iamcal.com

2025 Reading List

nobody@domain.com (Cal Henderson) — Tue, 6 Jan 2026 18:08:53 +0000

Another year, another 121 books completed, or about 1 every 3 days. My 2025 reading list has a very brief review/summary of each one.

Highlights were The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, The Repeat Room by Jesse Ball and Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin.

While I strive not to be, I can be pretty inconsistent in my reading pace. More books take 1 day to read than any other length of time, with 72% in 3 days or less and 93% within a week. The longest took a full 23 days (because I was on a vacation where I didn't read much).

I read much less on vacation than when I'm at home, and I read the most when I get really dug into a series I love - October was 13 books from Mick Herron's Slough House.

With ~20 years of my reading history tracked, my biggest take away is that there are still so many great books to find :)

2022 Reading List

nobody@domain.com (Cal Henderson) — Mon, 9 Jan 2023 21:18:09 +0000

I've updated my 2022 reading list with all the 112 books I read in the year.

Highlights were Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin and A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine.

18th January, 6:18 pm

nobody@domain.com (Cal Henderson) — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 18:18:33 +0000

I've updated my 2020 reading list. In contrast to 2019, where I finished 116 books, I only completed 72 in 2020. This is largely due to the pandemic, no longer having a daily commute, but also not traveling around the world.

My favorites of the year:

Agency - Drones, Book 3, by William Gibson - Excellent finale to his latest trilogy and set in San Francisco.
- Edit: Simon Wistow points out that it's really book 2, and that Archangel is 'book 1.5'. A third book might still happen
Billion Dollar Whale, by Bradley Hope - Incredible story of the man who stole billions of dollars from the Malaysian government and has evaded justice

Books: 2018 06/07

nobody@domain.com (Cal Henderson) — Mon, 6 Aug 2018 22:34:47 +0000

I've updated my 2018 reading list to include my June and July picks.

Cliff notes rainbow

nobody@domain.com (Cal Henderson) — Thu, 8 Sep 2016 23:28:43 +0000

Some great notes for each chapter in Gravity's Rainbow to try and follow how everything is connected. I've been trying to find out how many characters are mentioned during the book, but can't find it anywhere.

28th June, 11:33 pm

nobody@domain.com (Cal Henderson) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 23:33:00 +0000

writing a book on github is pretty cool i guess

19th November, 6:09 am

nobody@domain.com (Cal Henderson) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 06:09:00 +0000

bookland is a fictional country used for mapping ISBNs to EANs

14th December, 3:26 am

nobody@domain.com (Cal Henderson) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:26:00 +0000

the "i can read movies" series of book covers is incredibly well done

1st December, 4:26 am

nobody@domain.com (Cal Henderson) — Tue, 1 Dec 2009 04:26:00 +0000

the twilight formula explained! nice illustrations

22nd November, 2:31 am

nobody@domain.com (Cal Henderson) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:31:00 +0000

there's not really any excuse for not contributing to nickd's book project on kickstarter