Something new this year (2026), a book log.
This list is in descending order so the latest reads are on top.
One of the issues of graduate school, for me at least, is that there is a lot of reading to be done, but it is rarely reading a whole book cover-to-cover. Excerpts, chapters, journal articles, dissertations, and even websites are all on the reading list. On the rare occasion a whole book is included in the syllabus, it is usually for a book review assignment. This will usually be read differently from a book read for enjoyment or interest. Last year, I decided that this year I would actively pursue recreational reading. This includes books on my greater research list on propaganda, extremism, and the press. Cover-to-cover reading has been difficult to squeeze in, or at least I haven’t challenged myself to do it. Spending less time on TV and YouTube, and practically no time on social media, has allowed me to actually read. I love it.
Current and Next in Line
I have several stacks of reading to get to, woodworking, political science, Old English/Old Norse, propaganda & extremism, WWI history, newspaper and journalism history, biographies, bibliography… so much to read, so little time.
Current
Le Cunff, Anne-Laure. Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely In a Goal-Obsessed World. Profile Books, 2025.
Tiny Experiments is my next read, also mentioned in Ryders Bullet Journal.
On Deck
Faithful, Christabel. Davinci Resolve 20: A Beginner’s Guide to Professional Video Editing, Color Grading, and Visual Effects with DaVinci Resolve. Self-Published, 2025.
Since abandoning Adobe, I went with free software that can be used on any platform, in preparation to abandon Microsoft. GIMP is a good Photoshop substitute and I know it, more or less. DaVinci Resolve is another matter. I need some tutelage if I am goin to get beyond the basics.
Holm-Hadulla, Rainer M., and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe’s Path to Creativity: A Psycho-Biography of the Eminent Politician, Scientist, and Poet. Translated by Deanna Stewart. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019.
After a video in which Adam Savage talked about creativity and Goethe’s Path to Creativity, I thought it might be a good read. It is also a good brake from propaganda and extremism before I jump back in.
Q1 2026
Allen, Roland. The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper. Biblioasis, 2023.
This book is mentioned several times in Ryder’s Bullet Journal, and being the bibliographic nerd that I am, it was an easy sell. I jumped down that rabbit hole headfirst. It is a great read if you ever wondered how long notebooks have been around and how they have been used throughout history. It is a truly fascinating topic. I am not surprised the earliest paper notebooks came from Florence in the 1300s, or that the Florentines invented modern double-entry accounting at that time. Ricordi, ricordanze, and zibaldoni. Great book, even a slow reader like me was able to crush this 400+ page tome in a few days. Loved it.
Carroll, Ryder. The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future. Penguin Publishing Group, 2018.
Somehow this one slipped past me. I read it over a couple of days at the end of February, just in time to implement a “BuJo” of my own on March 1st. I like notebooks, okay, I love notebooks, and I like to buy them. They usually sit on a shelf or in a box for years, but I like them. I have been trying to keep a long-format journal for several years now. I started in a Moleskine, then went to Field Books because they seemed easier. After journaling a full year in Field Books, the small ones, A larger format seemed like a better option. I started carrying a fountain pen daily in 2023, and it worked well with most of the options, but I really wanted to do something special and new for 2025. I got a nice faux leather journal in the 5×8 size range. I used it throughout 2025, journaling long form most days. I called it a success for reaching my target of keeping a journal. I am a little bast half way though it now. But this didn’t help productivity or memory. In January, I was seriously considering a Day Planner, or something similar. Part of my go analog desires as well. Somewhere in my search for a planner, I came across “Bullet Journal,” so I looked it up, watched a couple of videos, and decided I needed to read the book. I have been using the basic system, no graphics, doodles, or a ton of fancy collections, and I have to say it has increased my attention and productivity significantly. I already have some subtitle changes planned for April, but I am very enthusiastic to try it out with a whole class (next class starts on the 23rd), not to mention as I move into my dissertation. There will be more on this later.
Faircloth, Sean. Attack of the Theocrats! How the Religious Right Harms Us All– And What We Can Do About It. Pitchstone Pub, 2012.
I have to admit, I was disappointed in this one. It has a great comic book like cover, but it doesn’t really hit any marks. It covers a long list of politicians who are pretty much out of the picture. It provides some good political context for right-wing extremism, but the sense of immediacy and contact information show that this is a book with a very limited shelf life. Faircloth clearly had a purpose in mind, but it just falls flat after a decade.
Popović, Srđa, and Matthew Miller. Blueprint For Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World. Spiegel & Grau, 2015.
This one popped up on my radar when ICE was at its worst in Portland, and the Frog Patrol was still just one or two strong. This is a two-fer; it is a great reference for a conflict historian such as myself, with lots of good information on the Baltic resistance in the 1990s and 2000s. It is also a good red for anyone who might be thinking about revolt against the revolting. It’s a good read and gives you a lot to think about. Nonviolence is not compliance.
Doctorow, Cory. Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It. MCD, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025.
I am a fan of Cory Doctorow. I have been following him since the BoingBoing days. He writes both fiction and non-fiction, and this is very much in the latter category. For several years now, I have been disgusted by the obscene wealth of the tech monopolists, how they conduct business, and what they clearly think of everyone else consuming oxygen on their planet. Cory lays out, in his clear and distinctive voice, just how shitty they are. I have tried to get out from under the surveillance economy for some time, and after reading Enshittification, I was inspired to tell Zuck to piss off and delete my Facebook and Instagram accounts. I still have a long way to go, but I am working on it (see my Social Media page). To be clear, I’m not anti-tech or anti-Internet, quite the opposite. I just want to stop giving billionaires money and opt out of the surveillance economy. It’s a process.
Bernays, Edward L. Propaganda: The Public Mind in the Making. Horace Liveright, 1928.
I have two editions of this book and have read both. They are short, 168 pages, and there are some differences in the text, but reading either one would get you all you can get from either. This is about propaganda in the early sense, advertising, before the negative connotation was applied to the word.
Axelrod, Alan. Selling the Great War: The Making of American Propaganda. 1st ed. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
This book kicked off a lot of questions that needed answers. I have cited it numerous times and used its citations to start fleshing out my own research library. Selling the Great War inspired me to look for the differentiation between Early American Propaganda and Modern American Propaganda, and I believe I found it in George Creel and the Committee on Public Information. If you are interested in how we went from a nation bound and determined to remain neutral in The Great War (WWI) to a nation with a mission to destroy the German invaders of Western and Southern Europe, this is a great place to start. It presented a lot of rabbit holes for me to go down.
Belew, Kathleen. Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America. Harvard University Press, 2019.
I bought this because it had good reviews and was clearly on topic for my research. It discusses the connection between military service and dissatisfied veterans in the white power movement. Belew has done some great research and presented it well in this book. It has excellent footnotes, a good source list, and a good index.
Maddow, Rachel. Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism. First edition. Crown, 2023.
While I was familiar with the rough outline of the existence of the German-American Bund, I didn’t appreciate the scope of influence and infiltration of the Nazi Party during the Interwar period. Not only is Maddow a skilled writer, her research is also impeccable. When I bought the book, I was expecting another well-researched subject-matter book. I wasn’t expecting an academic book. I had no idea that Maddow had a Ph.D. Her academic achievements are clear in the composition, research, and citation included in this work.
Schwartz, Christopher. The Anarchist’s Workbench. Lost Art Press, 2020.
Another in the Anarchist trilogy, it is an excellent book on building a workbench and so much more. The third in the series is The Anarchist’s Design Book, a massive tome, and while I am about a third of the way through, I want to get back to it when I can build some of the furniture in it.
Schwartz, Christopher. The Anarchist’s Tool Chest. Revised. Lost Art Press, 2025.
I love Chris’s writing. I have been following him and his publishing company, Lost Art Press, for many years now. I bought the ATC’s first edition because I am a woodworker, I like Chris’s writing style, I wanted to support a new small press, and as a bibliography nerd, I loved the attention to detail in the production of all of LAP’s books. They really care about the quality of the book, content, and physical appearance. I have many LAP books, and I am never disappointed. Thank you, Chris and Megan, you guys are rockstars.
The Anarchist Tool Chest is an excellent book on building a tool chest, but it is so much more. There is a philosophy behind Chris’s work and ethic. It is akin to the maker philosophy as well as the right-to-repair philosophy. If these words mean something to you, woodworker or not, you will enjoy this book.