What Dan Read
Dan Pelzer waving outside a Columbus storefront beneath an ‘ICE COLD CRISPY BEER’ neon sign
Line drawing of Dan Pelzer

Dan’s Story

When Dan Pelzer passed in July 2025 at the age of 92, he left behind a 109-page, mostly hand-written list of the 3,599 books he had read since 1964. Each title told the story of an insatiable reader who traveled the world through books, reading everything from James Joyce and John Grisham to Rachel Carson and Roxane Gay. As a tribute at Dan’s funeral, his children posted the book list online to share with those who knew Dan, including the Columbus Metropolitan Library, where he was a regular. After the library digitized the list and shared Dan’s story on social media, it quickly went viral, touching hearts and minds around the world.

The writer’s life can be a lonely life, but if he’s lucky he sails upon a sea of readers, most of whom he will never meet or even hear about — except for stray bits of overheard conversation or a thrilling sight of a reader on a subway lost in the writer’s imagination. Dan Pelzer was such a sailor. I’m honored to have had him as a reader.

Lawrence Wright

Author of three books on What Dan Read

  • Going Clear
  • The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda And the Road to 9/11
  • Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, And Sadat At Camp David
  1. 1

    The Blue Nile

    Alan Moorehead

  2. 2

    Babbitt

    Sinclair Lewis

  3. 3

    Rats, Lice, and History

    Hans Zinsser

  4. 4

    Dinosaurs

    Nicholas Hotton III

  5. 5

    The Wonder That Was India

    A.L. Basham

  6. 6

    A Short History of the Middle East

    George E. Kirk

  7. 7

    Anna Karenina

    Leo Tolstoy

  8. 8

    A Short History of India and Pakistan

    T. Walter Wallbank

  9. 9

    The Virginian

    Owen Wister

  10. 10

    Moby Dick

    Herman Melville

  11. 11

    The Hound of the Baskervilles

    Arthur Conan Doyle

  12. 12

    Goodbye Mr. Chips

    James Hilton

  13. 13

    The Inquisition of the Middle Ages

    Henry Charles Lea

  14. 14

    A Short History of Japan

    Malcolm Kennedy

  15. 15

    Readings in World Politics

    Robert A. Goldwin

  16. 16

    Readings in American Foreign Policy

    Robert A. Goldwin

  17. 17

    The Conscience of a Conservative

    Barry Goldwater

  18. 18

    Readings in American Democracy

    Gerald Stourzh, Ralph Lerner

  19. 19

    India and Pakistan: A Political Analysis

    Hugh Tinker

  20. 20

    The Discovery of India

    Jawaharlal Nehru

What Dan Read

The Columbus Metropolitan Library transcribed and digitized Dan’s list, creating a searchable spreadsheet that includes every title — all 3,599 of them.

Check out Dan’s complete list at the Columbus Metropolitan Library

In Dan’s own hand

Dan’s Original List

This is the original 109-page list of the 3,599 books Dan read between 1964 and 2023 — written in Dan’s own handwriting. In the summer of 2025 it became a worldwide phenomenon.

Dan Pelzer walked so Goodreads could run.

Columbus Dispatch

Dan’s Favorite Things

The Columbus
Metropolitan Library

Dan was the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s biggest fan. It was his gateway to the world — his passport, his refuge, and his source of endless joy. The books he discovered there spanned religion, philosophy, science, history, politics, and fiction: the 54 Great Books of the Western World, the Modern Library’s Top 100 novels, the American Presidents series, all but one of Sue Grafton’s alphabet mysteries, and even L. Ron Hubbard’s entire Mission Earth series.

Dan reading to his children Marci and John
Young Dan, near the time of his Peace Corps service

The Peace Corps
Book Lockers

Dan served in the Peace Corps in Nepal in 1964. He and his fellow volunteers had access to steamer trunks filled with books, thanks to a program started by Sargent Shriver. Under the light of a Petromax kerosene lamp, Dan and his American roommates gathered around the kitchen table each night to read works by James Baldwin, Joseph Conrad, and Jack London. Those books brought them together for lively conversations and helped forge strong friendships — sparking the curiosity that set him on a lifelong journey as a passionate reader.

More of Dan’s Favorite Things

  • Mastiffs
  • Rabbits
  • Napoleons (the pastry)
  • Siskel & Ebert
  • Bourbon manhattans
  • The Bible
  • The Columbus Clippers
  • 40 oz Old English
  • The Chicks
  • COTA
  • Buster Douglas
  • The Job Corps
  • Detroit
  • Merle Haggard
  • Dan Dan noodles
  • The Week
  • Dave Chappelle
  • Irish flat caps
  • Grumman Duck model airplanes

Remembering

Dan Pelzer

March 19, 1933 — July 1, 2025

Dan Pelzer, 92, passed away peacefully on July 1, 2025 in Columbus.

Dan was born March 19, 1933, to John and Geneva Pelzer in Detroit. He was deeply devoted to his wife of 52 years, Mary Lou Pelzer, who passed away in 2024, and the couple’s children and spouses, Marci Pelzer and James LeDuc and John and Amy Pelzer. Dan found immense joy in grandchildren Sarah, Lauren and Owen Pelzer, and numerous nieces and nephews. Besides Mary Lou, he was predeceased by his parents and his sister, Rita Maxey.

Dan’s Full Obituary also published in the Columbus Dispatch

Join the List

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