Your September 11 Reading List

The best books (and there are some great ones) about September 11.

One of the things I’ve discovered about myself, as I slowly morph into a middle-aged white man, is that my reading habits are starting to very closely resemble those of a middle-aged white man. There’s only one difference: Rather than reading books about World War II, I read books about September 11.

There are some truly great ones, and so many that I legitimately have a shelf of books that are just 9/11 books. The major events of September 11 took place over the span of just one morning — you can essentially break the morning up into five acts: First Plane Hits, Second Plane Hits, Pentagon Attack, First Tower Falls, Second Tower Falls — but the stories in its wake near the infinite, and that’s not even accounting for all the geopolitical aftereffects. The pandemic will end up being the most disorienting, ultimately ground-shifting incident of my lifetime, I suspect — someday my grandchildren will see me standing six feet apart from everyone else had a family reunion and whisper, “Grandpa lived through the pandemic” the way I used to say “Grandpa lived through the Depression” when my grandfather would save old bars of soap — but September 11 will forever be the most searing, kinetic and terrifying. It has been 20 years, but I still can’t quite wrap my head…