Book Purge

Removing Books

List of books i’m purging off the bookshelves in the house in August 2025. These are pretty much all my books, ones that have survived many previous purges. Removing them for a few reasons:

We have expectaions of moving to another country relatively soon. I can’t bring the books with.
I look at these books extremely rarely. They are commonly books that I really liked to read the first time, or they are reference books that I thought might have some utility in having around. But in reality, I haven’t opened many of them for many years. If I need something from them, they’ll be available at the library or at a bookstore.
I thought they might be available for my kids to pull off the shelf one day…but really, that’s years and years from now. And I’ll add that my parents kept many books on their shelves and I almost never just pulled one off the shelf to read— I was reading calvin and hobbes instead. To that point, I’m keeping the calvin books.
They take up space. Space that could be used for my kids actual books.

Here is the list

In no particular order…

An Innkeeper’s Diary - John Fothergill. I never finished this. I got it from secondhand store when I was interested in just reading old diaries and letters. A review said that it was speculated to be the basis for Fawlty Towers, the BBC show about a curmudgeonly innkeeper.
Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Never read this. I think I got it as a gift for someone, and it never made it.
The Anthropocene Reviewed - John Green. A collection of essays, written as a review of various things like sunsets and Indy car racing. It spawned a podcast with John Green, which I really liked, and Sarah bought this book for my birthday a few years ago. I really liked this book (as I did the podcast). The review of Sycamore trees is my favorite, and listening to it via the podcast pretty reliably elicits some tears.
The Music the Soul Lives On - Henry Mackaman. I never really understood this book, nor did I give it much time. I bought it likely at some indy bookstore while on a trip, thinking I would spend a lot of time with it…but then I just never had that time available for it. It’s too much an “art book”. I’m not sure why I didn’t get rid of it sooner.
The Foxfire Book - Edited by Eliot Wigginton. The Foxfire series is a collection of appalachian knowledge on a varied set of topics, from natural healing, cooking, building, crafts, and community. It’s a project of a university or college in Georgia, cataloguing stories and wisdom from a very secluded and likely misunderstood region. I’ve not read it straight through, but it is an interesting thing to peruse.
Foxfire 2 - Edited by Eliot Wigginton. Much as the above.
Shogun - James Clavell. I read this as a teenager, and is one of those books that I just never wanted to get rid of. I don’t even remember if it was really good— I think that indecision or forgotten memory is why I thought I might read it again. Except each time I reached for it I thought it might be best to just remember it as a “good book” and leave it at that.
The Hobbit/The Fellowship of the Ring/The Two Towers/The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien. Not much explanation needed here. Except I never made it past the Two Towers (of course, I made it through the movies multiple times). I got this set of 4 from a used bookstore, and liked the book covers.
Graphic Design for Nondesigners - Chronicle Books. This is a reference book I got when I was at an early stage of trying my hand at TTRPG book design, the peak “excited but green” stage that characterizes many of my hobbies/interests. Overall, I don’t think I learned much new from this book, though.
Maple Harvest - Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. This is about life up north, centered around the maple harvest. Like a Foxfire book, but for the North.
North Country: The Making of Minnesota - Mary Lethert Wingerd. The history of the state of Minnesota. Never read cover to cover, but bought it when I was living in an apartment after college and I was maximally in my “I love the state and where I live and I want to know all the history” phase. Those things are still true, and I still have an interest, but I haven’t cracked this book open in a few years.
Border Country: The Northwoods Canoe Journals of Howard Greene, 1906-1916 - Martha Greene Phillips. This is much as the above, along with that interest in contemporary journals and diaries.
The North Star State: A Minnesota History Reader - Anne J. Aby.
Minnesota’s Geology - Ojakangas and Matsch. This was a textbook for my Geology 101 class at college. It was just a good look at the natural history of Minnesota, and predates even my strong interest in Minnesota history…It was just interesting in its own right.
Oil - Upton Sinclair. The basis for the movie There Will Be Blood, which is really very good. The book itself is less dramatized, which would be expected, and does drag a little bit in the second half as Sinclair basically pushes hard on the communism pedal. But I don’t mind. I do prefer The Jungle by Sinclair, though.
77 Dream Songs - John Berryman. I went through a little bit of a poetry phase. I think this was right around when I had read The Unsettling of America, listed later.
Morning Poems - Robert Bly. Right about the same time as above, and with a crossover interest in anything “Minnesota”. These two books are probably on my shelf as signals to visitors that “this guy reads poetry”.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig. I saw this at Half Price Books one day and thought it’d be a good gift for my friend. I didn’t realize it until later that is a somewhat well-known book (I’d say very well-known, except I don’t know if any books are very well-known anymore). I myself read maybe 150 pages of it. I liked it, but then life interrupted and I just never got back into it. I’m sure it’s good, but I’m just not a voracious book reader on most days. It’s about time I finally actually give it to that friend, now many years later.
The Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion, 1764-1765 - Magdalen King-Hall. I got this at the same place at the same time as the Fothergill book first in the this list. I just now did a quick web search of this book, and found this book review from the New York Times, dated 1926. I only read the first 50 pages or so before setting it down. I only see now, after this web search, that it was actually written in 1924 by a 19 year old woman, and she never very much meant it to be taken as a true journal.
Sophie’s World - Jostein Gaarder. I read this in college probably (freshmen year?) and I perceived it as a good primer on philosophy. I don’t actually know if it’s true. In philosophy circles I’m sure there are endless arguments about whether summaries are ever actually accurate. It is irrelevant, anyway, because I barely remember any of it at this point.
Good Poems for Hard Times - Garrison Keillor. Hm, maybe I should keep this around for the foreseeable future…
Leaves of Grass, and Other Writings - Walt Whitman. Surely visitors see this and realized I am a Learned and Civil Gentleman of Distinction. The only thing I know about this book is that my high school friend and old roommate would use it to help him fall asleep.
The Savage Worlds Adventure Deluxe Edition: Fantasy Companion - Pinnacle Entertainment Group. This is a TTRPG book, the only one I ever bought. I got it from a Kickstarter campagaign (probably the only Kickstarter I ever participated in). I believe I put my money in while I was most interested in SWADE and TTRPG’s in general, but by the time it arrived the fever had subsided.
Roughing it - Mark Twain. I really like Mark Twain. The first book I had read of his was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which I read during my first trip to the BWCA while in college. I saw this book, a collection of many stories and writings, many years later and bought it. I’ve read a few of the stories, but never all of them. I still like Mark Twain. (Side note, I also really liked the Percival Everett book James, 2024, told from the perspective of Jim the slave in Huck Finn).
Listening Point - Sigurd Olson. Tied into the love of Minnesota history and old stories, this was a good read, particularly during trips up north.
Popple Leaves and Boot Oil - Milt Stenlund. Couldn’t tell you anything about this except it’s about northern Minnesota and written by a biologist.
The Voyageur - Grace Lee Nute. I had heard about this book a bunch of times through other readings, but couldn’t find it. Then I stumbled upon it in an antiques store and snatched it up. Then I proceded to stop reading it after like 50 pages.
The New Way Things Work - David Macaulay. There is a chance that this book survives the current purge, it’s just too good to get rid of. David Macaulay is a master of providing information dense insights into how things are made, geared towards children but interesting to adults. It’s best age is 7-14 year olds, I imagine, which makes it just outside the age of my kids currently. This “new” way things work is actually pretty outdated, having come with me from my parents house since probably early 2000’s.
Built to Last - David Macaulay. Much the same as above, but is a collection of three books: Castle, Cathedral, and City. Each covers historical wonders like the construction of an old English castle, a French cathedral, and a Roman city.
Castle and City - David Macaulay. Two individual books from the above collection. Recovered from my parent’s house.
Great Moments in Architecture - David Macaulay. A humorous take on architecture, kind of like a Gary Larson version of events.
The Mysteries - Bill Watterson. Waterson is the reknowned author of Calvin & Hobbes comic strip, and a famous recluse in life. However, a few years ago he secretly partnered with another artist to write The Mysteries, his first published work in maybe two decades (besides a few comic strips with Pearls Before Swine). This book is not really a comic, and it’s good, but realistically I don’t see cracking it open again and it doesn’t have the same staying power as C&H.
The Far Side Gallery 3 - Gary Larson. Gary Larson is great. Or, well, his comics are. This is just a collection that has followed me since high school.
Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders - Foer, Thuras, Morton. Atlas Obscura is a cool website that documents many interesting places around the world that aren’t always shown on the maps. My impression is that AO really pioneered the idea in the modern Internet age that there are many cool and odd things to seek out while travelling, and that trips don’t need to focus on just the most rreknowned museums or attractions. It was fun to skim this before a vacation and just see what odd things would be nearby.
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information - Tufte. I’m not sure why I ever got this book. It’s a manual and history book of charts. I couldn’t even really tell you when I got it. I’ve kept it around as a sort of an “inspiration” book, a reminder that things like charts and graphs, and information generally, can be presented in new and creative ways without sacrficing (and frequently enhancing) clarity.
The Great Neighborhood Book - Jay Walljasper. Just a reference book for how to build great neighborhoods, socially and physically. I’d like to leave this in a public place nearby, such as Turtle Bread or Tare Market, and I hope it inspires someone to positive action.
The Continuing City - James Vance, Jr. An academic book to be sure, I only read about 50 pages of it.
Planning to Stay - William Morrish & Catherine Brown.
Fascinating Fungi of the North Woods - Mollen & Weber. Cool picture book of mushrooms.
The Castle - Franz Kafka. This is a top book for me, but I doubt I can find someone else who really enjoys it. It is…kafka-esque. It is about a land surveyor who arrives in a kingdom, and his trials just trying to find out who hired him to come out. It seems that someone hired him by mistake, but because no one wants to admit the error, we spend about 300 pages trying to figure it out.
Fathers and Sons - Turgenev. I liked this one, but couldn’t tell you why. Probably just standard “good author, good book”.
Dune - Frank Herbert. 10 years ago I probably had to explain what this book is about. Now, with the movies out, it seems like it’s probably not necessary. Very good.
Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino. Genghis Khan dispatches the trader Marco Polo to collect information about this vast empire and report back to him. These small reports make up this collection (all fiction), and is an exercise in world building.
the dog says how - Kevin Kling. Kling is a storyteller first and foremost. The medium comes secondary. This book is a collection of essays about growing up.
First King of Shannara / The Elfstones of Shannara / The Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks. I found this collection in a Little Free Library during a walk. I normally don’t read a lot of straight up Fantasy books, but I was in the TTRPG phase and so I grabbed this. It helped that it contained the whole trilogy. Overall, I thought it was a good series, I’m glad I read it.
Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. I liked it. Obviously it’s come out since then that Neil Gaiman is not a good guy (sex/abuse stuff). Insert conversation about separating art from artist here.
American Gods - Neil Gaiman.
The Author Theory - Aaron Jansen. The first published book of a college classmate and coworker. Unfortunately, I never finished it, but that’s less on the writing and more about my available time at the time (and I guess since).
The Drawing of the Three / The Wastelands / Wizard and Glass (Dark Tower Series) - Stephen King. Very good series. It just keeps going.
The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff. A short book about Taoism, told as a conversation between the author and Winnie the Pooh and cast of characters.
Common Sense - Thomas Paine. Maybe I should be holding on to this one for the next few years as well.
The Unsettling of America - Wendell Berry. A good look into what is going on socially, politically, and economically in rural America. Highly recommended.
Minnesota Camping - Moon books.
Off the Beaten Path: Minnesota - Insider’s Guide.
Hiking the North Shore - Andrew Slade.
Backroads of Minnesota - Perich/Nelson.
Aristotles Ethics
A Place of My Own / Second Nature - Michael Pollan. We have more Pollan books (and their family cookbook); I’ve always liked his writing and the topics basically hit the right chords with me. These two books are about our place in nature— our attachment to the land, the gardens, how we manage those places, how we enjoy those places.
The Warmth of Other Suns - Isabel Wilkerson. I think I saw this one at some museum gift shop. It’s a collection of essays written about the different migration stories of people from the American South to the North.
Walden - Henry Thoreau. Walden is a good read, if you keep in mind that he lived within easy walking distance of town and his family (not remotely secluded).