10 Membranes

Books of 2008

A couple of years ago I set myself the task of reading at least one book a week and, as I was bad at remembering what I had read, recording them all. 2007 was a big year for reading, massively exceeding the brief. 2008 less so- looking back 2008 was more about consolidation and travel, more stuff was happening. As of now I am abandoning both the aim of reading at least 52 books a year and recording them. It’s stupid and a chore and other priorities are emerging. So, without further ado, the books of 2008, in chronological order:

Stephen Inwood- City of Cities: The Birth of Modern London

Elizabeth Young - Pandora’s Handbag

Neal Stephenson -Snow Crash

Peter Singer - Hegel: A Very Short Introduction

David Weinberger - Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the new Digital Disorder

Tom Wolfe - A Man in Full

Michael Chabon - The Yiddish Policeman’s Union

Orlando Figes - Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia

Roberto Saviano- Gomorrah: Italy’s Other Mafia

Eddy Shah - Second World

Bernard Wood - Human Evolution:  A very Short Introduction

- Ghosts of Targets Past: Memories of a Lancaster Bomber Pilot

Ken McLeod - The Execution Channel

J.M. Coetzee -Disgrace

Cory Doctorow - Little Brother

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Empire in Black and Gold

Iain M. Banks - Consider Phlebas

Iain M. Banks - The Player of Games

Michael Herr - Dispatches

Iain M. Banks - Use of Weapons

Graham Greene - The Quiet American

Thomas L. Friedman -The World is Flat

Iain M. Banks - Excession

Richard Sennett - The Craftsman

Ian Fleming - Casino Royale

Andrew Marr - My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism

G.W. Dahlquist -The Dark Volume

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead

Terry Pratchett - Thud!

Jonathan Zittrain - The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It

Nick Harkaway -The Gone-Away World

James Lovelock -The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back

Joseph O’Neill - Netherland

Herman Melville - Moby Dick; or the Whale

Mikhail Bulgakov -The Master and Margerita

Alastair Horne - The Seven Ages of Paris

Paul Carr Bringing Nothing to the Party: True Confessions of a New Media Whore

Roy Porter - Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine

Baron von Sacher-Masoch -Venus in Furs

Chris Turney -Bones, Rocks and Stars: The Science of When Things Happened

Neal Stephenson -Anathem

Barack Obama -Dreams From My Father

Barack Obama - The Audacity of Hope

Chuck Palahnuik - Snuff

Maryanne Wolfe -Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

Gerorge MacDonald Fraser - Flashman in the Great Game

Jasper Fforde -The Eyre Affair

John Mortimer -Rumpole and the Penge Murders

Alexandre Dumas- The Three Musketeers