What Dan Read

What Dan Read What Dan Read celebrates the life and legacy of Dan Pelzer through books, curiosity, and community.

Explore Dan's viral list of 3,599 titles, discover your next great read, and connect with fellow book lovers. 📚
🌐 NEW website is live ✨

Looking for a meaningful way to help with flood relief in Nepal?🇳🇵My dad, Dan Pelzer, taught English in Nepal in 1964. I...
09/04/2026

Looking for a meaningful way to help with flood relief in Nepal?🇳🇵

My dad, Dan Pelzer, taught English in Nepal in 1964. It was one of the experiences that stayed with him for the rest of his life, and he remained deeply connected to the country and its people.

If Dan were here today, he would be deeply concerned about the devastation caused by the floods, and he would want to help.

So I’m sharing a cause I think he would wholeheartedly support: friends_of_nepal’s Flood Relief Campaign, which supports locally led relief projects in Nepali communities. The organization is made up of former Peace Corps Volunteers who have longstanding relationships with Nepal and the people who live there.

If you’re looking for a way to contribute, I hope you’ll consider joining me in supporting this effort. Every dollar can make a difference.

For Dan, and for the people who meant so much to him. ❤️🇳🇵

Please visit the link in our bio or stories to donate.

📣 MacKenzie Scott is returning to fiction with a new novel. 📚She’s releasing “Last Days in Two Nations” chapter by chapt...
09/02/2026

📣 MacKenzie Scott is returning to fiction with a new novel. 📚

She’s releasing “Last Days in Two Nations” chapter by chapter on Substack, marking her first novel since 2013. The speculative novel explores belief, power and the ways people can become “trapped by beliefs that were not their own.”

It’s a return to the literary world where Scott began. At Princeton, she studied creative writing with Toni Morrison, who called her “one of the best students I’ve ever had.” Her debut novel, “The Testing of Luther Albright,”was published in 2005 and won an American Book Award.

Scott is best known today for her philanthropy, having given more than $26 billion to charitable causes.

Now she’s giving readers a new story. 🎁

❓Would you follow a novel chapter by chapter on Substack?
⤵ Comment below and let us know.

08/31/2026

What was everyone reading in 1986? 📚

We compared four books from Dan’s 1986 reading list with four of America’s bestselling books of 1986.
And one book made both lists. 👀

What were you reading in 1986?
Which of these would you read today?

Dan read 3,599 books over six decades and somehow we have a feeling even he would have happily accepted one more hour a ...
08/28/2026

Dan read 3,599 books over six decades and somehow we have a feeling even he would have happily accepted one more hour a day for reading. 📚

Because every reader knows the problem:
So many books. Not enough time.

There’s the book sitting on your nightstand. The new release everyone keeps recommending. The classic you’ve always meant to read. And, of course, the TBR list that somehow grows faster than you can read it. 😅

So imagine this:

⏰ You’ve just been given one extra hour every single day and you can only use it for reading.

What are you reaching for?
📖 Your current read
📚 Something from your TBR pile
✨ A new book recommendation
❤️ An old favorite you’d love to reread

Tell us the book, or the kind of book you’d choose. We may all find something new to add to our lists. 👇

Dan read "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" by Fannie Flagg and now we’re curious about you.📚 Have you read...
08/24/2026

Dan read "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" by Fannie Flagg and now we’re curious about you.

📚 Have you read it?
Loved it, liked it, skipped it, or never heard of it?

Tell us below. 👇

🎲 RANDOM 4 FRIDAY 📚Four books. No theme. No connection.Just four random picks from Dan’s 3,599-book reading list.📕1968: ...
08/21/2026

🎲 RANDOM 4 FRIDAY 📚

Four books. No theme. No connection.
Just four random picks from Dan’s 3,599-book reading list.

📕1968: "The Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas
Classic / Adventure Fiction

📕1985: "Missile Envy” by Dr. Helen Caldicott
Politics / Nuclear Arms

📕2005: "Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith” by Anne Lamott
Memoir / Spirituality

📕2021: "Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty” by Patrick Radden Keefe
Investigative Nonfiction

❓Which one would you pick?

If you know, you know. 📚Readers have their habits.We carry books we probably won’t have time to read. We acquire more wh...
08/19/2026

If you know, you know. 📚

Readers have their habits.

We carry books we probably won’t have time to read. We acquire more when we definitely don’t need them. We remember characters from decades ago but forget why we walked into the kitchen. And “one more chapter” is rarely just one more chapter.

Now add yours:

**You know you’re a reader when ____**

Finish the sentence in the comments. 👇

08/17/2026

✔️Knocked a lovely library destination off the bucket list last week: The Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan- my kind of tourist attraction. 🗺️📚🚖🍎
Beautiful old books. Gorgeous old rooms. Manuscripts. Marginalia.

Highly recommend this space that felt sacred.

What other literary destinations should I be visiting on my travels?
⬇Put them in the comments below so I can plan my next trip.

The most powerful thing we can do for kids doesn’t come in a box.It comes in stories. 💙Reading to kids builds vocabulary...
08/14/2026

The most powerful thing we can do for kids doesn’t come in a box.
It comes in stories. 💙

Reading to kids builds vocabulary, sparks imagination, strengthens focus, and helps them understand the world and themselves.

It also builds something even more important: connection. Those stories you share today become memories they carry forever.

Reading levels are declining, but we can change that—one book, one bedtime story, one library trip at a time.

📚 Who read to you when you were little?
How did it shape your love of reading?
Share your memories in the comments. 👇

🔖 Save this post as a reminder to read with the kids in your life today.
➡️ Share this to inspire another parent, grandparent, or caregiver.

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