As the pandemic was announced in March 2020 and many studio films were delayed, I had to make a pivot like so many other outlets. In addition to going through my physical media, TCM recordings, and streaming, I also turned to books. What follows below is the list of every book I’ve read during the pandemic and since. In many instances, I’ve written book reviews or interviewed the authors. At first, I referred to these books as quarantine books but as we got deeper into the pandemic and were free to move about some more, I started referring to them as pandemic books.

I started reading Camera Man during the Omicron wave so not ALL of these books are pandemic books but it’s a way to keep things together.

  1. Warner Bros by David Thomson
  2. The Brothers Warner by Cass Warner Sperling
  3. King Cohn: The Life and Times of Harry Cohn by Bob Thomas
  4. Laugh Lines by Alan Zweibel
  5. The Man Who Made The Movies by Vanda Krefft
  6. Hitchcock and the Censors by John Billheimer
  7. Goldwyn: A Biography by A. Scott Berg
  8. Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer by Scott Eyman
  9. Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann
  10. Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America by Steven J. Ross
  11. Bad Moms: The Novel by Nina McInery
  12. Five Came Back by Mark Harris
  13. Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise by Scott Eyman
  14. On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder by Ed Sikov
  15. Steven Spielberg: A Biography by Joseph McBride
  16. Picturing Peter Bogdanovich: My Conversations with the New Hollywood Director by Peter Tonguette
  17. George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones
  18. Hope for Film by Ted Hope
  19. Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film by Alan K. Rode
  20. A Talent for Trouble: The Life of Hollywood’s Most Acclaimed Director, William Wyler by Jan Herman
  21. The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics by Sydney Ladensohn Stern
  22. Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise by Scott Eyman
  23. The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan by Tom Shone
  24. I Want To Be Where The Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom
  25. Nichols and May: Interviews edited by Robert E. Kapsis
  26. Tough Sh*t by Kevin Smith
  27. There I Go Again: How I Came to Be Mr. Feeny, John Adams, Dr. Craig, KITT, and Many Others by William Daniels
  28. My Girls by Todd Fisher
  29. True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee by Abraham Riesman
  30. Star Wars: The High Republic – Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule (no review, strictly for leisure)
  31. Because He’s Jeff Goldblum by Travis M. Andrews
  32. The Art of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge by Amy Ratcliffe
  33. John Williams’s Film Music by Emilio Audissino
  34. Starstruck by Leonard Maltin (uncorrected advance reading proof, due out in October)
  35. 20th Century Fox: Darryl F. Zanuck and the Creation of the Modern Film Studio by Scott Eyman (uncorrected advance proof, due out in September)
  36. Hollywood Hates Hitler! Jew-Baiting, Anti-Nazism, and the Senate Investigation into Warmongering in Motion Pictures by Chris Yogerst
  37. Secrets of the Force: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Wars by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross
  38. Leading Lady: Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker by Stephen Galloway
  39. Robin by Dave Itzkoff
  40. Nobody Does It Better: The Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of James Bond by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross
  41. Engulfed: The Death of Paramount Pictures and the Birth of Corporate Hollywood by Bernard F. Dick
  42. Columbia Pictures: Portrait of a Studio by Bernard F. Dick
  43. The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest by Felix Salten (Translation by Jack Zipes)
  44. Camera Man: Buster Keaton, The Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the 20th Century by Dana Stevens
  45. Hollywood and Hitler: 1933-1939 by Thomas Doherty
  46. The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series by Jessica Radloff
  47. Hollywood and Israel: A History by Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman
  48. Oscar Wars by Michael Schulman
  49. Middle of the Rainbow by Bonnie Bartlett Daniels
  50. But Have You Read the Book? by Kristen Lopez
  51. No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox
  52. Warner Bros.: 100 Years of Storytelling by Mark A. Viera
  53. The Disney Revolt by Jake S. Friedman
  54. Get Up, Baby! by Mike Shannon
  55. The Warner Brothers by Chris Yogerst
  56. Smart, Wrong, and Lucky: The Origins of Baseball’s Unexpected Stars by Jonathan Mayo
  57. The History of Sketch Comedy by Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key
  58. Four of the Three Musketeers by Robert S. Bader
  59. The Baseball Talmud by Howard Megdal
  60. Look Out for the Little Guy by Scott Lang
  61. MCU: The Rein of Marvel Studios by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards
  62. It Could Happen Here by Jonathan Greenblatt
  63. Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond by Henry Winkler
  64. The Ambassador by Yehuda Avner and Matt Rees
  65. They Call Me Goose by Jack Givens
  66. Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson
  67. Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life by Don Bluth
  68. All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words: Unpublished, Unvarnished, and Told by The Beatles and Their Inner Circles by Peter Brown and Steven Gaines
  69. 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid by Willie Mays and John Shea
  70. Just Show Up: And Other Enduring Value’s from Baseball’s Iron Man by Cal Ripken Jr. and James Dale
  71. They Call Me Pudge: My Life Playing the Game I Love by Ivan Rodriguez with Jeff Sullivan
  72. Rock Solid: My Life in Baseball’s Fast Lane by Tim Raines with Alan Maimon
  73. Lou Boudreau: My Hall of Fame Life on the Field and Behind the Mic by Lou Boudreau with Russell Schneider
  74. Doc: The Life of Roy Halladay by Todd Zolecki
  75. Tony Gwynn: The Baseball Life of Mr. Padre by Scott Kingdon
  76. Nine Innings to Success: A Hall of Famer’s Approach to Achieving Excellence by Jim Palmer with Alan Maimon
  77. Inside Pitch: Playing and Broadcasting the Game I Love by Tom Glavine with Nick Cafardo
  78. Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story by Curt Smith
  79. Races, Games, and Olympic Dreams: A Sportscaster’s Life by Tom Hammond with Mark Story
  80. Warren Spahn: A Biography of the Legendary Lefty by Lew Freedman
  81. Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig by Jonathan Eig
  82. Lefty and Tim: How Steve Carlton and Tim McCarver Became Baseball’s Best Battery by William C. Kashatus
  83. Mike Schmidt: The Phillies’ Legendary Slugger by Rob Maaddi
  84. Fergie: My Life from the Cubs to Cooperstown by Fergie Jenkins with Lew Freedman
  85. Baseball Forever: Reflections on 60 Years in the Game by Ralph Kiner with Danny Peary
  86. Roberto Alomar: The Complicated Life and Legacy of a Baseball Hall of Famer by David Ostrowsky
  87. A Path to Peace by George J. Mitchell and Alon Sachar
  88. Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis
  89. Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City by Andrew Lawler
  90. Impossible Takes Longer by Daniel Gordis
  91. How the West Became Antisemitic: Jews and the Formation of Europe, 800-1500 by Ivan G. Marcus
  92. Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald