2008 in books
Jan. 7th, 2009 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amari_zRather to my own amazement, I managed to read 101 books in 2008 (not including “trash” books—damn you, kindle!). This means that I made it more than half way through my Big List of Shame, which stands at 163 books, eighty-three of which, according to the BLoS, I bought this year.*
I read sixty-seven works of fiction and thirty-four of nonfiction. This is bad only when you consider that despite the 2:1 ratio in reading, I have a nearly 1:1 ratio on my BLoS. I did the best in summer—no surprise there, since I tend to develop insomniac tendencies in hot weather. My worst month was April, followed by December. In April, it took me a long time to read Gate of the Sun. In December, I think it was all the trash novels and general laziness.
Although I enjoyed most of the books I read, and I generally dislike picking favorites, here are ten rather randomly chosen highlights:
1. Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End. I’m in love with this book. It’s the only narrative I’ve ever read that successfully managed a second person plural pov. And it’s funny and spot on about office life.
2. Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide. One of my favorite authors, and I think this is my favorite book of his to date (I haven’t read his new one yet). If for no other reason, read it for the setting, the Sundarbans, the ever-changing Ganges tidal delta, inhabited by tigers, crocodiles and, perhaps, the rare river dolphin.
3. Peter Godwin, Mukiwa and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun. There are a lot of areas of the world about which I feel my knowledge is sadly lacking, and the entire continent of Africa is one of them. These two books are memoirs of a white boy growing up in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, the end of white rule and what followed. Well written, troubling, and topical if you’re following today’s news.
4. Elias Khoury, Gate of the Sun. I already discussed a bit about this one.
5. David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas. I don’t know why it took me so long to read this. Six connected stories spread across time, set up like concentric rings. Brilliant.
6. Tahir Shah, The Caliph's House. I bought this one up on a whim and have no regrets. A British writer of partial Afghani parentage makes a sudden decision to pick up and move his family to Morocco.
7. Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. If you like the Iliad and are interested in the psychology of war, run to read this book.
8. Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian Walks. See here.
9. M. G. Vassanji, The In-Between World of Vikram Lall. I had never heard of this Canadian author, which is one of the reasons I’m selecting this book for mention. Story of how the main character, of Indian ancestry but born to immigrant parents in Kenya, comes to be one of the most notoriously corrupt men in a country notorious for corruption.
10. Evelyn Waugh, Black Mischief. I read a lot of Waugh this year. It was hard to pick between this one and Put Out More Flags, but I think this one wins for me by a narrow margin. Read both.
January
1. Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse 1/7
2. Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun 1/8
3. R.K. Narayan, Mr. Sampath--The Printer of Malgudi 1/11
4. Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide 1/14
5. Nuruddin Farah: Links 1/23
6. Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore 1/24
7. Evelyn Waugh, Officers and Gentlemen 1/30
February
8. Evelyn Waugh, Unconditional Surrender 2/1
9. Pat Barker, Life Class 2/2
10. H.H. Scullard, History of the Roman World: 753 to 146 BC 2/9
11. Ian McEwan, Enduring Love 2/10
12. Kamila Shamsie, Broken Verses 2/12
13. Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character 2/13
14. Seth L. Shein, The Mortal Hero 2/15
15. Ross King, Machiavelli 2/19
16. Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall 2/20
17. Honore de Balzac, Eugenie Grandet 2/25
18. Barry Strauss, The Trojan War 2/27
19. Malcom Davies, The Greek Epic Cycle 2/29
March
20. H.H. Scullard, From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 BC to AD 68 3/4
21. Christopher Logue, All Day Permanent Red 3/5
22. Tahmima Anam, A Golden Age 3/6
23. Amitav Ghosh, The Circle of Reason 3/19
24. Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust 3/28
25. Guglielmo Ferrero, Characters and Events of Roman History: From Caesar to Nero 3/29
April
26. Ono, Fuyumi, Sea of Wind 4/08
27. Elias Khoury, Gate of the Sun 4/26
28. R.K. Narayan, Swami and Friends 4/30
May
29. J. M. Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello 5/2
30. Penelope Fitzgerald, Human Voices 5/7
31. Penelope Fitzgerald, The Beginning of Spring 5/12
32. Jhumpa Lahiri, Unaccustomed Earth 5/14
33. Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul: Memories and the City 5/22
34. Thomas Asbridge: The First Crusade 5/25
35. Firoozeh Dumas, Funny in Farsi 5/29
June
36. Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah 6/4
37. R.K. Narayan, The Dark Room 6/8
38. Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses 6/10
39. Colum McCann, Zoli 6/14
40. R.K. Narayan, The Bachelor of Arts 6/7
41. Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End 6/19
42. Evelyn Waugh, Put Out More Flags 6/20
43. Penelope Fitzgerald, The Golden Child 6/22
44. Dinaw Mengestu The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears 6/23
45. Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, Benjamin Ajak, They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky 6/25
46. Peter Godwin, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun 6/27
July
47. Peter Godwin, Mukiwa 7/2
48. Penelope Fitzgerald, At Freddie's 7/3
49. R.K. Narayan, The English Teacher 7/3
50. Dave Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society 7/6
51. Tahir Shah, The Caliph's House 7/8
52. Haruki Murakami, After Dark 7/9
53. Martin Marty, The Christian World 7/11
54. V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas 7/16
55. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun 7/18
56. Helen Oyeyemi, The Opposite House 7/22
57. Mohammed Hanif, A Case of Exploding Mangoes 7/25
58. Philip Pullman, Once Upon a Time in the North 7/26
59. Peter Ackroyd, The Plato Papers 7/27
60. Colum McCann, Dancer 7/29
August
61. Orhan Pamuk, Snow 8/1
62. Yukio Mishima, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion 8/4
63. Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone 8/5
64. Peter Ackroyd, The Lambs of London 8/7
65. R.K. Narayan, The Financial Expert 8/8
66. M. G. Vassanji, The In-Between World of Vikram Lall 8/11
67. Colum McCann, This Side of Brightness 8/12
68. David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas 8/15
69. Jasper Fforde, Thursday Next: First Among Sequels 8/17
70. Jermey Blachman, @nonymous Lawyer 8/18
71. Chris Hedges, War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning 8/28
72. Peter Carey, My Life as a Fake 8/30
73. Kim Edwards, The Memory Keeper's Daughter 8/31
September
74. Honore de Balzac, Old Goriot 9/7
75. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich 9/9
76. Evelyn Waugh, Black Mischief 9/10
77. Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East 9/11
78. Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood 9/16
79. Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, A Companion to Wolves 9/16
80. Sayed Kashua, Let it be Morning 9/17
81. Colum McCann, Songdogs 9/19
82. M.I. Finey, World of Odysseus 9/21
83. V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River 9/24
84. Dava Sobel: The Planets 9/26
85. Christopher Fee, Gods, Heroes & Kings 9/28
86. R.K. Narayan, Waiting for the Mahatma 9/30
October
87. Edward P. Jones: The Known World 10/3
88. Evelyn Waugh, Scoop 10/8
89. Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One 10/8
90. Evelyn Waugh, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold 10/8
91. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family 10/15
92. Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian Walks 10/24
November
93. John V. Tolan, Saracens 11/4
94. Penelope Fitzgerald, The Means of Escape 11/6
95. Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran 11/19
96. Barry Strauss, The Battle of Salamis 11/26
97. Milton Viorst, Storm from the East 11/29
December
98. Jonathan Philips, The Fourth Crusade 12/8
99. Saher Alam, The Groom to Have Been 12/12
100. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge: The Company 12/22
101. Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities 12/30
* This is rather a cheat. I bought *ahem* quite a few books toward the end of this year that I haven’t added to my list (some of them haven’t arrived). Coming soon: 2009 Big List of Shame.
I read sixty-seven works of fiction and thirty-four of nonfiction. This is bad only when you consider that despite the 2:1 ratio in reading, I have a nearly 1:1 ratio on my BLoS. I did the best in summer—no surprise there, since I tend to develop insomniac tendencies in hot weather. My worst month was April, followed by December. In April, it took me a long time to read Gate of the Sun. In December, I think it was all the trash novels and general laziness.
Although I enjoyed most of the books I read, and I generally dislike picking favorites, here are ten rather randomly chosen highlights:
1. Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End. I’m in love with this book. It’s the only narrative I’ve ever read that successfully managed a second person plural pov. And it’s funny and spot on about office life.
2. Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide. One of my favorite authors, and I think this is my favorite book of his to date (I haven’t read his new one yet). If for no other reason, read it for the setting, the Sundarbans, the ever-changing Ganges tidal delta, inhabited by tigers, crocodiles and, perhaps, the rare river dolphin.
3. Peter Godwin, Mukiwa and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun. There are a lot of areas of the world about which I feel my knowledge is sadly lacking, and the entire continent of Africa is one of them. These two books are memoirs of a white boy growing up in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, the end of white rule and what followed. Well written, troubling, and topical if you’re following today’s news.
4. Elias Khoury, Gate of the Sun. I already discussed a bit about this one.
5. David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas. I don’t know why it took me so long to read this. Six connected stories spread across time, set up like concentric rings. Brilliant.
6. Tahir Shah, The Caliph's House. I bought this one up on a whim and have no regrets. A British writer of partial Afghani parentage makes a sudden decision to pick up and move his family to Morocco.
7. Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. If you like the Iliad and are interested in the psychology of war, run to read this book.
8. Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian Walks. See here.
9. M. G. Vassanji, The In-Between World of Vikram Lall. I had never heard of this Canadian author, which is one of the reasons I’m selecting this book for mention. Story of how the main character, of Indian ancestry but born to immigrant parents in Kenya, comes to be one of the most notoriously corrupt men in a country notorious for corruption.
10. Evelyn Waugh, Black Mischief. I read a lot of Waugh this year. It was hard to pick between this one and Put Out More Flags, but I think this one wins for me by a narrow margin. Read both.
January
1. Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse 1/7
2. Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun 1/8
3. R.K. Narayan, Mr. Sampath--The Printer of Malgudi 1/11
4. Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide 1/14
5. Nuruddin Farah: Links 1/23
6. Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore 1/24
7. Evelyn Waugh, Officers and Gentlemen 1/30
February
8. Evelyn Waugh, Unconditional Surrender 2/1
9. Pat Barker, Life Class 2/2
10. H.H. Scullard, History of the Roman World: 753 to 146 BC 2/9
11. Ian McEwan, Enduring Love 2/10
12. Kamila Shamsie, Broken Verses 2/12
13. Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character 2/13
14. Seth L. Shein, The Mortal Hero 2/15
15. Ross King, Machiavelli 2/19
16. Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall 2/20
17. Honore de Balzac, Eugenie Grandet 2/25
18. Barry Strauss, The Trojan War 2/27
19. Malcom Davies, The Greek Epic Cycle 2/29
March
20. H.H. Scullard, From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 BC to AD 68 3/4
21. Christopher Logue, All Day Permanent Red 3/5
22. Tahmima Anam, A Golden Age 3/6
23. Amitav Ghosh, The Circle of Reason 3/19
24. Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust 3/28
25. Guglielmo Ferrero, Characters and Events of Roman History: From Caesar to Nero 3/29
April
26. Ono, Fuyumi, Sea of Wind 4/08
27. Elias Khoury, Gate of the Sun 4/26
28. R.K. Narayan, Swami and Friends 4/30
May
29. J. M. Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello 5/2
30. Penelope Fitzgerald, Human Voices 5/7
31. Penelope Fitzgerald, The Beginning of Spring 5/12
32. Jhumpa Lahiri, Unaccustomed Earth 5/14
33. Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul: Memories and the City 5/22
34. Thomas Asbridge: The First Crusade 5/25
35. Firoozeh Dumas, Funny in Farsi 5/29
June
36. Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah 6/4
37. R.K. Narayan, The Dark Room 6/8
38. Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses 6/10
39. Colum McCann, Zoli 6/14
40. R.K. Narayan, The Bachelor of Arts 6/7
41. Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End 6/19
42. Evelyn Waugh, Put Out More Flags 6/20
43. Penelope Fitzgerald, The Golden Child 6/22
44. Dinaw Mengestu The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears 6/23
45. Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, Benjamin Ajak, They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky 6/25
46. Peter Godwin, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun 6/27
July
47. Peter Godwin, Mukiwa 7/2
48. Penelope Fitzgerald, At Freddie's 7/3
49. R.K. Narayan, The English Teacher 7/3
50. Dave Grossman, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society 7/6
51. Tahir Shah, The Caliph's House 7/8
52. Haruki Murakami, After Dark 7/9
53. Martin Marty, The Christian World 7/11
54. V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas 7/16
55. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun 7/18
56. Helen Oyeyemi, The Opposite House 7/22
57. Mohammed Hanif, A Case of Exploding Mangoes 7/25
58. Philip Pullman, Once Upon a Time in the North 7/26
59. Peter Ackroyd, The Plato Papers 7/27
60. Colum McCann, Dancer 7/29
August
61. Orhan Pamuk, Snow 8/1
62. Yukio Mishima, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion 8/4
63. Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone 8/5
64. Peter Ackroyd, The Lambs of London 8/7
65. R.K. Narayan, The Financial Expert 8/8
66. M. G. Vassanji, The In-Between World of Vikram Lall 8/11
67. Colum McCann, This Side of Brightness 8/12
68. David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas 8/15
69. Jasper Fforde, Thursday Next: First Among Sequels 8/17
70. Jermey Blachman, @nonymous Lawyer 8/18
71. Chris Hedges, War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning 8/28
72. Peter Carey, My Life as a Fake 8/30
73. Kim Edwards, The Memory Keeper's Daughter 8/31
September
74. Honore de Balzac, Old Goriot 9/7
75. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich 9/9
76. Evelyn Waugh, Black Mischief 9/10
77. Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East 9/11
78. Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood 9/16
79. Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, A Companion to Wolves 9/16
80. Sayed Kashua, Let it be Morning 9/17
81. Colum McCann, Songdogs 9/19
82. M.I. Finey, World of Odysseus 9/21
83. V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River 9/24
84. Dava Sobel: The Planets 9/26
85. Christopher Fee, Gods, Heroes & Kings 9/28
86. R.K. Narayan, Waiting for the Mahatma 9/30
October
87. Edward P. Jones: The Known World 10/3
88. Evelyn Waugh, Scoop 10/8
89. Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One 10/8
90. Evelyn Waugh, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold 10/8
91. Alexander Waugh, Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family 10/15
92. Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian Walks 10/24
November
93. John V. Tolan, Saracens 11/4
94. Penelope Fitzgerald, The Means of Escape 11/6
95. Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran 11/19
96. Barry Strauss, The Battle of Salamis 11/26
97. Milton Viorst, Storm from the East 11/29
December
98. Jonathan Philips, The Fourth Crusade 12/8
99. Saher Alam, The Groom to Have Been 12/12
100. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge: The Company 12/22
101. Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities 12/30
* This is rather a cheat. I bought *ahem* quite a few books toward the end of this year that I haven’t added to my list (some of them haven’t arrived). Coming soon: 2009 Big List of Shame.
