Order of Book Series
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Tim O’Brien Books in Order

Tim O’Brien has written 17 books, published between 1973 and 2023. The first book is If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home (1973) and the newest is America Fantastica (2023). Publication order is the reading order below.

Books
17
Published
1973–2023
Pages on record
3,431 in 12 of 17 books
Reading time
57–86 hours

Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 3,431 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 12 of 17 titles with a page count on record.

See all 17 books in order Printable Tim O’Brien checklist
Photo of Tim O’Brien, author

Tim O'Brien served as a soldier in Vietnam, and the war runs through most of what he has written. The Things They Carried (1990), a set of linked semi-autobiographical stories, is his best known book; Going After Cacciato (1978) took the National Book Award. His first title, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home (1973), is a personal narrative of the war, and the later fiction turns to the postwar lives of veterans. 17 books are catalogued, the most recent America Fantastica (2023).

How many Tim O’Brien books are there?

Tim O’Brien has 17 books, released between 1973 and 2023.

Tim O’Brien Books in Publication Order

The table lists all 17 Tim O’Brien books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.

  1. Cover of If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home by Tim O’Brien (1973)
  2. Cover of Northern Lights by Tim O’Brien (1975)
  3. Cover of Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien (1978)
  4. Cover of The Nuclear Age by Tim O’Brien (1985)
  5. Cover of In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien (1994)
  6. Cover of July, July by Tim O’Brien (2002)
  7. Cover of Dick Kinzel by Tim O’Brien (2015)
  8. Cover of Dad's Maybe Book by Tim O’Brien (2019)
  9. Cover of Tim O'Brien's Roadside Pics & Picks by Tim O’Brien (2020)
  10. Cover of America Fantastica by Tim O’Brien (2023)
  1. 1
    If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home1973 · 209 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1973209
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  2. 2
    Northern Lights1975 · 360 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1975360
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  3. 3
    Going After Cacciato1978 · 338 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1978338
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  4. 4
    The Nuclear Age1985 · 320 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1985320
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  5. 5
    The Things They Carried1990 · 233 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1990233
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  6. 6
    In the Lake of the Woods1994 · 303 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1994303
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  7. 7
    Tomcat in Love1998 · confirmed 1/4
    1998–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  8. 8
    July, July2002 · 306 pages · confirmed 1/4
    2002306
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  9. 9
    The Things They Carried - Levels of Understanding2012 · confirmed 1/4
    2012–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  10. 10
    Dick Kinzel2015 · 124 pages · confirmed 1/4
    2015124
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  11. 11
    Inner Story2015 · 234 pages · confirmed 1/4
    2015234
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  12. 12
    Ripley's Believe It or Not! Baseball Oddities & Trivia - Ball Two!2016 · confirmed 1/4
    2016–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  13. 13
    Buzz Stories at Thirty Thousand Feet2018 · confirmed 1/4
    2018–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  14. 14
    Dad's Maybe Book2019 · 381 pages · confirmed 1/4
    2019381
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  15. 15
    Tim O'Brien's Roadside Pics & Picks2020 · 174 pages · confirmed 1/4
    2020174
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  16. 16
    Ripley's Believe It or Not! Amusement Park Oddities & Trivia2020 · confirmed 1/4
    2020–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  17. 17
    America Fantastica2023 · 449 pages · confirmed 1/4
    2023449
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK

Tim O’Brien books grouped by series

Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.

Standalone books

17 books

17 Tim O’Brien titles here are not listed as part of any series.

Do you have to read Tim O’Brien books in order?

No. No source lists any of the 17 Tim O’Brien books here as part of a series. The numbered table above gives them by publication date.

Where to start with Tim O’Brien

Start with If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home (1973), the earliest published title.

What is the newest Tim O’Brien book?

America Fantastica (2023) is the newest Tim O’Brien book released so far.

Is there a new Tim O’Brien book coming?

No next Tim O’Brien book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.

Awards Tim O’Brien has won

Wikidata records 3 awards for Tim O’Brien. Each row states whether the title won or was shortlisted, and the year the award was given.

Tim O’Brien at a glance

Paused
No new Tim O’Brien title has appeared for 3 years. The last was published in 2023.
Release pace
Tim O’Brien books have appeared about one every 3 years on average.
Length
3,431 pages across the 12 of 17 books with a recorded length, a median of 304 pages each.
Busiest decade
Most Tim O’Brien books, 6 of 17, were published in the 2010s.

What the Tim O’Brien books are about

10 of the 17 Tim O’Brien books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: vietnamese conflict, 1961-1975 is tagged on 3 of 10. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.