A year ago...

[davywavy]

This time last year, as a bit of an intellectual exercise, I posted a list of everything I could remember reading in 2009. I'd been worrying that I spent too much time blowing away pixellated villains in artifical worlds and not enough time with my nose buried in a book, and the evidence suggested that I was right. Back in 2001, the last time I ran an exercise like that, I'd churned my way through over 100 books. Last year, I managed about 50.

"I must do better", I said to myself.

So my New Year Resolution for 2010 was a minimum of one book a week and here's the list for last year. I managed it, but by crikey I didn't half read some tosh doing it:



Agatha Christie
Come, tell me how you live

Fritz Leiber
Swords and Deviltry
Swords against Death

Peter Earle
The Pirate Wars

Richard Wiseman
Quirkology

Daniel Wilson
Where’s my jetpack?

Tove Jannsen
Moominpapa at Sea

Lars Tvede
Supertrends

Robert Louis Stevenson
Kidnapped

Clifford D Simak
Why call them back from heaven

Richard Hammond
On the Edge

Pittacus Lore
I am Number Four

Ben MacIntyre
The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, the Real Moriarty

Terry Nation
Rebeccas World: Journey to the forbidden planet

Joe Navarro
What everybody is saying

Richard Wiseman
:59 Seconds

Alexandre Dumas
The Black Tulip

Merlin Coverley
Occult London

Warren Buffett
On Business

Peter Hoffman
The Left Hand of God

Boris Akunin
Pelagia and the Black Monk
The Coronation
Pelagia and the Red Rooster

John Henry
Knowledge is Power

China Mieville
The City and The City

Elias Lonnrot
The Kalevala

Peter Kelly
The True History of the Kelly Gang

Tracy Chavalier
Remarkable Creatures.

Adam Neville
Apartment 16

Bill Bryson
Neither Here nor There.
The Lost Continent
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Susannah Clarke
The ladies of grace adieu.

Jake Adelmann
Tokyo Vice

Harry Harrison
Starworld
Deathworld
Planet of the damned
Planet of no return

Peter Ackroyd
The Death of King Arthur

Karl Baedecker
London 1923

Terry Pratchett
Unseen Academicals
Strata

RJ Frith
The Nemesis List

HP Lovecraft
At the mountains of madness and other stories (Omnibus edition)
The Curse of Yig and other stories (With Zealia Bishop)

Arturo Perez-Reverte
The King’s Gold
The Man in the Yellow Doublet

Morgan Downey
Oil 101

Livy
The early history of Rome (Books 1-5)

Plutarch
The makers of Rome

Neil Steinberg
Hatless Jack: The President, the Fedora, and the death of the hat.

William Ryan
The Holy Theif

Scott Lynch
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Red Seas under red skies

Murusashi Shibiku
The diary of Lady Murasashi

Kathleen Taylor
Brainwashing: The science of thought control.

Daisy Ashford
The Young Visiters

Anita Loos
Gentlemen prefer Blondes
But gentlemen marry brunettes



So, my new Year Resolution this year is to read more stuff that isn't tosh. I'm open to suggestions for stuff which will make my brain bigger and generally be dead interleckchewal, like. Any suggestions?

Comments

[colliedlight.livejournal.com]

I've almost given up on books for documentaries to be honest. But this seems like a good project!

You could start with the Harvard Classics/Yale curriculum

How were these?

Alexandre Dumas
The Black Tulip

Terry Pratchett
Unseen Academicals
Strata

Neil Steinberg
Hatless Jack: The President, the Fedora, and the death of the hat.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Balck Tulip.

Dumas' last book, and a bit of lightweight fluff from him to pay a large bill, I believe. Entertaining enough, but if you're looking for a swashbuckling romp I suggest the Arturo Perex-Reverte Captain Alatriste books instead.

Unseen Academicals

You know how terry has alzheimers? Alas, you can tell. His worst book ever by a long chalk, and tremendously upsetting to read as he's plainly losing it as the book goes on.

Strata

Comprehensively takes the piss out of Larry Niven's Ringworld, and also provided the initial inspiration for the Discworld.

Hatless Jack

An interesting bit of social history. Well researched, passes the time, but thinks it's cleverer than it is.