Ed's 2009 Reading List

Just come across this group and thought I'd give it a go - it's been a quite few days to start the year so I'm already 3 and bit in:-
1) Dark Fire, CJ Sansom
2) Revelation, CJ Sansom
Bit of a common theme here following up on some of mum's recommendations at Christmas.
3) The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman

Welcome to the group, Ed!

I read The Graveyard Book in December and enjoyed it quite a bit. I will be interested in seeing your take on it.

Unfortunately, the CJ Sansom books are sitting at my house woefully neglected. One of these days I will actually get to them!

The Graveyard Book was a good one, but not as good as I'd hoped - what I've liked about Gaiman's other stuff that I've read was that I always ended up knowing pretty much how the introduced weirdness worked - with this one there was too much that seemed to be "because it is": why does Bod loose his powers, why are the Jacks so keen to kill him given that this loss was on the verge of happenning (the dead seem to have been expecting it) etc. I'm guessing that it's partly a case of being aimed at a younger audience than the likes of Neverwhere or American Gods but now that I come to think about it I have growing sense of a-sequel-to-come.

The Sansom books were good page turners and I'll definitely be reading more of his stuff in the future.

In the mean time...
4) Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss

Howdy! Good to see you here.

5) The Origin of Species came next because there seems to have been a deficiency in the factual recently. Quite stunning in its way - but surely in need of an update in the light of genetics, DNA and plate techtonics. Not that the conclusions need to be changed, just that te argument becomes easier. That said, in the absence of knowledge on those points: that's what makes for the stunning.

edrandrew: I'm in the middle of reading The Origin of Species myself, and I agree so far that it is stunning. I believe Darwin is one of the few *actual* geniuses (a word that gets misused way too often, I think).

I have that book on my tbr. Sounds like a good one.
--BJ

6) The Uncommon Reader A nice little quick read after plugging my way through The Origin of Species. A nice little idea, with a good twist at the tail and some interesting thoughts on the effects of reading. Maybe I'll revisit it as a source for later in the year. Meanewhile Foucault's Pendulum has been started and The Yellow Cross is still grinding slowly away in the background.

7) Foucault's Pendulum now finished - but I can't say I was that impressed by it. I know that it cam first, but it was just too similar to the Da Vinci Code: yes less running around, but the same process of putting together a picture, getting into danger and the same apparently helpful but actually dangerous old bloke. No, not one I'm likely to read again.

hello and welcome.

I'm a carryover from the 2008 75 book challenge group. Through this group I discovered many wonderful books -- and people.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is one that I keep trying to obtain from various libraries but thus far have not been all that lucky. My conclusion is that it must be a very popular and well read book.

>9 edrandrew: Thanks for that! Sorry you had to read it, but I'm grateful for the warning ;->

#9-- at least you were able to finish Foucaults's Pendulum. In my RL book club it's the #1 book that most of us have started to read, sometimes numerous starts, and never finished.

#12: I have yet to be able to finish a single one of Eco's books. I have tried The Name of the Rose, Foucalt's Pendulum and Baudolino, but have not finished one yet. I guess he is just over my head or something.

I really enjoyed The Name of the Rose. That's what made me try his other books -- none of which I was able to get into. His book Travels in Hyperreality is the only book I have ever thrown in the garbage. I've decided I must not be smart enough to get him.

I read The Name of the Rose many years ago, probably shortly after it came out in the US, and enjoyed it. But I wish I had had some of the reference books that someone in this group had when I read it. I haven't tried any of his other ones.

ETA it may have helped to have the Church Latin as a background.

8) Dissolution now completed. So 3 of the 4 Shardlakes read. Another good one.
9) The Black Swan also (I've been getting a bit out of date here as these were both finished a few days ago).

The Yellow Cross continues to grind slowly in the background and My Father's Country is at about the half way point. I think I need to speed up a bit (or put in a few shorter books) if I'm going to hit 75 by the end of the year.

The number isn't impt -- at least most of us aren't here because of that, but rather because we enjoy reading/discussing with the folks who are in the group. I think this is definitely one of those occassions when quality is more important than quantity :) Ah I see you read a different Black Swan -- those titles sure can get confusing. Cheers.

Yeah, pain in the *&^% when two authors use the same name for their books. This one's economics and why bankers get things wrong. Not sure what thre other(s) look at but it might make for an interesting reading list - a dozen books with the same name. I'll put that one on the back burner for the moment.

As for the numbers - no, I'm not driven by those - but each book's different and a dozen different books give you a dozen different view on the world. True, the right book can make all the difference and give more insight that several"ordinary" ones, but if you never open the right one, you'll never realise that you've missed it.

10) my father's country is now added to the list and that was a cracker. On several different levels - the german constitutional history, the family history, the company history... Probably the most outstanding part s the author's attempt to get inside her father's head and understand the whys. Not particularoly successful at that, but that in itself is a fascinating demonstration of the cultural gulf between pre and post second world war Germans. It's actually stuck two books that I've had for many years back onto my reading list - Three men on the Bummel and I Flew for the Fuhrer the former dealing with the Wilhelmine period that the first part of My Father's Country concentrates on, the latter covering the war years. That I've already read these (both) several time may seem to contradict my point above - but that was over a decade ago in both cases and I'm not the same person that I was then: maybe I'll see them differently, or judge the important points to be other now than I did then.

It's interesting to do re-reads several years removed.

Thx for the good reports :)

> 18

Interesting comments on My Father's Country. I've had my eye on this since finishing The Himmler Brothers earlier this month. Having leafed through the book a couple of times I couldn't help but notice the occasional snipes the author takes at her parents, which put me off a little. What was your reaction?

re #20: She does. I think it's more a matter of simply failing to understand how they viewed things. I can't remember who said that the past is another country - but I think that's the case here. I dare say that post war there was quite a bit of what might be called brain washing about the period of Nazi government and it wouldn't be too much to expect someone who was 7 in 1945 to get a full dose of that and have difficulty getting into her parent's heads when neither of them are still around. There are other instances in dealing with her grandparents where the same lack of comprehension surfaces. So, don't let it put you off - see it as the honesty of a biographer admitting that they just can't get inside their subject's head rather than a child taking an unreasonable pop at their parents.

11) Bored of the Rings came next as I fancied something a bit lighter and it's probably 20 years since I last opened it. A much better parody than I recalled it - probably because I was able to spot a lot more of the puns and realise that it wasn't just poking fun at Tolkein's world.

12) The Yellow Cross finished at last. The first 300 pages or so I found hard going as a cross between highly detailed local history and soap opera; the last hundred or so things speeded up and got a bit more interesting as they became wider ranging. This is NOT a good book as an introduction to Catharism and how it was suppressed: if you're interested in the fine detail or the history of that part of France/Spain that it covers then doubtless very good especially if you want detail to flesh out a general knowledge on the matter. But if, like me, you wanted a more general introduction to the subject it is not the place to start.

13) Parkinson's Law followed, prompted by the appearance of a bunch of consultant types at work to "review" things. What I hadn't noticed before was how spurious his formulae are, but the book remains as entertaining and relevant as ever.

It sounds, Ed, as though I had better put Bored of the Rings on my TBR list sometime in the future--I read it 39 years ago when it came out and I was a callow kid entranced with Tolkien. If there is that much more in it than what I undoubtedly "got" back then, and I wouldn't have been looking beyond the LOTR stuff, then I should probably get my old copy out and look at it eventually.

But right now I've got way too much unread stuff on my pile here. Like The Name of the Wind, your number 4 book, which you simply mention but don't ever comment on. It is sitting there until the second book comes out this year in case I need to have a sequel. What did you think of it?

I know the feeling of the to-be-read pile - you finish one book and find that to more have crept onto it. It's the curse of groups like this that you keep finding other people puttin things onto the pile as well! At least Bored of the Rings is a short one.

As for Name of the Wind I was in two minds about it. There were some nicely worked out ideas on the subject of magic (and other things) but it was too long: most if not ll "episodes" in it could have done with being a few pages shorter to keep it moving. There's also the problem of the story being told in flashback - you know where it will get to. I'll be reading the second book but with some concerns. Hopefully that will bring the story into real time and the third part will be what happens next. That's assuming that Rothfuss doesn't do a Douglas Adams and throw us a four part trilogy!

14) Dissolution to complete my out-of-sequence trawl through the Shardlake series. Another good one and difficult to say what fits in where. The comparissons to Name of the Rose mean that despite my poor views on Foucault's Pendulum, I'll probably be hitting that before too long.

15) Freakonomics then followed and whilst OK I wouldn't call it the best of the sort. The Undercover Economist did a better job of the same sort of subject matter but this gave some interesting insights into the USA that you don't often get in southern England. And that gets me to a fifth of the target for the year.

16) PopCo came next - I'd liked The End of Mr Y when I read it a year or two ago, so when this appeared on a 3-for-2 deal it went into my collection. A good read with the various timelines working together and some interesting bits on the way creative businesses work - of course how much is "straight" and how much is parodying it given the way the plot develops is another thing. You could even argue the last lurch of the plot as being arguably prescient of the current banking crisis if you felt a desire towards conspiracy theories. In short, Nice One.

17) The Gargoyle is not one that I'd have chosen all other things being equal - but it was a (near) freebie when I bought several others, so why not? As it happens I was pleasantly surprised, and pleased that the fundamental question of the plot was left unanswered as any attempt to answer it would only mean a lot of complicated detail. It isn't the truth that matters, but what people believe the truth to be: that goes for the characters of the book as it does in so many things.

>27 edrandrew: That's the best, "better than expected" that is -- glad it turned out that way.

18) The Mapmakers' Quest was one that I came across while browsing through a second hand bookshop just down the road. A nice run through of developments in mapping from the middle ages to the 18th centuary. This is coming more from the aspect of the social (or in the case of th bit on military maps I suppose you could argue anti-social) drivers rather than the technical aspect that I would probably have found more interesting. Nevertheless, informative and well illustrated and a nice well worthwhile.

#29: I will look for that one. I read a good book on mapmaking last year, The Story of Maps by Lloyd Brown, that I would recommend if the subject is of interest to you. I can also recommend The Island of Lost Maps, although that one is about the theft of antique maps, not the making of maps.

19) Honest to God as what passes for some Lenten study. Strange - from what I'd heard of it and the other stuff by the same author (wasn't it him that Douglas Adams parodied with the Oolon Colluphid's "Who is this God Person Anyway). Anyhow, I was expecting something that I disagreed with and instead found something that was eerily close to my views as they are now.

20) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone just to throw in an oddball, though to my mind the earlier books in the series were better than the later ones because of the better sense of wonder, the rather nice observation of the characters and the fact that the story line doesn't ramble on endlessly.

#31: I will take a look at Honest to God. Thanks for the recommendation!

21) Gang Leader for a Day was one that was subject to a bit of a coincidence - I got it in the same 3 for 2 as Freakonomics and read that one first - it included a chapter effectively summarising this book. Aided by the fact that I had a day off work yesterday for no good reason other than having a day off work I finally got round to opening it and polished off inside the day. Absolutely fascinating from several points of view (the naievity of the author, the insight into the different culture, the confirmation of certain not-exactly-complimentary views of sociology that I've picked up over the years (unfair, perhaps more of sociologists - I'm sure sociology has no more right than art appreciation to the title of science: certain general principles that seem to hold most of the time but nothing that you can formulate as a law or even a theory that stands much testing). Anyway, that's more than enough of my personal biases - the fact remains that this was a cracking read and well worth it. A lot of what was said actually seems remarkably close to what you'll read in The Road to Wigan Pier (another one to add to my must-reread list) and that in turn set me wondering what Orwell might have left out of that (I have no recollection of drugs, gangs or police corruption/brutality being mentioned but you see the same distrust of officialdom, problems imposed by welfare systems and so on).

So despite my diatribe above, I fnd myself thinking that I'd really rather like to broaden my reading in this field - so if anyone's got any suggestions I'd love to hear (as well as the above mentioned I'd also recommend London Labour and the London Poor, Down and Out in Paris and London (I do rather like my Orwell) and Hard Work for covering similar sorts of stuff).

22) The Great Crash 1929 to keep on with the vaguely economics theme that has already beenwell established this year. This book has been referred to quite a lot in the commentaries on the current economic woes so, why not. Fair enough but not as good as I was expeting from the puff that it's been getting. It's a good, competent hitory about what hapened then, but the relevance to the current economic woes seems limited - far more relevant to the Dotcom bust of a few years back. I'd have liked to see a bit more about why stock market speculation took off and how the crash exerted its effects on the wider economy: that's where it would have got more relevant to today.

So much for the shortcomings, but none theless a good lhistory of what happened then and why the financial and banking systems of today are the way they are now.

23) The Logic of Life followed on the basis of my good opinion of The Undercover Economist and proved well worthwhile. Particularly the bits on relationships and the future of the city (let's just say telecommuting may not be all that it's cracked up to be).

24) A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian was one that my mother ad recommended a few months back and whilst stories of family schism aren't my cup of tea, that was not an issue here as there was more than enough charcacterisation, observation and comment on 20th entuary history to keep things moving nicely.

25) The idea of a sentient rat has been done before The Rats of NIMH and The Amazing Maurice and his educated rodents being two that I recall so I was intrigued to see how Firmin would address it. As normal, something goes awry and the rat gets clever: as an aside, why does the rat have to "get" sentient - from my (albeit limited) experience of rats they are more than clever enough, it's the communication and the lack of hands that get in the way. Anyhow, I was well on the way to disappointment when it dawned on me that this book wasn't about the protagonist - he's just the observer bringing the story of two men and an area being put through "redevelopment". That worked well, the rat's eye view was a nice way of showing people as they are rather than the image that they present to others. So, yes - a good one and worth reading. As a final aside, from the author's note at the back there is clearly a chunk of autobiography inte book and I find that that spoils it rather as it leaves me trying to spot the joins.

Thanks for the insights on Firmin. I've got it and will be reading it soon.

26) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets completed its reread continuing to remind me that Rowling could write a reasonably tight story line. Later in the series were the "we must get kids to read" people paying her by the page?

27) The World Turned Upside Down is one that had been on the pile of unread books for too long after a couple of abortive starts. It seems that the thing to remember about 17th centuary England (and doubtless many other places at the same time) is that there was no distinction between religion and politics: religion was about what the world should be and politics was how to get it there. This dawned on me about half way through and then things started to make more sense (just as medieval European history starts making more sense when you think in terms of soap opera and family politics, rather than "diplomacy"). That's likely to be a lesson worth remembering for future reading around that period. So a useful read, although it put Paradise Lost and Leviathan back onto the reading list - both in my bookcases but the latter looking rather formidable.

#38: The World Turned Upside Down interests me. Thanks for the recommendation!

28) The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker was rather a disappointment. Dracula I found excellent and compulsive reading; this was more of Conan-Doyle meets Rider-Haggard and just didn't do the business for me. There was a nice little basis in a different strand of folklore but too much of it was actually surprisingly close to the Dracula plot - Mimi/Mina, van Helsing/Sir Nathaniel etc.

So, would I read some more of his? In so far as this backs up what I'd read about the merits (or otherwise) of his other stuff, no - but I wouldn't object to a third book to give a tie breaker.

#40: Too bad about that one. I hope your next read is better!

29) Sieges of the Middle Ages was one that leapt off the bookshelf and into my hands in a second hand bookshop last week. and pretty good one. Though I'd have liked a bit more on the technicalities and less on the general history I can understand why it was done that way - if you want an introduction to the role of the castle in the middle ages it's a good one. The concentration on Englsh and French castles may also be a weakness in some peoples eyes - why (for example) German castles are so distinctly different and more on the influence of the middle eastern fortifications would have been nice too.

30) Flat Earth News addresses the question of the reliability of the media - specifically British newspapers but with more than enough to suggest that the failings are global and extend to TV etc. The short version is "File your newspaper under fiction because once inadequatly resourced news rooms, manipulative PR companies, lying governments and odgy propriators out for a quick buck have had their say and similarity of characters or events portrayed therein and in the real world is co-incidental." Good and compelling stuff though for several chapters the point was adequately made around half way through.

31) Good Omens is one that I come back to fairly regularly and (rather surprisingly) the first bit of Pratchett to have made it onto this list.

I have to read that one fairly frequently as well, just for enjoyment. What are your favorite parts?

Where do I start with that one Ronincats? I have a weakness for old books that gives me an affinity with Aziriphale, a corrosively cynical approach to much of life that puts me in step with Crowley, when it comes to Them, I'm probably more a Wensleydale than any of the others and, like Newt, I could never get a model aeroplane's wings on right. On balance though I probably like Agnes's death the best as a scene of classic Pratchett, or the fate of the telesales team as a corresponding bit of Gaiman (though Sod's Law probably says that I've got the authors wrong on both bits). The other thing that I like about it is that despite setting things up for a sequel with Agnes's second book they left it there - though judging by the cover notes that may just have been a diary problem.

I know it's hard! I think the Hellhound is one of my favorites, as well as the Other riders of the Apocalypse. I definitely identify with Aziriphale and Crowley in much the same way as your do. I think it may be time for another read-through!

32) Fermat's Last Theorem came as a periodic diversion into maths - never one of my stronger subjects but this is more the history of the problem than the technical details of the solution. An unexpected bonus in this was the amount of background into the history of methematics BEFORE Fermat - in some ways the bits on the ancient Greeks were the most interesting (along with the dangling question of how much else did they get that subsequently got lost - the Antikythera {not sure about the spelling there} mechanism springs to mind at this point). So definitely worthwhile for that, the social history bits (role of women, dueling etc), how the accademic world works and so on all made this worthwhile and the maths content really kept to a minimum.

#48: Who was the author of the Fermat book? I have read one by Simon Singh, whose books I really like, but have not yet read the one by Amir Aczel.

Yes, it is the Simon Singh one.

33) Bad Science sounds like what you would say to a misbehaving dog befoe rubbing its nose in whatever mess it had left behind. A good half of it is about quackery masquerading as science and the circumlocutory side stepping of homeopaths, cosmetic treatments, unqualified nutritionists and such like. For balance Goldacre also puts the boot into big-pharma and the media. The latter made for some interesting links to Flat Earth News (#43 above).
Getting away from what gets his goat, there was some good stuff on the placebo effect and the ethical issues that arise from it (which also ties in quite nicely with a bit in New Scientist a week or two back on the "Nocebo" effect), the various misuses made of statistics and health scares (swine flu anybody?) All in all, well wrth reading.

#50: That onlooks like one I would enjoy. I will dd it to the Continent!

#50 I keep seeing that in the bookshop and nearly buying it, will have to actually have to get it next time. thanks

34) Enemy Coast Ahead is one that I'm sure I read when I was in my early teens - though that would have been the earlier (censored) text. The later stages of the bombing campaigns of the second world war are generally better known - this gives a view of the subject concentrating on the first few years and culminating in the Dambusters' raid.
Written, as it was, during the war it's not the perfect history: it really needs a fairly substantial post script looking at the impact of the changing scales and tactics. On the other hand it gives an excellent perspective on the period and the way the RAF operated and changed during the first part of the war. It also renews my intention to re-read I Flew for the Fuhrer which tells much of the same story from the other side.

#53: I will add both books to the Continent. They look to be right up my alley!

35) Nudge is a book that one hears is likely to be influential in the next few years so an interesting read on a number of levels. There were some neat ideas on transparency and feedback; the chapter on the future of marriage seemed half baked - an attempt to stoke the fires of publicity by being contentious I suspect as unlike the other chapters it was light on what should be done. Being a rather cynical person, I also saw it as describing some tools and techniques for subtlely influencing people - presented as how to use them for beneficient purposes but like any tools, once their use is learned they can be used for good or for bad equally. At least I now stand a better chance of noticing when they are used on me!

36) I Flew for the Fuhrer is one that I'd wanted to re-read after reading My Father's Country (#18 above) and felt pushed into digging it out after Enemy Coast Ahead. The diaries of a Luftwaffe fighter pilot covering operational flying from 1941 to 1944 (as well as training before and what came after) it paints an excellent picture of the efforts to defend Germany from the growing might of the allied aerial bombardment. It also gives a nice insight into the mentality of the ordinary German, notwithstanding the post-war political activities of the author. My only real concern about it is how much editing had been done - there are itallicised sections that are obviously written to draw together extended periods, but also several entries where you would never expect to find a diarist writing in that way as well as gaps of weeks or even months. OK, it's a short book, it's a condensation of the exciting bits (I don't know about other editions but mine is 160 pages) but it does leave me wondering what's missing.

#55: I have already added I Flew for the Fuhrer to my TBR list, but I am reconsidering since it evidently is a condensation of the diary instead of the entire thing. Do you think it is still worth the read despite the editing?

re #56 - Without a doubt I would recommend it. 25 years ago I'd have given it 5 stars with a teenagers thirst for action and I'd still give it 5 stars now that my interest has move more to the political and psychological.

My problem with the condensation is that I don't know on what basis the editing was done (or even by whom) - it may even have been unedited if Knoke was a rather lackadaisical diarist who when he picked up his pen again was wont to try to fill in the gaps. It's just that it reads like things are missing - that doesn't worry me too much from an overall flavour point of view here are bits pro the Nazi regime, bits anti it, delight in bringing destruction on the enemy and respect for him when he puts up a good show. I'm happy that the overall character of the book is a fair reflection of the man and hit times, it's just that I don't think it's a full picture.

You can read it in an afternoon, no problem. My "shorter" edition of Samuel Pepys' Diary averages 200 pages of rather smaller type for each year compared to the 160 pages of this (5 and a bit years plus pre and post scripts) so there is a lot to be said for condensation, it's just that I'd like to know more and I think that there was more.

#57: Thanks for the additional info. I will keep it on the Planet then.

37) Mosquito was one that I found in that cracking bookshop in Brighton's North Laines whose name I cannot recall. At its best on the historical side of the story of understanding and attacking the diseases spread by the eponymous insect - greatly helped in the latyter part of the treatment by the fact that the author had been personally involved. The only shortcoming was the fact that the last few chapters were in effect "recent developmets" upto 7 years ago and it is inherrent in this that it leaves you hanging. So it's not really a shortfall in the book, but it could do with a bit of a postscript chapter outlining what developed over the following few years.

#59: Mosquito looks like something I would like reading. Thanks for the recommendation.

38) It's a while since I read some of the older Pratchetts so I thought I'd revisit the shoebox third from the left in the wardrobe and started with The Colour of Magic.

Returning to The Colour of Magic I am reminded of a programme a while back (on Radio 4 if I recall) where it was said that this book's 4 sections were intended as parodies of 4 well known "serious" fantasy writers. Alas I can't recall who. The other thing that struck is how unformed the Discworld was at this stage with huge chunks of geography history etc never again making an appearance in the series.

Sounds like fun, Ed. I need to do that too--it's been so long since I've read some of the books that I don't even remember the plot, and I came upon them in bits and pieces and have never read them in order, except for the City Watch books. That would be fun summer reading.

39) Continuing the reread of Pratchett with The Light Fantastic there is a clear shift to a single style and the establishment of several ongoing themes (out of body experiences, the four horsemen etc) but two apparent incongruities - Rincewind appears to be a native of Ankh-Morpork but has not heard of the Toothfairy who is so embedded in the ways of the city in the more recent books and the story of the Twoflower's acquisiton of the Luggage which jars with what comes out in Interesting Times. Are these things ongoing ironing out of the story line(I doubt when this was being written there was any expectation let aloneplan for as many books as have since appeared on the Discworld), oversights or what? My copy of this is a 1988 edition and for all I know there may even have been later "corrections" to iron out these inconsistencies and keep the pedants quiet.

40) Which brings me on to Equal Rites and the first appearance of Granny Weatherwax. Again inconsistencies in geography and history spring to mind but the Discworld is now firmly established in its groove. A bit of time off from the series to finish some of the work in progress...

41) The Gulag Archipeligo:Vol 3 brings the story of Solzjenitsyn's involvement with Gulag to an end - though it is clear that the ory of Gulay was far from ended. I find that a dose of Solzjenitsyn's work is always a good antidote to feeling hacked off with thigs - for they could always be so much worse. In some ways it would be better edited down tov remove the repetition - but even that is still valuable in drumming home that the individual's tales were far from unique.

42) Mort continued the Pratchett theme dspite my desire to finish off some of the work in progress. Well, one of them's a group read, another is a fairlymeaty politics/economics and the accademic work on parody - well, there's something faintly self fulfilling about that! As for Mort - it was one of my favourites a few years back and I can see why but the timelines seem a bit askew now that I come back to it.

43) Have I Got Views For You is one that I've been dipping into for a while - as an anthology of editorials / op ed pieces (mainly from the Spectator and Daily Telegraph) it's well suited to that. Ironicaly though, what it lack is a bit more editorial work to give the history and context. As it covers the period (roughly) 1993 - 2003 that's beginning to become necessary.

44) Teach Yourself Buddhism was there as a introduction to get my head round some of the terms and concepts. How useful? Good question - I read the sister volume on Christianity a couple of years ago and it's a moot question how much that would have added to anyone's understanding of my views.

45) Sourcery continued the rereading of Pratchett's work. The interesting post hoc anomily in this case was the named purveyor or processed meat products who was not the illustrious CMOT Dibbler.

46) Wyrd Sisters sees me lurching back to Pratchett. I really must finish off some of the other ones currently on the go before continuing that thread. Interesting to see how fully formed Lancre was when it first appeared, and indeed contradictory of what was said of the Ramtops in Equal Rites.

47) Band of Brigands for a bit of First World War military history. The particular strength of this book is the concentration on the "off the battlefield" bits - the politics, the military politics and so on. It would have ben nice to have seen a bi more about the developments of tank tactics - but perhaps the point is that there was not very much of this. Nonetheless, the influence that the plans for 1919 had on the execution of Blitzkrieg 20 years later is intimated without actually detailing what they were. A good read, informative and an example of how various of the top brass were, desite their reputation for a lack of imagination or care, seriously searching for ways to break the satlemate and avoid carnage.

48) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight read as Simon Armitage's translation into modern English. Very much enjoyed - especially te heavy use of alliteration (I'm assuming that he has kept to the typical alliterative patterns of the original so that the genera feel and content is correct without it being a "perfect" line for line match with the original. What really works is to read it aloud - if you can scan ahead to pick up the stressed syllabes and keep them on a rhythm.

#69: I have read about tanks during WWII, but not during WWI, so I will have to give Band of Brigands a try. Thanks for the recommendaton.

#69 - I have heard good things about Band of Brigands. Will have to search it out, as well as dust off my unread copy of The Devil's Chariots: The Birth and Secret Battles of the First Tanks.

49) The Ascent of Money continued my ongoing theme of popular economics. A good all round piece on the subject and if I'm remembering correctly the book of a series on the BBC a couple of years back. The bits on how money and banking work were surprisingly similar to the first part of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations although rather more succinct and less detailed.

50) Pyramids to continue my steady trawl in order through Pratchett's work. Strange how the only character to survive into other parts of the series from this seems to have been the Guild of Assassins.

51) Period Classification and the Problem of Chemical Evolution is one that I found in a second hand book shop a few years ago and had dipped into a few times but never actually read. Its fascination comes from tow aspects, it's history and its content:-
i) Although published in 1900 and onlybought by me a bit over a centuary later I think I know its whole history. It bears a seller's label of "James Thorntom, 33 High Street, Oxford" and an ex libris of "A. Angel, Christ Church, Oxford" and lurking in it I found an invoice for its subsequent resale by "John Wheldon & Co, Natural History & General Booksellers, 38 Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields WC2" dated 24th July 1917 for 3 shillings (curiously, looking at the prices for other books in the series on the end papers, this one has no price assigned). I bought it at the same time as another book on inorganic chemistry with John Nichol's name inscribed so I'm guessing that it came from either his library passed on to a child and then cleared out on their death - or a student/younger colleague ditto. My guess is the former, given the invoice.
ii) This is at it's most fascinating because it as written before the secrets revealed by the better understanding of radioactivity, the neutron and so on came to light. The many attempts described to link physical properties to atomic weight and the numerous and complicated bits of mathematics produced to justify such links are fascinating (isn't it amazing how science is so forgetful of the approaches tried that came to nothing). Likewise the section on how elements may have been formed - the general theory then (published 1900) seems to have been by the fusion of hydrogen in stars which is still accepted but the mechanism proposed completely different. I'll not go into the details of it here, but it's a fascinating view on the subject from the perspective of a centuary ago.

52) Production for the People is I suppose another of my series of popular economics - though I doubt it was ever sold as such (indeed the front cover proclaims it to the the "Left Book Club Edition" and "Not for sale to the public". It provides a summary of socialist thinking on economics in the UK just before he outbreak of WWII and as such provides a fascinating insight into why the management of the UK economy went the way it did during that conflict and in the years following. The first part deals with the nature of poverty, the attempts to define it and the problems that these cause - so far, so much like the more theoretical and statistical parts of Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier; the second part looks at why the capitalist sytem as it was then was failing to deliver an adequate standard for all (although to my mind it reads more as a detailing of why state intervention in the form of subsidies, tariffs etc is an all round bad thing) and concludes with a section on the socialist utopia - how it should work and how to bring it about. Here I feel it departs from reality - although time has done a lot to reveal the failings of the USSR's economic approach and the dire effects of central planning.
Hard going in places but worth the read for the insights into both the historical developments and the Keynsian approaches latched onto for the world's current economic problems.

53) Guards, Guards to continue the ongoing progress through Pratchett. This probably needs less said about it that the previous two that I've completed, so I'll leave it there!

54) Eric managed to come in next though I'm trying not to do bck to back Discworlds. I'd rather forgotten how much he'd managed to fit into this short book - and the protrail of the corporate hell is really just too close to the mark.

55) Brighton Rock is the first of Greene's that I've read and I definitely don't think it'll be the last. A gripping story line but one that demands you putthe book down regularly and let it all sink in. I particularly liked the way he handled the final scene of the story - the "worst horror of all" that the book ends before. Like the pictures on radio are always more vivid than on film, the unwritten chapter can be even more vivid when left to the reader's imagination after the characters have been so thoroughly built up.

56) Moving Pictures was in parallel with Brighton Rock for the imes when I needed something a bit lighter. It left one unanswered question though - how did Gaspode get his sentience back?

57) The Terror of St Trinian's came next. It's a long time since I've seen any of the films (and haven't seen the recent remake) but I think that again it's a case of the book beat the films hands down. Searle's drawings are wonderful and Shy's text is so dead pan that I really must try to get hold of some more of them.

The Terror of St. Trinian's looks fun. I will have to see if I can find a copy. Thanks for the recommendation!

58) Life by Richard Fortey regrettably has a title so simple that the touchstones don't work - the book itself however does. As a biography of life on earth from the first protoplasm to the present it does a fair job but perhaps its strong point is the depth it goes into the way the story has been teased out - the scientific method, the professional "disagreements" and so on.

59) Reaper Man continued my trawl through the Discworld and turfed up a few nice points in the light of what came later and a few inconsistencies - pedant enough I am to notice, but not pedant enough to get my knickers in a twist over them.

60) Newton and the Counterfeiter was in some ways a disappointment - I'd been hoping for a bit more on the technical side, whereas it was more of a general biography of Newton with a particular emphasis on the prosecution of one particular coiner. In that light - a good one and some good stuff on the religious/philosophic background to alchemy. For fans of some of Neal Stephenson's stuff it's worth noting that it covers the same ground as one of the subplots in, I think, The System of the World.

61) Selcted Essays is a selection (surprise surprise) of pieces by Orwell - I'd read the piece on mining before but the rest was new to me. A bit heavy on the Lit Crit side of things but well worth the time. I don't go a bundle on his politics but that never seems to bother me with Orwell for he doesn't seem to let them get in the way of things: they colour the piece without putting blinkers on it. And it's remarkable how much of "England Your England" remains valid nearly 70 years down the line.

62) Witches Abroad keeps the Pratchett counter ticking along nicely.

Oh dear - a bit of a slow fortnight and I seem to be overdosing on Pratchett at the moment. Ther should be a rush of other stuff in the next week or so as there are quite a few currently on the go.

63) Small Gods was part of the ongoing plan but got accelerated after going to a lecture given by a friend at the local library where she made a few passing comments about it and reminded me that this actually stands up very nicely on its own as a commentary on religion.

64) Lords and Ladies brought me to the point where I'd given up on being patient and hd started buying these in hardback. The cost hasn't been a major problem but it does limit the shelf space. That said paperbacks these days seem to be a lot larger than they used to be - not much fits into a jacket pocket any more. Three cheers for second hand book shops!

65) Bedlam as a history of the hospital was pretty sound - less so on the more general London aspects and actually rather disappointing in the sketchiness of the last hundred years (aside from the excellent piece on shell shock). It rather left me thinking that as we got into the realms of living memory the author was trying to play safe and avoid antagonising anyone.

66) Stardust was th first Gaiman I've read for a while and after a slow start (for me rather than the story) very good.

67) Unseen Academicals sees me depart from order of publication - but I was not going to leave a new one unread for that long was I? This was a quick read through and there's bound to be a lot of the football references that I've missed - but a fair amount on human nature and psychology even if football is a completely closed book to you. There's also a surprisingly large amount of new characters and background detail - it would be nice if it were consistent with the earlier boks though.

I know what you mean about the hardcovers--I want to read them soonest, but shelf space is at a premium!

Amazon doesn't ship Unseen Academicals until Tuesday. :-(

68) Dubliners was my first foray into Joyce and I'm not really sure what I thought of it - well written and a nice turn of phrase but most of the stories did nothing to grab me nd too many of them read like first chapters that had been given up on.

69) Churchill's Wizards really does what it says in the full title. Many of the second world war deceptions were familiar - Monty's double and the man who never was having been filmed and several others the subject of books read over the years. Not a great deal new there though it did much to tie the various threads together. All together more novel were the bits from WWI about which I was much less aware. Was it just a coincidence, or the author's preference, that so much of the material from both conflicts involved operations in the middle east/med?

70) Men at Arms keeps the Pratchett counter ticking over - this one actually go put on hold while I zipped through Unseen Academicals. Such a pity that we'll never see Big Fido again.

#86: Churchill's Wizards sounds right up my alley. Thanks for the recommendation, Ed.

Just finished Unseen Academicals! Wow! I'll never read LOTR the same way again. Very dense and extremely amusing. Started a new spoiler thread to discuss it
here

71) The Time Traveller's Wife is not one that I'd probably have chosen myself - but that's what reading groups do and in general a broadening of the horizons is useful. In specifics, this was a cracker and one that I was quite happy to devote large chunks of time to. A nice treatment of some of the practicalities and side effects of time travel - both on the traveler and on those around them. Two quibbles though - firstly travelling in time and space together: how does Henry even manage to stay on the planet, never mind at ground level (think Pullman's Subtle Knife here) and secondly the Clare and Henry's "tone" is too identical and unchangd as they age. Read it again? Yes - but what I might try to do is to recut it so that it generally sticks to Henry's chronology rather than Clare's.

72) Dracula: The Un-dead is one that I'd seen heavily panned in a review - and I've a natural suspicion of anything that proclaims itself to be "The Official..." (think grotty advertising endorsements) - anyway it was there to make up a 3 for 2. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. And that is more than the authors did - it's one thing to reveal characters as labouring under a misaprehension and to reveal that in the sequel but to make repeated reference to the first book as inaccurate because the author got it wrong? That's something of a first for me to find. Nevertheless, despite poor work by the proof readers, an overreliance on gore and (what seem to me at least) several anachronistic characters it did have some nice ideas reasonably worked through. Pity it ended with such an obvious feed in to another sequel.

73) The Jenguin Pennings is a collection of bits taken from a series of other collections of bits most of which were published in the Observer in the late 50's and early '60s and as commentaries on the way of the world have stood up to the passage of time. I jumped on this when I found it in a second hand book shop for the wonderful flight of fancy that is "The Unthinkable Carrier" - which details how all of Britain's problems had been solved by cutting the country loose from the bedrock (an easy job as most of it had been removed by centuries of mining) and sailing it to the tropics under the power of the newly installed outboard motors otherwise known as nuclear powerstations.

74) Soul Music to keep the Pratchett re-read running.

75) Her Fearful Symmetry brings up the target with a couple of months to spare. I found it hard going in parts - but those parts were fairly short and the rest more than made up for it. Basically about relationships and bereavement played out across several relationships simultaneously. And having introduced the thought of symmetries through the title, there seems to be more of these than you can shake a stick at, each throwing light on the others: Martin/Robert; Elspeth/Marijke; death/estrangement as well as the more obvious twin/twin and generational.

Congrats!

Hey, congratulations on reaching the 75 book benchmark!!!

How time flies when you take your eye off things for a bit!
76) Interesting Times
77) Maskerade
78) Feet of Clay
All on the Pratchett re-read. I'd notpaidmuch attention to Interesting Times before and so rather ignored it but I think now that it's because I hadn't noticed that it was him putting to boot into politics before.

That seems a bit one sided but I've been paying a lot of attention to some rather long books over the last month curtosy of a broken rule at a book club (why did we say "Less than 500 pages" and then pick one at over 800?), and a couple of other (even longer) ones that have been on the back burner for a while and whuich I want to finish off this year.

79) The Mitfords is the on that was the book club's fault. Generally good - cerainly informative but in the end caugt between two stools. Too long to give an informative outline but too short to be compehensive - only about 5% of the surviving letters are included and that leaves me with my customary concern for what has been left out and the editor's intent. I'm not accusing of misrepresentation,it's just that with so small a sample there may be whole other aspects of character or sub plots left out - who knows?

If you are interested in further reading on the Mitford sisters, I would recommend Mary Lovell's The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family. It is very good.

80) Colossus : Bletchley Park's Greatest Secret was one that leapt into my hand when I was doing some Christmas shopping and gives a lot of good background to the start of the electronic computer. There is technical, but primarily its the history and how the technological developments took effect. There's some good stuff on the role and practice of interception and a useful reminder of how much of the basework was already there before the war.

#99: I have to find that one. I have read a lot about the work of Alan Turing and cryptoanalysis during WWII at Bletchley Park. Thanks for bringing the book to my attention.

81) Hogfather continues the Pratchett chain in a rather seasonal manner - things have got a bit slow lately as I'm tryig to fiish off a couple of long ones by the end of the year.

I hope you will be joining us for the 2010 Challenge. The group is up and running!

Merry Christmas!!

82) Bleak House now complete (a reread prompted by one of the Group reads) and well worth the time - fortunately an unplanned train journey on Christmas Eve say me break the back of the then remaining 350 odd pages.

83) Hocus Pocus was a reading group one and the first Vonnegut that I've tried. good enough - but I find myself wondering where the "wry take on things as they are" stops and the "taking the p*&&" starts. Either way, worth the time though not really a book for Christmas (unless you've had it up to here with the season).
84) Buster's Diaries kept me occupied on the tran back homeand at various points left me wondering whether it influenced Prattchet's development of Gaspode or vica versa. A quick check on publiction dates suggests that Gaspode got there first - but that may not be the whole story.

85) Jingo to end this year's assault on the collected works of Sir T. Another of the ones that didn't particularly grab me when it was new but seems to do so much more now. Nice on the politics,the diplomatic "niceties" and a real pearl of a circus act by Nobby, Colon and the Patrician.

86) History of Western Philosophy was the other long one that I ws wanting to finish this year and made it with 10 hours to spare. The historical background bit were probably better than the "pure philosophy" bits. From the first part (effectively ancient Greece and Rome) the big eye opener was how much of Christianity preceded Christ. When you pause and recollect how much of the New Testament was produced with a view to converting the Greek speaking world, it is perhaps less of a surprise as the ideas wouldn't be entirely new.

That pretty well wraps up this thread (as far as a bald reading list goes) as I can't see myself completing any more books this year. What I've liked most about the thread/group is that it's got me thinking a bit more about what I read and got me a bit beyond what I'd usually read - the down side is that I appear to have added over 70 books to my library and having read 86 of which there were a good few repeats my unread pile clearly needs a bit more active management - a resolution of next year I think.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/80193 does it all again for 2010.

History of Western Philosophy is a favorite of mine - unfortunately, a friend made off with my copy and won't give it back. I'm gonna have to pick up a new one sometime!

Happy New Year, Ed!