Non-fiction

1. How to Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes
2. The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work by John Gottman, Nan Silver
3. When London Was Capital of America by Julie Flavell
4. Adventures in the Orgasmatron by Christopher Turner
5. Republic by Plato
6. The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
7. Plato, Socrates and the Dialogues by Michael Sugrue
8. The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker
9. Fall of the Pagans and the Origins of Medieval Christianity by Kenneth W. Harl
10. The Frock-Coated Communist by Tristram Hunt
11. From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp
12. Wild Grass by Ian Johnson
13. Logistics and Supply Chain Management by Martin Christopher
14. The Case for Books by Robert Darnton
15. Tabloid Girl by Sharon Marshall
16. The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism by Hamid Dabashi
17. State Building by Francis Fukuyama
18. Philosophic Pride: Stoicism and Political Thought from Lipsius to Rousseau by Christopher Brooke
19. Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser
20. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
21. Confessions of a Mullah Warrior by Masood Farivar
22. Dispirited by Davis Webster
23. Scroogenomics by Joel Waldfogel
24. Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
25. Discordia by Molly Crabapple, Laurie Penny
26. Superheroes by William Irwin
27. Meat Market by Laurie Penny

1. Snuff by Terry Pratchett
2. Side Jobs by Jim Butcher
3. The Glamour by Christopher Priest
4. Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge
5. Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds
6. The Quantum Thief by Hanny Rajaniemi
7. By Light Alone by Adam Roberts
8. Banner of Souls by Liz Williams
9. Embedded by Dan Abnett
10. The Minority Council by Kate Griffin
11. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
12. Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch
13. Chez Max by Jakob Arjouni
14. Salvage by Robert Edric
15. City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
16. Incompetence by Rob Grant
17. On the Beach by Nevil Shute
18. Wake by Robert Sawyer
19. Embassytown by China Mieville
20. The Rapture of the Nerds by Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow
21. Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

1. Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley
2. The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King
3. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
4. After Dark by Haruki Murakami
5. Chez Max by Jakob Arjouni
6. Seek My Face by John Updike
7. A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle
8. Madame Mephisto by A. M. Bakalar
9. Pure by Andrew Miller
10. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman
11. Oh, Play That Thing by Roddy Doyle
12. The Fear Index by Robert Harris
13. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

1. Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi
2. Habibi by Craig Thompson
3. Are You My Mother by Alison Bechdel

By type:

With a total of 71 non-comics, this is my second-lowest year: only read fewer in 2006. Not that much lower than 2004 and 2005 though, each of which had 73.

Highlights
Non-fiction
The gonzo-journalism-from-Greece book "Discordia" was a good concept that I hope catches on: an e-book somewhere between an essay and a book in both length and price. "Dispirited" was an attack on the spiritual-but-not-religious that unfortunately manages only the wrong half of the the trick: intermediate in length, but the price of a full-sized book. Stephen Pinker's "The Better Angels of our Nature" makes a fairly persuasive argument that things are getting better for the human race over the long term. "Triumph of the City" does the same for cities. "When London Was Capital of America" and the Engels biography "The Frock-Coated Communist" were interesting slices of history.

SF
"The Quantum Thief" was a great slice of modern science fiction with good ideas. "Embassytown" was SF with a nice retro feel. "On the Beach" deserves its reputation as a classic.

Non-SF fiction
"The Great Gatsby" also turned out to be surprisingly good for a classic. "Pure" was a memorable, atmospheric novel about excavating a graveyard in pre-revolutionary France.

Comics
Hardly read any comics, but "Habibi" was the definite highlight: sexy, compelling and brilliantly composed, though its blatant orientalizing will annoy some.

Well, that's about it for 2012. Hard to believe this marks ten years since I started in 2002. Will we still be here in 2022?