Dan Pelzer was a man who read extensively throughout his life, keeping a detailed, handwritten list of every book he read from 1962 until shortly before his death in July 2025 at age 92. His reading journey includes a total of 3,599 books across a wide range of genres and subjects. Here are key highlights of what Dan read:
- He started his list in the early 1960s and read about 70 to 75 books per year on average.
- His early reading focused on Christian philosophy, military history, world religions, and capitalist economics.
- Over the decades, his interests shifted, including side-by-side explorations of capitalism and communism during the 1980s and 1990s.
- He enjoyed fiction classics like Moby Dick and reread The Great Gatsby three times.
- Dan read murder mysteries by authors such as Agatha Christie, James Patterson, Sue Grafton, and David Baldacci.
- He read military novels by Tom Clancy and explored science fiction in the 1990s, including Dune , Ender's Game , and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
- Toward the end of his life, he returned to Christian literature and historical nonfiction.
- Other notable titles on his list included challenging works like James Joyce's Ulysses , classics like Animal Farm by George Orwell, and popular figures in fiction like John Grisham.
- Dan was a devout Catholic who also enjoyed novels by Christian authors and had a taste for gripping page-turners and memoirs.
- He maintained his reading habit through daily routines, often reading at work, public transport, or wherever he could.
- His family and the Columbus Metropolitan Library have made his entire reading list available online at what-dan-read.com as a tribute and inspiration for readers.
Dan's reading list is not just a catalogue but a testament to a lifelong passion for books, with a deep diversity of topics, ordered chronologically to show his evolving interests and intellectual journey over more than six decades. If you're interested, you can explore the full collection to discover what Dan read and draw inspiration from his vast literary journey. This information draws from interviews with Dan's family, the library's efforts to digitize his list, and news summaries of his life and reading habits.
