On Monday, I was glancing at the list of books I’ve read, and thought it would be interesting to list the book that I was reading on that day—January 16—for each of the last 21 years.
- 1996: Science, Numbers, and I by Isaac Asimov
- 1997: Broca’s Brain by Carl Sagan
- 1998: Foundation by Isaac Asimov
- 1999: Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
- 2000: The Life of Greece by Will Durant
- 2001: My War by Andy Rooney
- 2002: Terraforming Earth by Jack Williamson
- 2003: Forever: A Novel by Pete Hamill
- 2004: The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin
- 2005: My Manhattan by Pete Hamill
- 2006: Foundation and Chaos by Greg Bear
- 2007: The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt
- 2008: (Not reading anything on this day)
- 2009: Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters by Richard Winters
- 2010: C. M. Kornbluth by Mark Rich
- 2011: Astounding Science Fiction, July 1939
- 2012: Astounding Science Fiction, January 1942
- 2013: Impulse by Steven Gould
- 2014: Work Done for Hire by Joe Haldeman
- 2015: (Not reading anything on this day)
- 2016: My Happy Days in Hollywood by Garry Marshall
- 2017: Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories by Simon Winchester
I ended up including what I was reading on Monday, which actually makes the last 22 January 16th. Twice in that time, once is 2008, and again in 2015, I wasn’t reading anything on January 16. This happens occasionally, when I am between books, and can’t decide what to read next.
Facebook and Google like to remind us about what we were doing on a particular day. In many respects, I prefer looking back to what I was reading on a particular day. For some reason, I can look at what I was reading, and remember quite clearly where I was, and what I was doing while reading that particular book.