Title links to my diary, author links to amazon.
Non-fiction
This includes Teaching Company audio lecture series, since
they're about book-length.
- The Dialogues of Plato by Plato
- Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs: (She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whorehouse) by Paul Carter
- The Smoking Diaries by Simon Gray
- London's Docks by John Pudney
- Age of Pericles by Jeremy McInerney
- Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age by Jeremy McInerney
- The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks
- Biological Anthropology: An Evolutionary Perspective by Barbara J. King
- The Year of the Jouncer by Simon Gray
- Tolkien's Gown and Other Stories of Famous Authors and Rare Books by R.A. Gekoski
- Modern British Drama by Peter Saccio
- The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World by Carlos Fuentes
- The Islamist by Ed Husain
- Story of Human Language by John McWhorter
- Sociolinguistics by Peter Trudgill
- Panic Nation by Stanley Feldman
- A History of Negro Revolt by C. L. R. James
- Rise and Fall of Soviet Communism by Gary M. Hamburg
- Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn
- A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
- Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni
- Philosophy and Religion in the West by Phillip Cary
- Explaining Social Deviance by Paul Root Wolpe
- Squaddie by Steven McLaughlin
- Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies by Peter Saccio
- The Pirate Wars by Peter Earle
- Soul and the City: Art, Literature, and Urban Living by Arnold Weinstein
- The Manhattan Project: Big Science and the Atom Bomb by Jeff Hughes
- War, Peace, and Power: Diplomatic History of Europe, 1500-2000 by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius
- Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Crosses the Line by Sudhir Venkatesh
- Great Battles of the Ancient World by Garrett G. Fagan
- Legacies of Great Economists by Timothy Taylor
- How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic by Madsen Pirie
- Biology and Human Behavior: The Neurological Origins of Individuality by Robert Sapolsky
- Mind the Gap: The New Class Divide in Britain by Ferdinand Mount
- Conquest of the Americas by Marshall C. Eakin
- How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
- Aeons: The Search for the Beginning of Time by Martin Gorst
- Understanding Genetics: DNA, Genes, and Their Real-World Applications by David Sadava
- On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, David Kessler
- Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard
- The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
- The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900 by David Edgerton
- America's Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between America and Its Enemies by George Friedman
- Classical Mythology by Elizabeth Vandiver
- Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman by Frances Stonor Saunders
- Passions: Philosophy and the Intelligence of Emotions by Robert C. Solomon
- Terror of History: Mystics, Heretics, and Witches in the Western Tradition by Teofilo F. Ruiz
- Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes and Make-believe Violence by Gerard Jones
- The Chancellors' Tales: Managing the British Economy by Howard Davies
- History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts by Robert Bucholz
- The New Paradigm for Financial Markets by George Soros
- Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
- Never Eat Your Heart Out by Judith Moore
- Rome and the Barbarians by Kenneth W. Harl
- Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer's Craft by Brooks Landon
- Rabbit-proof Fence by Doris Pilkington
- The Myth of Mars and Venus by Deborah Cameron
- Religions of the Axial Age: An Approach to the World's Religions by Mark W. Muesse
- The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell
- How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard
- NHS plc by Allyson M Pollock,
- Great Philosophical Debates: Free Will and Determinism by Shaun Nichols
- Making Money by Terry Pratchett
- The Line of Polity by Neal Asher
- Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett
- Fatal Revenant by Stephen R. Donaldson
- The Green Millenium by Fritz Leiber
- The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross
- The Book of Dave by Will Self
- Devices and Desires by K.J. Parker
- The Merchants' War by Charles Stross
- The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson
- Evil for Evil by K.J. Parker
- The Escapement by K.J. Parker
- The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross
- The H-Bomb Girl by Stephen Baxter
- Dead Brigade by James Lovegrove
- Matter by Iain M. Banks
- World War Z by Max Brooks
- Shadow by K.J. Parker
- Pattern by K.J. Parker
- Memory by K.J. Parker
- Halting State by Charles Stross
- Small Favour by Jim Butcher
- Colours in the Steel by K.J. Parker
- The Belly of the Bow by K.J. Parker
- The Proof House by K.J. Parker
- House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
- Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson
- The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
- Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
- Last Argument Of Kings by Joe Abercrombie
- Incandescence by Greg Egan
- Temeraire by Naomi Novik
- Land of the Headless by Adam Roberts
- The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton
- Galactic North by Alastair Reynolds
- Old Man's War by John Scalzi
- I Married a Communist by Philip Roth
- Baudolino by Umberto Eco
- The King's Last Song by Geoff Ryman
- American Pastoral by Philip Roth
- A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
- The Surgeon's Mate by Patrick O'Brian
- The Ionian Mission by Patrick O'Brian
- The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
- Treason's Harbour by Patrick O'Brian
- True Grit by Charles Portis
- Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
- Hide And Seek by Ian Rankin
- The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
- A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin
- Warlock by Oakley Hall
- Tooth and Nail by Ian Rankin
- Fallon by Louis L'Amour
- Strip Jack by Ian Rankin
- The Reverse of the Medal by Patrick O'Brian
- The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists by Gideon Defoe
- The Black Book by Ian Rankin
- Rivers West by Louis L'Amour
- The Letter of Marque by Patrick O'Brian
- Mortal Causes by Ian Rankin
- Let It Bleed by Ian Rankin
- The Thirteen-gun Salute by Patrick O'Brian
- Black and Blue by Ian Rankin
- Tales From Ovid by Ted Hughes
- The Nutmeg of Consolation by Patrick O'Brian
- The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin
- The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
- Clarissa Oakes by Patrick O'Brian
- Dead Souls by Ian Rankin
- The Commodore by Patrick O'Brian
- Set in Darkness by Ian Rankin
- The Yellow Admiral by Patrick O'Brian
- The Falls by Ian Rankin
- Resurrection Men by Ian Rankin
- A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin
- Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin
- Cancer Vixen by Marisa Acocella Marchetto
- Catwoman: It's Only a Movie by Will Pfeifer
- The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar
- NYC Mech: Let's Electrify by Ivan Brandon and Miles Gunter
- Terra Obscura by Alan Moore and Peter Hogan
- Tom Strong Book Seven by Michael Moorcock
- Batman: Gotham by Gaslight by Brian Augustyn, Mike Mignola
- The Plot: The Secret Story of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion' by Will Eisner
- Shooting War by Anthony Lappe, Dan Goldman
Non-comics overall numbers:
By type:
Numbers are up again. Not sure why: probably because of audiobooks, some long but light series, and I didn't do much re-reading.
I could potentially split out Teaching Company courses apart from non-fiction, but I suspect I won't keep on with many of them in the long term.
Highlights
Non-fiction
Lots of good stuff this year
Playwright Simon Gray's diaries
"The Smoking Diaries" and "The Year of the Jouncer": shame
he died this year.
"Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Crosses the Line" by Sudhir Venkatesh
took a fascinating look inside the gang culture of Chicago.
The Teaching Company course
"Great Battles of the Ancient World" by Garrett G. Fagan was great stuff.
"The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900" by David Edgerton took
a nicely counterintuitive look at the creeping process of technological change.
And "The Myth of Mars and Venus" Deborah Cameron deftly punctured some popular myths.
SF
A lacklustre performance from the science fiction guys left the fantasy crew
to pick up the slack.
"The Engineer Trilogy" by K.J. Parker was a superb, grittier and more realistic
kind of fantasy. Joe Abercrombie's "First Law" trilogy was fun too.
And Stephen R. Donaldson kicked the new Thomas Covenant series into high
gear with "Fatal Revenant".
Charles Stross and Greg Egan: try harder next time.
Other fiction
"True Grit" by Charles Portis was both funny and brilliantly observed
character study: definitely a classic.
"Tales From Ovid" by Ted Hughes isn't just a translation, but a wonderful original work of poetry in its own right.
Also trundled through a lot of the high quality "Rebus" detective novels by Ian Rankin, and got a lot further through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books.
Enoyed "I Married a Communist" by Philip Roth but ran out of love for his other books. "The Golden Notebook" by Doris Lessing is a tough read but a deserved classic.
Comics
Read very few this year. The seventh "Tom Strong" book rounded
off the series nicely, but read nothing really great in 2008.
That's all for now. See you in 2009!
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