Title links to my diary, author links to amazon.
Non-fiction
This includes Teaching Company audio lecture series, since
they're about book-length.
- Against Intellectual Monopoly by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine
- Children of Prometheus: The Accelerating Pace of Human Evolution by Christopher Wills.
- Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations by Kenneth W. Harl
- Economics of the Public Sector by Sara Connolly, Alistair Munro.
- Backroom Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin by Francis Spufford
- Cnut: Emperor of the North by M. J. Trow
- How to Read a Novel: A User's Guide by John Sutherland
- The Political Brain by Drew Westen
- On Writing by Stephen King
- A History of Warfare by John Keegan
- Hiding the Elephant by Jim Steinmeyer
- Prone to Violence by Erin Pizzey
- Science Friction by Michael Shermer
- The Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney
- Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations by Brian M. Fagan
- Mary Seacole by Jane Robinson
- Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
- The Divided Self: Israel and the Jewish Psyche Today by David J. Goldberg
- The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus
- Line of Fire by Brian Paddick
- Practical Philosophy: The Greco-Roman Moralists by Luke Timothy Johnson
- Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
- Rights of Man: Great Thinkers and Great Movements by Paul Gordon Lauren
- A.D. 500: A Journey Through the Dark Isles of Britain and Ireland by Simon Young
- Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
- Who Runs Britain? by Robert Peston
- The Hottentot Venus: The Life and Death of Saartjie Baartman by Rachel Holmes
- From Jesus to Constantine: A History of Early Christianity by Bart D. Ehrman
- Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers by Kwame Anthony Appiah
- The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan
- A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine
- A Long Way Gone: The True Story of a Child Soldier by Ishmael Beah
- How to be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson
- American Revolution by Allen C. Guelzo
- Selected Works by Cicero
- God and Mankind: Comparative Religions by Robert Oden
- Dialogues and Letters by Seneca
- Sink the Belgrano by Mike Rossiter
- Art of Critical Decision Making by Michael A. Roberto
- Gallimaufry by Michael Quinion
- Autobiography by Bertrand Russell
- Noodling for Flatheads: Moonshine, Monster Catfish and Other Southern Comforts by Burkhard Bilger
- Buy, Sell and Move House by Kate Faulkner
- Stage-Land by Jerome K. Jerome
- Vikings by Kenneth W. Harl
- Apache Dawn: Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned by Damien Lewis
- Directing Plays by Don Taylor
- The Godwins: The Rise and Fall of a Noble Dynasty by Frank Barlow
- The Last Wrestlers by Marcus Trower
- Understanding the Fundamentals of Music by Robert Greenberg
- Lobscouse and Spotted Dog by Anne Grossman and Lisa Thomas
- The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow by Jerome K Jerome
- Failure to Quit by Howard Zinn
- Planet of Slums by Mike Davis
- Stoic Serenity by Keith Seddon
- The Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Lany
- Questions of Value by Patrick Grim
- English as a Global Language by David Crystal
- Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde
- Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik
- The Temporal Void by Peter F. Hamilton
- Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thomsom
- Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
- From a Buick 8 by Stephen King
- Lint by Steve Aylett
- The Gunslinger by Stephen King
- The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King
- The Waste Lands by Stephen King
- Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
- Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
- Song of Susannah by Stephen King
- The Dark Tower by Stephen King
- The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
- The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
- Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
- The Shadow Hunter by Pat Murphy
- The Last Colony by John Scalzi
- Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
- Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer
- Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
- The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
- Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo
- Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
- Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James Morrow
- Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch
- Flight by Sherman Alexie
- Transition by Iain Banks
- Flood by Stephen Baxter
- The Naming Of The Dead by Ian Rankin
- Exit Music by Ian Rankin
- Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen
- Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
- A Red Death by Walter Mosley
- We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
- The Hundred Days by Patrick O'Brian
- The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike
- Who Moved My Blackberry by Lucy Kellaway
- Blue at the Mizzen by Patrick O'Brian
- The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
- They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie
- The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
- The Girl on the Boat by P.G. Wodehouse
- Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
- The Solitude of Thomas Cave by Georgina Harding
- The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa
- The City and the City by China Mieville
- The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
- The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing
- The Coup by John Updike
- The Eagle's Conquest by Simon Scarrow
- The Damned United by David Peace
- The Cleft by Doris Lessing
- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
- Rabbit Remembered by John Updike
- The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Sciasci
- Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher
- Aya De Yopougon by Marguerite Abouet, Clement Oubrerie
- Birds of Prey: Dead of Winter by Gail Simone, Nicola Scott, Doug Hazlewood
- Whiteout by Greg Rucka, Steve Lieber
- Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen : Century 1910 by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons
- Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan
Non-comics overall numbers:

By type:
Bit down on last year, but still pretty high by historical standards.
Highlights
Non-fiction
Against Intellectual Monopoly
has a couple of flaws: it's a little strident
and a bit too dense to read easily.
However, the content is enough to make it the book of the year.
Written by actual economists it makes a powerful case, backed by extensive evidence,
that copyright and patent are economically and creatively harmful.
While that's widely believed, it's rare to see it so convincingly argued.
Also notable: John Keegan's impressively broad A History of Warfare, and modern stoic book A Guide to the Good Life.
SF
The Gone-Away World
is an entertaining, well-written debut post-apocalyptic novel.
Otherwise it's the usual suspects: Joe Abercrombie's
Best Served Cold
continues with his bloody action-packed dark humour.
Lowlight: made the mistake of struggling through to the end of Stephen King's Dark Tower series: gets worse with every book as it staggers towards a dire ending. Wherever you are, bail out now.
Other fiction
Sadly, finished Patrick O'Brian's superb Aubrey/Maturin series of sea novels,
but the last few aren't quite up to the early ones.
Doris Lessing's Eighties classic The Good Terrorist
was a great read.
Winter's Bone
has a great evocation of impoverished Appalachian life, and
The Damned United
was a fascinating psychological study.
Comics
Nothing of real note this year, apart from a re-read of Watchmen.
Well, that about wraps it up. See you in 2010!
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