What Dad Read

What Dad Read

From Tell Me About Your Father by Erin Hosier, Elizabeth Thompson & Matthew Phillp

April 10, 2026 · 41 min

About this episode

Marci reminisces about her father Dan Pelzer's extensive reading life and the impact of his handwritten book list.

By the time Dan Pelzer died last year at the age of 92, he'd accomplished many admirable things. Over the decades, he'd worked as a Marine, a Peace Corp volunteer in Nepal, a seminary student, a passionate campaigner for Jesse Jackson's presidential run in the 80s, a security guard, and as a beloved social worker for incarcerated juvenile delinquents in Columbus, Ohio. Dan was a loving husband to his wife of 52 years, Mary Lou, a hands-on father to their kids Marci and John and his grandchildren, and an engaged member of the community, where he regularly volunteered to feed the hungry. A life well lived by all accounts. But there was something else notable about Dan's life: between the years pf 1962 and 2023, he kept a handwritten record of every book he read, stopping at the very end of that year, a list totaling 3,599 titles of every possible genre, from the pop science classic Rats, Lice and History (1935), to contemporary memoirs by Sinead O'Connor and Jennette McCurdy, and every novel by his beloved John Grisham since A Time to Kill . On this episode, Dan's daughter Marci reminisces with Erin about reading Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow with her father…

People in this episode

Host: Erin

Guest: Marci

Topics covered

  • literature
  • father-daughter relationship
  • reading habits
  • life stories
  • community service

Keywords

  • Dan Pelzer
  • reading
  • book list
  • father
  • literature
  • Marci
  • Erin
  • community service
  • life stories

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow, Rats, Lice and History

More episodes of Tell Me About Your Father

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Tell Me About Your Father podcast page.