Reading List 2010

09/01/10 The Story of Edgar Sawtelle David Wroblewski
10/01/10 The Philosopher at the End of the Universe Mark Rowlands
16/01/10 Born to Run Christopher McDougall
06/02/10 The Little Friend Donna Tartt
11/02/10 Why we Run Bernd Heinrich
17/02/10 The Baader-Meinhof Complex Stefan Aust
18/02/10 Grendel John Gardner
20/02/10 Hey Nostradamus Douglas Coupland
24/02/10 The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad
25/02/10 The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum Heinrich Böll
01/03/10 The Bourne Identity Robert Ludlum
06/03/10 Ten Men Dead David Beresford
09/03/10 The Siege of Krishnapur J G Farrell
12/03/10 Testament of Devotion Thomas R Kelly
16/03/10 Hitler's Children Jillian Becker
27/03/10 John Inglesant J H Shorthouse
30/03/10 The Deadly Pecheron John Franklin Bardin
05/04/10 The Enemy Within Seumas Milne
10/04/10 Candlemoth Roger Jon Ellroy
April Jump Rope Training Buddy Lee
23/05/10 The Princess Casamassima Henry James
28/05/10 A Novel in a Year Louise Doughty
7/6/10 The Fermata Nicholson Baker
13/6/10 The Mezzanine Nicholson Baker
21/6/10 The Positive Power of Positive Thining Julie K. Norem
23/6/10 Double Fold Nicholson Baker
24/6/10 The Solitary Vice Mikita Brottman
25/6/10 On Guerrilla Gardening Richard Reynolds
29/6/10 Skinny Bitch R. Freedman and K. Barnouin
9/7/10 The World Without Us Alan Weisman
13/7/10 The Medea Hypothesis Peter Ward
20/7/10 The Goldilocks Enigma Paul Davies
28/7/10 The Music of Chance Paul Auster
29/7/10 Self-Discipline Dr. Windy Dryden
4/8/10 Fingerprints of the Gods Graham Hancock
7/8/10 From Hell Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
11/8/10 Contact Carl Sagan
16/8/10 Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth James Lovelock
17/10/10 Ishmael Daniel Quinn
19/8/10 The Slap Christos Tsiolkas
29/8/10 Supernatural Graham Hancock
2/9/10 The Rainbow Machine Andrew T. Austin
3/9/10 Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life Brian Lee O'Malley
18/9/10 The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly Jean-Dominique Bauby
24/9/10 I Can Make You Thin Paul McKenna
25/9/10 I Can Make You Sleep Paul McKenna
12/10/10 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Brian Lee O'Malley
13/10/10 Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness Brian Lee O'Malley
14/10/10 Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together Brian Lee O'Malley
15/10/10 Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe Brian Lee O'Malley
16/10/10 Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour Brian Lee O'Malley
22/10/10 Light on Pranayama B. K. S. Iyengar (skipped some of it).
24/10/10 The Element Ken Robinson
25/10/10 The Monkey-Wrench Gang Edward Abbey
11/11/10 The Autobiography of a Yogi Yogananda
17/11/10 Yoga School Drop-out Lucy Edge
24/11/10 Passport to the Cosmos John Mack
25/11/10 The Heart of Yoga T. K. V. Desikachar
29/11/10 A Return to Love Marianne Williamson
8/12/10 Absence from Felicity Ken Wapnick
22/12/10 Wherever You Go, There You Are Jon Kabat-Zinn
29/12/10 The Disappearance of the Universe Gary Renard

Reading List 2009

Got interested in Quakers this year. Lots of Quaker pamphlets.

2/1/09 Listening to the Light Jim Pym
6/1/09 God is Silence Pierre Lacout
8/1/09 Gravity and Grace Simone Weil
10/1/09 Friendly Bible Study J. & L. Spears
20/1/09 The Quiet Paul Wilson
3/2/09 God of Surprises Gerard W. Hughes
12/3/09 Waiting on God Simone Weil
Choosing Life Joycelin Dawes
Quakerism, Universalism and Spirituality Ralph Hetherington
Quakers and Buddhism: The Cutting Edge Anne Bancroft
The Light Upon the Candlestick Peter Balling
Universal Quakerism Ralph Hetherington
Readings for Universalists Ralph Hetherington
The Meeting Place of the World's Great Faiths Horace Alexander
Christ in a Universe of Faiths John Hick
The Place of Prayer is a Precious Habitation John Nicholson
Sources of Universalism in Quaker Thought Winifred Burdick
31/3/09 Writing as a Way of Healing Louise DeSalvo
31/3/09 Quaker Mysticism Sibley
1/4/09 Waiting and Resting in the True Silence QUF
2/4/09 Authority and Mysticism Sibley and Gilman
2/4/09 The Generous Qur'an Michael Sells
4/4/09 The Discipline of Prayer Frederick J. Tritton
8/4/09 The Universality of Unknowing Rhoda R. Gilman
8/4/09 The Boundaries of our Faith Daniel Seegar
8/4/09 I Have Called You Friends Daniel A. Seegar
9/4/09 Spirit and Trauma Gene Knudsen-Hoffman
25/4/09 The Aristos John Fowles
April 09 Industrial Society and its Future T. Kaczynski
17/05/09 The Ages of Gaia James Lovelock
28/06/09 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston
June 09 Be Incredibly Creative Bevan et al.
13/7/09 One Small Step Can Change Your Life Robert Maurer
21/7/09 A Maze of Death Philip K. Dick
26/7/09 Sleep Well Every Night Glenn Harrold
2/8/09 Ubik Philip K. Dick
10/8/09 Valis Philip K. Dick
20/8/09 A Lifelong Journey Sarah Russell
24/8/09 Understanding A Course in Miracles D. Patrick Miller
22/10/09 You Can Heal Your Life Louise L. Hay
02/12/09 Twilight Stephanie Mayer
08/12/09 Mindset Carol Dweck
20/12/09 The Philosopher and the Wolf Mark Rowlands
27/12/09 Leaving the Twentieth Century ed. Chris Gray
28/12/09 Notes From the Teenage Underground Simone Howell
30/12/09 The Principles of Running (skipped some) Amby Burfoot

Reading List 2008

Very little reading this year. My mental health was not good.

22/3/08 A World Out of Time Larry Niven
29/3/08 Ringworld Larry Niven
16/4/08 Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius Ray Monk
22/4/08 Heroes Robert Cormier
30/4/08 A Kestrel for a Knave Barry Hines
12/5/08 I'm the King of the Castle Susan Hill
24/6/08 Hands of Stone Christian Guidice
14/8/08 The Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche
Oct. 08 Bruce Lee: Fighting Spirit Bruce Thomas
9/11/08 Hunger Strike Susie Orbach
30/11/08 The Gospels in Brief Leo Tolstoy

Reading List 2007

31/1/07 Cinderella Man Michael C Delisa
19/2/07 Solo Training Loren Christensen
13/3/07 Ultramarathon Man Dean Karnazes
30/3/07 “Za-to-pek! Za-to-pek! Za-to-pek!” Bob Phillips
17/4/07 Feet in the Clouds Richard Askwith
21/4/07 Beasts of No Nation Uzodinma Iweala
7/5/07 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro
11/5/07 The Spirit of Shaolin David Carradine
30/5/07 The Blue Cliff Record (vol. 1)
10/6/07 Queer William Burroughs
27/6/07 Fierce Conversations Susan Scott
2/7/07 The Jelly Effect Andy Bounds
30/7/07 The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume One – The Pox Party M T Anderson
2/8/07 Beast Ally Kenner
6/8/07 Henry Tumour Anthony McGowan
21/8/07 Spies Michael Frayn
13/10/07 Waves Sharon Dogar
5/11/07 The Culture Clash Jean Donaldson
8/11/07 The Mindful Way Through Depression Mark Williams et al
13/11/07 Five Boys Mick Jackson
20/11/07 Pre Tom Jordan
27/11/07 Free Play Stephen Nachmanovitch
30/11/07 The Miracle of Mindfulness Thich Nhat Hanh
4/12/07 Story of O Pauline Reage
11/12/07 Venus in Furs Leopold von Sacher-Masoch
26/12/07 St Rose of Lima Sister Mary Alphonsus O.S.S.R.

Reading List 2006

12/1/06 A Short Practice of Green Tara Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Thubten Yeshe
14/1/06 Zen is Eternal Life Roshi Jiyu Kennett
26/1/06 Christian Monasticism David Knowles
4/2/06 Box Lunch Diana Cage
22/2/06 Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Best and Nocella (eds.)
17/3/06 Empty Cages Tom Regan
15/4/06 The Hidden Face Ida Friederike Görres
17/4/06 The Case For Animal Rights Tom Regan
29/4/06 An Autobiography Gandhi
8/6/06 Let the Trumpet Sound Stephen B. Oates
12/6/06 Other Voices, Other Rooms Truman Capote
29/6/06 We Need to Talk about Kevin Lionel Shriver
13/7/06 Middlesex Jeffry Eugenides
14/7/06 Vox Nicholson Baker
18/7/06 Londonstani Gautam Malkani
24/7/06 The Defender Alan Gibbons
27/7/06 A Crime in the Neighbourhood Suzanne Berne
29/7/06 Jacob’s Ladder Brian Keaney
6/8/06 The Sopranos Alan Warner
11/8/06 Boy2Girl Terence Blacker
13/8/06 The Last Taboo Bali Rai
18/8/06 Fat Boy Swim Catherine Forde
19/8/06 Complete Body Development with Dumbbells Mark McKown
21/8/06 Triathlon 101 John Mora
5/9/06 Blake Peter Ackroyd
27/9/06 Morvern Callar Alan Warner
23/10/06 Writing Down the Bones Natalie Goldberg
28/10/06 Wild Mind Natalie Goldberg
13/12/06 Wounds of Love Frank Graziano
14/12/06 The Falcon’s Malteser Anthony Horowitz

Reading List 2005

Quite a few spiritual titles in this year. Books on Animal Rights and Deep Ecology also coming to the fore. As usual, fiction takes a back seat, although I did manage to read "Revolutionary Road" a couple of years before they filmed it.

7/1/05 Deep Ecology Bill Devall & George Sessions
29/1/05 The Aristos John Fowles
15/2/05 A Path With Heart Jack Kornfield
16/2/05 Spinoza Richard H. Popkin
24/2/05 A Light That Is Shining Harvey Gillman
2/3/05 Becoming A Writer Dorothea Brande
3/3/05 All Families Are Psychotic Douglas Coupland
11/3/05 Simone Weil As We Knew Her J. M. Perrin & G. Thibon
22/3/05 NLP for Lazy Learning Diana Beaver
11/4/05 Socialism and Religion (2nd Edition 1911) SPGB
20/4/05 The Long Rain Peter Gadol
29/4/05 Revolutionary Road Richard Yates
4/5/05 The Power Book Jeannette Winterson
15/5/05 Mrs Dalloway Virginia Woolf
21/5/05 The Hours Michael Cunningham
6/6/05 To The Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
8/6/05 The Courage To Teach Parker J. Palmer
28/7/05 Writing Down the Bones Natalie Goldberg
6/8/05 Wise Children Angela Carter
10/8/05 The Crossing Cormac McCarthy
28/8/05 The Atrocity Exhibition J.G. Ballard
23/10/05 The Power of Positive Thinking Norman Vincent Peale
6/11/05 Animal Warfare David Henshaw
17/11/05 Bodies Jed Mercurio
4/12/05 Holiness Donald Nicholl
8/12/05 Animal Liberation Peter Singer
12/12/05 Autobiography of a Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
17/12/05 The Seven Storey Mountain Thomas Merton
24/12/05 How to Grow a Lotus Blossom Roshi Jiyu Kennett
28/12/05 Alone with Others Stephen Batchelor

Reading List 2004

In this year I joined the Socialist Party of Great Britain. So quite a few pamphlets and other short works appear on the list.


6/1/04 Selected Poems S. Mallarme
19/1/04 Quantum Jim Al-Khalili
28/1/04 Wittgenstein, Grammar and God Alan Keightley
14/2/04 Shadowmancer G. P. Taylor
17/2/04 You Don’t Know Me David Klass
19/2/04 Stargirl Jerry Spinelli
28/2/04 Martyn Pig Kevin Brooks
31/3/04 Teach Yourself Islam Ruqaiyyah Maqsood
3/4/04 Zapatista Stories Subcomandante Marcos
7/4/04 Socialism as a Practical Alternative SPGB
Marxism and Darwinism Anton Pannekoek
Socialist Principles Explained SPGB
From Capitalism to Socialism SPGB
Marxism Revisited SPGB
7/4/04 Che Guevara Andrew Sinclair
9/4/04 Some Aspects of Marxian Economics SPGB
9/4/04 How We Live and How We Might Live William Morris
12/4/04 The Market System Must Go SPGB
13/4/04 Ecology and Socialism SPGB
19/4/04 Chasing Che Patrick Symmes
22/4/04 The Next Learning System Roland Meighan
25/4/04 Guerrilla Warfare Che Guevara
8/5/04 How The Gods Were Made John Keracher
9/5/04 The Right to be Lazy Paul Lafargue
27/5/04 The Fermata Nicholson Baker
9/6/04 Island Aldous Huxley
9/6/04 Marx in his Own Words Ernst Fischer
11/6/04 Nothingness or the Unbearable Absence of Being Jack Keelan
17/6/04 All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy
18/6/04 Damage Limitation Roland Meighan
5/7/04 The SCUM Manifesto Valerie Solonas
8/7/04 The Unabomber Manifesto
10/7/04 Are We Prisoners of Our Genes? SPGB
4/8/04 Selected Poems (ed. Colin Falck) Robinson Jeffers
16/8/04 Refusing to be a Man John Stoltenberg
3/9/04 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger
13/9/04 Engels and the Origins of Human Society Chris Harman
20/9/04 A Mind for Murder Alston Chase
25/10/04 And Now You Can Go Vendela Vida
31/10/04 Bolshevism (Redline pamphlet) Rudolf Sprenger
6/11/04 Fifty Strong (Anthology) various
11/12/04 Socialism in the 21st Century (Socialist / Militant) Hannah Sell
22/12/04 The Fifth Discipline Peter M. Senge
26/12/04 The Story of V Catherine Blackledge
31/12/04 Spiritual Intelligence Danah Zohar & Ian Marshall

Reading List 2003

After a really slow start (no books completed until April!) this turned into a good reading year for me.

21/4/03 Night Elie Wiesel
9/5/03 Building Learning Power Guy Claxton
20/5/03 Main Currents of Marxism (I) Leszek Kolakowski
24/5/03 number9dream David Mitchell
2/6/03 Transform Your Life Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
8/6/03 Tiger! Tiger! Alfred Bester
20/6/03 The Life of Milarepa Lobsang P. Lhalungpa
26/6/03 Dark Sun Richard Rhodes
5/7/03 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Alan Moore
18/7/03 Native Tongue Suzette Haden Elgin
18/7/03 The Vagina Monologues Eve Ensler
22/7/03 Neutron Star Larry Niven
23/7/03 Deconstruction Derrida Julian Wolfreys
26/7/03 Lucky Alice Sebold
4/8/03 The Female Man Joanna Russ
7/8/03 The Color Purple Alice Walker
13/8/03 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
17/8/03 The Shrinking Man Richard Matheson
20/8/03 The Perfect Storm Sebastian Junger
22/8/03 World of Ptavvs Larry Niven
26/8/03 The Hungry Ocean Linda Greenlaw
30/8/03 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold
28/9/03 False Memory Dean Koontz
30/10/03 The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Improving Your Memory Michael Kurland Richard Lupoff
30/10/03 Mapping Inner Space Nancy Margulies
1/11/03 Use Your Memory Tony Buzan
1/11/03 Making Dreams Come True Vicki Bennett
9/11/03 Creative Visualisation Shakti Gawain
25/11/03 Emotional Intelligence Daniel Goleman
2/12/03 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon
6/12/03 Introducing NLP Joseph O’Connor John Seymour
8/12/03 Achieving Emotional Intelligence Claude Steiner
12/12/03 The Christmas Mystery Jostein Gaarder
15/12/03 Jacques Derrida Nicholas Royle
19/12/03 Giacomo Joyce James Joyce
20/12/03 Real Presences George Steiner

Reading List 2002

Here's 2002. Our second child, Daisy, joined the ranks on 5.12.01. Maybe that explains why I didn't read much this year.
Some clear patterns emerge. Sci-fi classics. Simone Weil and the Spiritual Life. Some teen fiction and some literary fiction, Holocaust memoir. Funny how I keep circling certain areas.

10/2/02 Monkey Planet Pierre Boulle
Feb. 02 The Mother; The Yes-sayer; The No-sayer Bertold Brecht
7/3/02 Oppression and Liberty Simone Weil
23/6/02 A Beautiful Mind Sylvia Nasar
26/7/02 The Football Factory John King
10/8/02 Song Quest Katherine Roberts
10/8/02 Holes Louis Sachar
12/8/02 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson
20/8/02 Regeneration Pat Barker
24/8/02 Cave in the Snow Viki Mackenzie
3/11/02 The Child in Time Ian McEwan
28/9/02 Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson
11/12/02 Globalization Wayne Ellwood
15/12/02 If This Is A Man Primo Levi

Reading List 2001

Well, I had been maintaining a reading list over on a Tripod account. But I've realised that Blogger is just so much easier. And it looks nicer. So here's 2001.
I don't know what made me start it.
My "rules" are simple. I only list books that I read the whole of. So there will have been some things that are not on here that I did read a lot of (especially non-fiction books that I skimmed or part-read). The date is when I finished reading the book. Sometimes I am reading more than one book at a time, so I haven't necessarily read a whole book in the time between its date and the previous book's date.

11/9/01 On Writing Stephen King
1/10/01 The Weight of Water Anita Shreve
3/10/01 I am Legend Richard Matheson
12/10/01 Different for Girls Joan Smith
23/10/01 In the Cut Suzanna Moore
25/10/01 Drunkard’s Walk Frederik Pohl
24/11/01 Teach Your Child How to Think Edward de Bono
26/11/01 Becoming a Writer Dorothea Brande
4/12/01 Being Nobody, Going Nowhere Ayya Khema
7/12/01 How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie
9/12/01 The Wise Wound Penelope Shuttle & Peter Redgrove
27/12/01 Simone Weil David Anderson
31/12/01 The Art of Mental Prayer Bede Frost