, dialogue | | [[The Passenger]] | ebook | in-library | consciousness, mathematics, loss | | No Country for Old Men | audiobook | finished | violence, fate, western | ### Mark Fisher | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | Ghosts of My Life | audiobook | in-progress | hauntology, depression, lost futures | | The Weird and the Eerie | audiobook | in-progress | weird fiction, theory | | K-Punk: Politics | audiobook | in-progress | cultural theory, capitalism | ### Thomas Ligotti | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | [[Ligotti, Thomas - Teatro Grottesco\|Teatro Grottesco]] | ebook | in-library | cosmic horror, pessimism | | [[(Penguin Classics) Ligotti, Thomas - Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe\|Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe]] | ebook, audiobook | in-progress | cosmic horror, weird | ### David Foster Wallace | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | [[David Foster Wallace - The Pale King- An Unfinished Novel\|The Pale King]] | ebook | in-library | boredom, IRS, maximalism | | [[Brief Interviews with Hideous Men - David Foster Wallace\|Brief Interviews with Hideous Men]] | ebook | in-library | masculinity, cruelty | | [[The Girl With Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace\|The Girl With Curious Hair]] | ebook | in-library | postmodern, short stories | ### Will Self | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | [[Umbrella Will Self\|Umbrella]] | ebook | in-library | modernism, mental illness | | [[Grey Area Will Self\|Grey Area]] | ebook | in-library | satire, drugs | | [[Will Self - My Idea of Fun\|My Idea of Fun]] | ebook | in-library | dark satire, grotesque | | Psycho Too | ebook | in-library | satire | | The Quantity Theory of Insanity | audiobook | in-library | satire, mental illness | ### Don DeLillo | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | [[Don DeLillo Underworld 2002\|Underworld]] | ebook | in-library | Cold War, systems, paranoia | | [[Don DeLillo White Noise Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century 1999\|White Noise]] | ebook | in-library | death, media, consumerism | | [[Don Delillo Ratner's Star 1976\|Ratner's Star]] | ebook | in-library | mathematics, science, encyclopedic | ### Ted Chiang | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | [[Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Life and Others -Pan Macmillan (2005)\|Stories of Your Life and Others]] | ebook | in-library | philosophy, linguistics, SF | | [[Ted Chiang - Exhalation-Knopf (2019)\|Exhalation]] | ebook, audiobook | in-progress | thermodynamics, consciousness, SF | ### Paul Auster | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | [[Oracle Night - Paul Auster\|Oracle Night]] | ebook | in-library | metafiction, writing | | [[Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster\|Travels in the Scriptorium]] | ebook | in-library | metafiction, memory | | [[Timbuktu - Paul Auster\|Timbuktu]] | ebook | in-library | dog narrator, homelessness | ### Jorge Luis Borges | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | [[Jorge Luis Borges, Andrew Hurley Collected Fictions 1999\|Collected Fictions]] | ebook | in-library | labyrinths, infinity, metafiction | | [[Labyrinths by Borges 2014\|Labyrinths]] | ebook | in-library | labyrinths, philosophy | ### Karl Ove Knausgaard | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | The School of Night | audiobook | nearly-finished | ambition, art, 1980s | | The Third Realm | audiobook | in-library | supernatural, Morning Star series | ### Patricia Lockwood | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | No One Is Talking About This | audiobook | finished | internet, grief, autofiction | | Priestdaddy | audiobook | finished | memoir, Catholicism, humor | ### Javier Marías | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | [[Your Face Tomorrow Vol 1]] | ebook | in-library | espionage, psychology, digressive | | [[Your Face Tomorrow Vol 2]] | ebook | in-library | espionage, psychology, digressive | | [[Your Face Tomorrow Vol 3]] | ebook | in-library | espionage, psychology, digressive | ### Brian Evenson | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | [[A Collapse of Horses]] | ebook | in-library | weird fiction, horror | | Windeye | audiobook | nearly-finished | weird fiction, horror | ### Rachel Cusk | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | Parade | audiobook | finished | identity, art, experimental | ### Richard Powers | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | Bewilderment | audiobook | finished | neurodiversity, ecology, grief | ### Jonathan Franzen | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | The Corrections | audiobook | nearly-finished | family, American decline | ### Jeff VanderMeer | Title | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------| | The Southern Reach Trilogy | ebook | in-library | weird, ecology, epistemology | ### Other Fiction | Title | Author | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------|--------| | [[ulysses\|Ulysses]] | James Joyce | ebook | in-library | modernism, Dublin | | [[Flann OBrien The hard life an exegesis of squalor 1996\|The Hard Life]] | Flann O'Brien | ebook | in-library | Irish satire, metafiction | | [[Mark Z. Danielewski-House of Leaves-Pantheon (2000)\|House of Leaves]] | Mark Z. Danielewski | ebook | in-library | ergodic, horror, metafiction | | [[The Collected Novels of Jose Saramago\|Collected Novels]] | Jose Saramago | ebook | in-library | magical realism, allegory | | [[Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami\|Kafka on the Shore]] | Haruki Murakami | ebook | in-library | magical realism, Oedipal | | [[Hanif Kureishi-The Black Album -Faber and Faber Ltd (2009)\|The Black Album]] | Hanif Kureishi | ebook | in-library | identity, 1980s Britain | | [[Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris 2007\|Then We Came to the End]] | Joshua Ferris | ebook | in-library | office life, first-person plural | | [[Binocular Vision_ New & Selected Stories - Pearlman, Edith\|Binocular Vision]] | Edith Pearlman | ebook | in-library | short stories | | [[Lunar_Park_-_Bret_Easton_Ellis\|Lunar Park]] | Bret Easton Ellis | ebook | in-library | horror, autofiction | | [[The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll]] | Alvaro Mutis | ebook | in-library | adventure, melancholy | | Orange World and Other Stories | Karen Russell | ebook | in-library | weird, magical realism | | [[The Secret of Ventriloquism 2017\|The Secret of Ventriloquism]] | Jon Padgett | ebook | in-library | Ligotti-adjacent, weird | ### Non-Fiction (Audiobooks) | Title | Author | Format | Status | Themes | |-------|--------|--------|--------|--------| | Four Thousand Weeks | Oliver Burkeman | audiobook | finished | time, productivity, finitude | | How to Be a Liberal | Ian Dunt | audiobook | finished | liberalism, politics | | Material Girls | Kathleen Stock | audiobook | finished | gender, philosophy | | Unruly | David Mitchell | audiobook | finished | British history, comedy | | Traffic | Ben Smith | audiobook | finished | media, Gawker, BuzzFeed | | The Complications | Emmett Rensin | audiobook | finished | mental illness, memoir | | The Genius Myth | Helen Lewis | audiobook | nearly-finished | genius, culture | | Drink Your Way Sober | Katie Herzog | audiobook | in-library | alcohol, harm reduction | --- ## Taste Profile Summary **Fiction preferences:** Dense, linguistically ambitious, experimental. Philosophical inquiry via narrative. Metafiction, weird fiction, cosmic horror, maximalism. Anti-accessible. **Key patterns:** - Multiple works from: Will Self, DFW, DeLillo, Ligotti, Auster, Chiang, Borges - Recent discoveries: Brian Evenson, Jon Padgett (weird fiction) - Mark Fisher represents theoretical framework, not just reading See `~/.claude/knowledge/aesthetic-preferences.md` for detailed taste analysis. --- *Updated: 2026-01-10*