Non-fiction

1. What's It All About? Philosophy and the Meaning of Life by Julian Baggini
2. Civilisation by Kenneth Clark
3. Inside Out by Nick Mason
4. The Rebel Sell by Joseph Heath, Andrew Potter
5. The Harem Within by Fatima Mernissi
6. Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton
7. The Fall of the Roman Republic by David Shotter
8. The Know-it-All by A.J. Jacobs
9. History of Ancient Rome by Garrett G. Fagan
10. As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela by Mark Thomas
11. Warfighting: The US Marine Corps Book of Strategy by U. S. Marine Corps Staff
12. Voltaire and the Triumph of the Enlightenment by Alan Charles Kors
13. The New Critical Idiom : Science Fiction by Adam Roberts
14. Economics by Timothy Taylor
15. Early Middle Ages by Philip Daileader
16. Fiddlers and Whores: The Candid Memoirs of a Surgeon in Nelson's Fleet by James Lowry
17. Revolutions in the Earth: James Hutton and the True Age of the World by Stephen Baxter
18. Salaam Brick Lane: A Year in the New East End by Tarquin Hall
19. The Motion of Light in Water by Samuel R. Delany
20. Peoples and Cultures of the World by Edward Fischer
21. Renoir, Paris and the Belle Epoque by Karin Sagner-Duchting
22. High Middle Ages by Philip Daileader
23. Is anyone really normal? Perspectives on Abnormal Psychology by Drew Western
24. God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution by John Haught
25. The Age of Consent by George Monbiot
26. Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Rise of Nations by Andrew C. Fix
27. Power over People: Classical and Modern Political Theory by Dennis Dalton
28. Holland by Adam Hopkins
29. Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz
30. Europe and Western Civilization in the Modern Age by Thomas Childers
31. Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard
32. Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by Richard Layard
33. The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph A. Tainter
34. From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History by Kenneth J. Hammond
35. The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace by Ali A. Allawi
36. Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning by David Zarefsky
37. Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Roy Jenkins
38. Jarhead by Anthony Swofford
39. Affluenza by Oliver James
40. Great Ideas of Psychology by Daniel N. Robinson
41. History of the U.S. Economy in the 20th Century by Timothy Taylor
42. Swords and Ploughshares: Bringing Peace to the 21st Century by Paddy Ashdown
43. A History of Capitalism: 1500-2000 by Michel Beaud
44. African Experience: From "Lucy" to Mandela by Kenneth P. Vickery
45. The Rough Guide to Belgium and Luxembourg by Martin Dunford,Phil Lee
46. Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

1. The Zero Stone by Andre Norton
2. Adventures in Time and Space with Max Merriwell by Pat Murphy
3. The Godwhale by T. J. Bass
4. The Family Trade by Charles Stross
5. Toward the End of Time by John Updike
6. The Hidden Family by Charles Stross
7. The Clan Corporate by Charles Stross
8. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
9. Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton
10. Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton
11. Air by Geoff Ryman
12. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
13. Glasshouse by Charles Stross
14. Emperor by Stephen Baxter
15. The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds
16. Three Days to Never by Tim Powers
17. Storm Front by Jim Butcher
18. Conqueror by Stephen Baxter
19. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
20. Summer Knight by Jim Butcher
21. Death Masks by Jim Butcher
22. Blood Rites by Jim Butcher
23. Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
24. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
25. Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher
26. White Night by Jim Butcher
27. The Modern World by Steph Swainston
28. Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb
29. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
30. The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Micahel Chabon
31. The Golden Fool by Robin Hobb
32. Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb
33. Cell by Stephen King

1. Headcrusher by Alexander Garros, Aleksei Evdokimov
2. Shadow Without a Name by Ignacio Padilla
3. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
4. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
5. Terrorist by John Updike
6. Captain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
7. Rabbit is Rich by John Updike
8. The Legend of the Holy Drinker by Joseph Roth
9. The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks
10. Saturday by Ian McEwan
11. Weight by Jeanette Winterson
12. Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
13. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
14. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
15. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
16. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
17. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
18. War Trash by Ha Jin
19. Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks
20. Imperium by Robert Harris
21. The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian
22. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
23. Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian
24. These Foolish Things by Deborah Moggach

1. Little Nemo by Winsor McCay
2. Batman: As the Crow Flies by Judd Winick, Dustin Nguyen, Richard Friend
3. Ex Machina: the First Hundred Days by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris
4. The Flash: Crossfire by Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins
5. Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima vol 1 by Keiji Nakazawa
6. A Right to be Hostile by Aaron McGruder
7. Superman: Infinite Crisis by Joe Kelly etc
8. Vimanarama by Grant Morrison
9. Barefoot Gen: The Day After vol. 2 by Keiji Nakazawa
10. Judgment Day by Alan Moore, Rob Liefeld
11. Alan Moore's Tomorrow Stories: Bk. 2 by Alan Moore
12. Terra Obscura vol. 2 by Alan Moore
13. Barefoot Gen: Life After the Bomb vol 3 by Keiji Nakazawa
14. American Splendor: Another Day by Harvey Pekar
15. Future Shocks by Alan Moore
16. Batman: Year 100 by Paul Pope
17. 300 by Frank Miller

By type:

In a stunning reversal, overall numbers are up this year, at least if you count Teaching Company lecture courses as books.

Highlights
Non-fiction. Two books stand out here. "The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace by" Ali A. Allawi explains what went wrong in painstaking detail. Not brilliantly written but coming from an Iraqi interim government minister it's very much an inside account. "Swords and Ploughshares: Bringing Peace to the 21st Century" is a much les depressing book by the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Paddy Ashdown. This is almost a practictioners guide for how to do, or not do, humanitarian interventions.

SF. The "Dresden Files" detective/contemporary fantasy novels by Jim Butcher had a bit of a lacklustre beginning in "Storm Front", but pick up the pace to become a great example of how to write a good fantasy series. Each book has a satisfying self-contained plot and ending, but there are also longer storylines woven through the series: a very difficult trick to pull off. Also has a very carefully-built world and a fast pace. Well worth a look: this is the kind of crossover that's hard to do and you rarely see done this well.

Best SF novel was "Air" by Geoff Ryman. Though it came out few years back, before the Mundane SF manifesto, this book encapsulates its best points: realism, believable characters and relationships, but still with a sense of wonder.

Mainstream fiction. An unoriginal choice, but "Saturday" by Ian McEwan has to be the winner there. A one-day novel, blending a slice of life with dramatic events, robust but very well-written. Other good ones: Sarah Waters gritty WW2 lesbian novel "The Night Watch" and the tense "Terrorist" by John Updike.

Comics. "Barefoot Gen", the semi-autobiographical Hiroshima survivor's story is compelling, though not exactly an easy read with betrayal coming from all sides.

Well, that's all, folks. See you next year!