Book reading order recommendations

Hello,

I am a beginner/novice looking to increase my skills. I have several books I have purchased and others in my wishlist based on various lists I have viewed. I would like some help with a reading order. Other books I don't have on the list would be appreciated and any other tips for starting out are also welcome! 

Here is what I have so far:

Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess by Bruce Pandolfini (I am almost done with this one)

Weapons of Chess by Bruce Pandolfini

Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess by Bobby Fischer

Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev

The Amateur's Mind by Jeremy Silman

Complete Book of Chess Strategy by Jeremy Silman

The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev
Winning Chess by Irving Chernev

Silman's Complete Endgame Course by Jeremy Silman

Books on my wishlist:

Think Like a Grandmaster by Alexander Kotov

My System & Chess Praxis by Aron Nimzowitsch

How to Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman

Botvinnik: One Hundred Selected Games by Mikhail Botvinnik

My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer

Capablanca's Best Chess Endings by Irving Chernev

My Best Games of Chess: 1908 - 1937 by Alexander Alekhine

The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal by Mikhail Tal

Tal-Botvinnik 1960 by Mikhail Tal

Thank you in advance for any tips/suggestions you can provide! 

Missing from the list are books on tactics and I suggest Dan Heisman's Back to Basics: Tactics. Another highly regarded one is Yasser Seirawan's Winning Chess Tactics.  The latter one has been out a while and consequently you can often find a good to new copy for a few bucks plus $3.99 shipping from 3rd party sellers at Amazon.com.

Tactics should, by far, be where you concentrate your studies - and I mean STUDIES: don;t just read and think it will all sink in!  Note that there are several different ways that we learn and utilizing more than just one reinforces learning: so don't just read!  You can outline chapters, or you can write down a summary of the important things you learned in each chapter, and you can give yourself a one-minute speech about them to yourself. You can get out a real, physical chess set and go over games on it: that's kinesthetic learning.

 You should be, at the least, writing down a list of Tactical Motifs and being able to give yourself a complete verbal description of each one: a fantastic interactive list is here: http://chesstempo.com/tactical-motifs.html

You should be able to do the tactics problems here at chess.com or at chesstempo and KNOW what you call the tactics you use.  You should watch videos on tactics and patterns here or on YouTube - listening is another way to learn.

Thank you! As a middle school English teacher I definitely understand that it's important to vary learning strategies, so it was nice to get some new ways to learn to play chess.

I hope the books I have chosen are a good order to work with. That is the other concern I had. 

"... This book is the first volume in a series of manuals designed for players who are building the foundations of their chess knowledge. The reader will receive the necessary basic knowledge in six areas of the game - tactcs, positional play, strategy, the calculation of variations, the opening and the endgame. ... To make the book entertaining and varied, I have mixed up these different areas, ..." - GM Artur Yusupov (2010)

Even if one does not study from the Yusupov books, I think it makes sense to only study a little bit at a time in any one area. At an early stage, one wants to learn some tactics and some endgames, but, apart from that, I would say to read from the have-so-far books in whatever way feels comfortable. The wishlist seems to be all books that are more demanding.

Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1949) is a tactics book,
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf

but, of course, one can understandably suggest more.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140708233537/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review585.pdf

https://www.newinchess.com/Shop/Images/Pdfs/2722.pdf

http://seagaard.dk/review/eng/bo_beginner/ev_winning_chess.asp?KATID=BO&ID=BO-Beginner

At some point or other, one is likely to want to know more about openings, and Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms (2006) is a reasonable place to start.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf
One might also try Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014).
http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html
https://www.mongoosepress.com/excerpts/OpeningsForAmateurs%20sample.pdf

If I were you I'd probably read 1) Bobby Fischer teaches chess 2) Winning chess by Irving Chernev (haven't read this myself but you do want to get some tactics study in) 3) Amateur's Mind by Jeremy Silman 4) Silman's Complete Endgame Course 5) Logical Chess Move by move 6) The most instructive games of chess ever played. 

May want to switch the Amateur's Mind with some of the game compilations, since I'm not familiar with the difficulty level of the game compilations. 

This is all great information so far. I've made sure to add Back to Basics: Tactics, The Art of Checkmate, Modern Chess Strategy, Art of Attack in Chess, Discovering Chess Openings, Fundamental Chess Openings, Modern Chess Openings, Understanding Chess: Move by Move, and Zurich International Chess Tournament 1953. Don't worry, I am a big reader and stick with it when I plan to learn something new. The game compilations I have on my wishlist seem to be more advanced, but I'm curious which of them are more accessible than others. I think basic principles, tactics, endgame, openings, and middle game is a good idea? I'm not so sure there, as I see there are many that debate what order to focus on each topic. Perhaps I'm looking for some organization with what I have and are on my wishlist based on chess rating?

Skip Kotov for now.  It's too advanced for you.  That book is for players 2000+.

I would add Silman's Complete Endgame course to learn basic endgame.  The book is organized by what you need to know depending on what rating you are.  As a novice, you won't need to read the whole book, just the first few chapters on basic endgame.  As you get better, you read more 

I noticed that, I already bought it. nice to have a book that I can read in parts while moving through others.

My impression is that the above titles are somewhat more advanced than the books that you already have and some of the others that you listed about five hours ago. The above are almost all respected and likely to be helpful sooner or later if you keep at it. The one exception is Modern Chess Openings. I wonder if it is ever likely to be of much use to you. It has not been revised in about nine years, and, even back then, there were grumblings that it was not appropriately up to date. There is a slightly more recent Small ECO if you really want that sort of thing, but I suspect that, when you reach the point of wanting to be able to use such a reference, some sort of computer reference would be a better choice. Fundamental Chess Openings is a plausible choice for a reference for the post-beginner, but it is really a very different sort of book with much more space devoted to commentary.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140626165820/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen110.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627063241/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen145.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20140626173432/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen128.pdf

http://www.gambitbooks.com/pdfs/FCO_Fundamental_Chess_Openings.pdf

There is the forgotten book:  Chess The Easy Way by Reuben Fine.  The only drawback is it is in descriptive notation.  Still it is the best, most instructive book available.  Check out Amazon's reviews.

I am really just guessing, but I suspect that these are the most accessible of the game compilations on your wishlist.

Rather than getting a huge number of books consider researching the various books and selecting only a few that build on each other and address the various aspects of your game.

To a large extent, I would agree with the idea of concentrating on the have list, adding to it only as specific needs become apparent.

spudzero,

Chess is not only about studying books. You have to play long and rapid games. Blitzes and bullets are of almost no help. My friend went from zero to 1600-1700 in a couple of years’ time by playing rapid games. So it’s not a big deal.

I also saw your stats with tactics. Tactics is a good way to improve your game but you have to take your time. You are doing it the wrong way. The pass rate should be at least 60-70%, otherwise it is not efficient because you guess too much. You have to calculate more moves, to evaluate positions better, and to verify calculations mentally. GMs sometimes spend half an hour on one move! Don’t rush things or you won’t see the progress you want to see. Spend no less than one minute (or even two minutes) on your tactical problems. Do not rush things. Bullet chess brings almost no improvement! At the very beginning you have to play a lot of long games, and that’s the best way to improve.

 This is great to know. you are absolutely right. I'm treating this new venture as if I know almost nothing yet. I want to remain open minded about the whole process. Too many are stuck with what they want to believe. I shall remember to take my time.

For gaining insights into the bigger question, "how do I improve?" I'm reading Chess for Zebras, e.g.:

"aspiring players should place much more emphasis on developing their skill than increasing their knowledge. This means that chess work should be less focused on 'learning', and more about 'training' and 'practicing' whereby you force yourself to think."  Chess for Zebras, Rowson.

Also, for those kinds of insights, I think D. Heisman & J. Silman are gurus.