Book roundup
Jan. 1st, 2013 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivyficThis year I read 25 1/2 books for fun, to last year's 25, and proofread an additional 9 (to last year's 11--man, I thought I took it light this year).
- 11 1/2 nonfiction
- 11 fiction
- 1 religion
- 1 comic strip collection
- 1 joke book
The best books I read this year were:
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
So stunning that I never got around to make a review post, I have so many feels.
And
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
I recommend both of these, wholeheartedly, to anyone.
+ for loved it, - for hated it
Fiction
Fair Coin by E.C. Myers (+)
Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler (-)
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (+++)
At the Mountains of Madness and Other Stories by H.P. Lovecraft (+/-)
Foundation by Isaac Asimov (-)
Ubik by Philip K. Dick (---)
A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony (---)
The Black Hawk by Joanna Bourne (+)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (+)
Overseas by Beatriz Williams (-)
The Death of King Arthur retold by Peter Ackroyd (-)
Nonfiction
Watching the English by Kate Fox (+)
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs (+++)
Longitude by Dava Sobel (+)
Scurvy by Stephen Bown (+)
The Most Human Human by Brian Christian (+/-)
Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School by Adam Ruben (+)
More Money Than God by Sebastian Mallaby (+)
The Last Days of Old Beijing by Michael Myer (-) (This was the half--I gave up after 200 pages of repetitive, undeveloping description)
The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter (+)
When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein (+)
True Tales from Another Mexico by Sam Quinones (+)
What the Butler Saw by E.S. Turner (+)
Other
Hark a Vagrant! by Kate Beaton
Humor in Uniform by Readers Digest
Buddhism by Keith Yandell
Looking at that list, quite a few of those were extremely short reads, so I think I read less this year, than previous years.
And, because it amuses me to include them, Teaching Company Great Courses lecture series listened to in 2012:
Conquest of the Americas by Marshall C. Eakin
Americas in the Revolutionary Era by Marshall C. Eakin
The African Experience by Kenneth P. Vickery
No Excuses by Robert C. Solomon
Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind by Eric S. Rabkin
Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language by John McWhorter
Great Masters: Mahler by Robert Greenberg
Italians Before Italy by Kenneth Bartlett
Rise and Fall of the British Empire by Patrick N. Allitt
Victorian Britain by Patrick N. Allitt
Conservative Tradition by Patrick N. Allitt
Espionage and Covert Operations by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius
Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Rise of Nations by Andrew C. Fix
History of the U.S. Economy in the Twentieth Century by Timothy Taylor
and currently The Other Side of History by Robert Garland
That's...more than I thought. All are recommended (though some more strongly than others).
- 11 1/2 nonfiction
- 11 fiction
- 1 religion
- 1 comic strip collection
- 1 joke book
The best books I read this year were:
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
So stunning that I never got around to make a review post, I have so many feels.
And
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
I recommend both of these, wholeheartedly, to anyone.
+ for loved it, - for hated it
Fiction
Fair Coin by E.C. Myers (+)
Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler (-)
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (+++)
At the Mountains of Madness and Other Stories by H.P. Lovecraft (+/-)
Foundation by Isaac Asimov (-)
Ubik by Philip K. Dick (---)
A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony (---)
The Black Hawk by Joanna Bourne (+)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (+)
Overseas by Beatriz Williams (-)
The Death of King Arthur retold by Peter Ackroyd (-)
Nonfiction
Watching the English by Kate Fox (+)
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs (+++)
Longitude by Dava Sobel (+)
Scurvy by Stephen Bown (+)
The Most Human Human by Brian Christian (+/-)
Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School by Adam Ruben (+)
More Money Than God by Sebastian Mallaby (+)
The Last Days of Old Beijing by Michael Myer (-) (This was the half--I gave up after 200 pages of repetitive, undeveloping description)
The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter (+)
When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein (+)
True Tales from Another Mexico by Sam Quinones (+)
What the Butler Saw by E.S. Turner (+)
Other
Hark a Vagrant! by Kate Beaton
Humor in Uniform by Readers Digest
Buddhism by Keith Yandell
Looking at that list, quite a few of those were extremely short reads, so I think I read less this year, than previous years.
And, because it amuses me to include them, Teaching Company Great Courses lecture series listened to in 2012:
Conquest of the Americas by Marshall C. Eakin
Americas in the Revolutionary Era by Marshall C. Eakin
The African Experience by Kenneth P. Vickery
No Excuses by Robert C. Solomon
Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind by Eric S. Rabkin
Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language by John McWhorter
Great Masters: Mahler by Robert Greenberg
Italians Before Italy by Kenneth Bartlett
Rise and Fall of the British Empire by Patrick N. Allitt
Victorian Britain by Patrick N. Allitt
Conservative Tradition by Patrick N. Allitt
Espionage and Covert Operations by Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius
Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Rise of Nations by Andrew C. Fix
History of the U.S. Economy in the Twentieth Century by Timothy Taylor
and currently The Other Side of History by Robert Garland
That's...more than I thought. All are recommended (though some more strongly than others).