Two years of reading (2011-13)
For my sake as much as yours, here is the list of all the books I’ve read in the last 2 years. This follows on from my 2008-09 and 2009-11 lists.
These are only the books I read in full. There were a bunch of others which I only skim-read, or read certain chapters to extract particular facts.
If you look through the list of comics I published during 2011-13 (and the ones I publish in the next 12 months), you’ll probably see some parallels.
At the end of the list I rate my favourite book that I read during the period!
Full list of books read 2011-13
Fiction
- “The Burial” – Courtney Collins (2012)
- “The Pillow Fight” – Matthew Condon (1998)
- “The Lost World” – Michael Crichton (1997)
- “For Whom the Bell Tolls” – Ernest Hemingway (1940)
- “The Grapes of Wrath” – John Steinbeck (1939)
Biography
- “On Warne” – Gideon Haigh (2012)
- “On a Farther Shore: the Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson” – William Souder (2012)
- “A Fuller View: Buckminster Fuller’s Vision of Hope and Abundance for All” – L. Steven Sieden (2012)
- “Buckminster Fuller’s Universe: His Life and Work” – L. Steven Sieden (1989)
Comedy / humour
- “The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History” – John Ortved (2009)
- “Love All the People: Letter, Lyrics, Routines” – Bill Hicks (2005)
- “The Third Policeman” – Flann O’Brien (1967)
Environment / energy / sustainability / economics
- “Small Space Organics: Creating Sustainable, Edible Gardens” – Josh Byrne (2013)
- “End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality” – Richard Heinberg (2011)
- “The Great Disruption: How the Climate Crisis Will Transform the Global Economy” – Paul Gilding (2011)
- “Life Without Oil: Why We Must Shift to a New Energy Future” – Steve Hallett and John Wright (2011)
- “What’s the Economy For, Anyway?: Why It’s Time to Stop Chasing Growth and Start Pursuing Happiness” – John de Graaf and David Batker (2011)
- “How Bad Are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything” – Mike Berners-Lee (2010)
- “Prosperity without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet” – Tim Jackson (2009)
- “The Transition Handbook: Creating local sustainable communities beyond oil dependency – Australia and New Zealand edition” – Rob Hopkins (2009)
- “Beyond the Brink: Peter Andrews’ radical vision for a sustainable Australia” – Peter Andrews (2008)
- “The Undercover Economist” – Tim Hartford (2006)
- “Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-carbon Society” – Richard Heinberg (2004)
- “The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat” – Charles Clover (2004)
- “Hubbert’s Peak : The Impending World Oil Shortage” – Kenneth S. Deffeyes (2001)
- “Beyond Growth: Economics of Sustainable Development” – Herman Daly (1996)
- “Wealth, Virtual Wealth, and Debt: The Solution of the Economic Paradox” – Frederick Soddy (1926)
History / politics
- “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt” – Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco (2012)
- “The Office: A Hardworking History” – Gideon Haigh (2012)
- “You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos” – Robert Arthur (2012)
- “A Small Book About Drugs” – Lisa Pryor (2011)
- “World War-D: The Case against prohibitionism, roadmap to controlled re-legalization” – Jeffrey Dhywood (2011)
- “Panic” – David Marr (2011)
Music
- “Kraftwerk: Publikation” – David Buckley (2012)
- “1001 Australian Nights” – Dave Graney (2011)
- “The 10 Rules of Rock and Roll” – Robert Forster (2009)
- “Sorry: The Wretched Tale of Little Stevie Wright” – Jack Marx (1999)
Psychology
- “You are Not So Smart: Why Your Memory is Mostly Fiction, Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself” – David McRaney (2011)
- “The Globalization of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit” – Bruce Alexander (2008)
- “Opening Skinner’s Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century” – Lauren Slater (2005)
Science
- “Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming” – Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway (2010)
- “The Eerie Silence: Are We Alone in the Universe?” – Paul Davies (2010)
- “Upside Down World: Early European Impressions of Australia’s Curious Animals” – Penny Olsen (2010)
- “The Richness of Life: The Essential Stephen Jay Gould” – Stephen Jay Gould (2006)
- “Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies” – Kenny Ausubel (editor) (2004)
- “Comparative Biomechanics: Life’s Physical World” – Steven Vogel (2003)
- “The Way Life Works: The Science Lover’s Illustrated Guide to How Life Grows, Develops, Reproduces, and Gets Along” – Mahlon Hoagland and Bert Dodson (1998)
- “BuckyWorks: Buckminster Fuller’s Ideas for Today” – J. Baldwin (1997)
- “Pale Blue Dot: a Vision of the Human Future in Space” – Carl Sagan (1997)
- “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark” – Carl Sagan (1995)
- “A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts” – Andrew Chaikin (1994)
- “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are” – Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan (1993)
- “The Way Nature Works” – John D Beazley (1992)
- “The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal” – Jared Diamond (1991)
Miscellaneous literature / fiction
- “Hood Rat: Britain’s Lost Generation” – Gavin Knight (2011)
- “Watson’s Dictionary of Weasel Words, Contemporary Cliches, Cant & Management Jargon” – Don Watson (2004)
- “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles “ – Steven Pressfield (2002)
- “The Story of B: An Adventure of Mind and Spirit” – Daniel Quinn (1996)
Comics
- “The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack” – Nicholas Gurewitch (2009)
- “The Complete Peanuts 1969-1970, Volume 10” – Charles M. Schulz (2008)
- “The Complete Peanuts 1967-1968, Volume 9” – Charles M. Schulz (2008)
- “The Complete Peanuts 1965-1966, Volume 8” – Charles M. Schulz (2007)
- “The Complete Peanuts 1963-1964, Volume 7” – Charles M. Schulz (2007)
Comics theory
- “MetaMAUS” – Art Spiegelman (2011)
- “Eisner/Miller” – Will Eisner and Frank Miller (2005)
Graphic novel
- “Only Skin: New Tales of the Slow Apocalypse” – Sean Ford (2012)
- “Daytripper” – Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá (2011)
- “Same Difference” – Derek Kirk Kim (2011)
- “Habibi” – Craig Thompson (2011)
- “Hicksville” – Dylan Horrocks (2010)
- “Asterios Polyp” – David Mazzucchelli (2009)
- “Berlin: City of Smoke (Book 2)” – Jason Lutes (2008)
- “The Complete Persepolis” – Marjane Satrapi (2007)
- “Burma Chronicles” – Guy Delisle (2007)
- “Blindspot” – Kevin C. Pyle (2007)
- “The Contract With God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue” – Will Eisner (2005)
- “Epileptic” – David B. (2005)
- “Palestine” – Joe Sacco (2001)
- “Box Office Poison” – Alex Robinson (2001)
- “Berlin: City of Stones (Book 1)” – Jason Lutes (2000)
- “Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth” – Chris Ware (2000)
- “Good-Bye, Chunky Rice” – Craig Thompson (1999)
- “Sin City: That Yellow Bastard” – Frank Miller (1996)
- “Sin City: The Hard Goodbye” – Frank Miller (1991-92)
- “Maus: A Survivor’s Tale” – Art Spiegelman (1991)
- “Moby Dick: Classics Illustrated” – Bill Sienkiewicz and D.G. Chichester (1990)
- “Watchmen” – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1987)
Top book recommendation?
If I were to single the book from the list which made the biggest impact on me, I would have to choose A Small Book About Drugs (2011) by Australian writer Lisa Pryor. Reading it at Easter 2012 was a turning point for me. Lisa managed to link together many ideas which had previously been held separate in my mind. Written with a clear, balanced, incisive style, her work is extremely readable: I devoured it in a day. Then I read it again, taking notes.
Pryor notes how our public discussion about “drugs” is extremely unbalanced. The only ‘sides’ to the issue portrayed by media discussion are the uninformed ‘moral majority’ and the tragic victims of abuse and misadventure. This seems to ignore the 99% of drug users who use drugs in a safe and responsible fashion. It ignores the fact that one-third of Australians have used illegal drugs…and usually enjoyed it!
I particularly responded to Lisa Pryor’s call-to-action at the end of A Small Book About Drugs: that it is the casual, responsible users who need to start adding their voices to the discussion. I rose to the challenge, researching and writing two comics on the subject (War on Drugs and Rat Park) and two blog posts reflecting on the topic, explaining all that I learnt during my year of research and reflection.
A Small Book About Drugs is essential reading for Australians, and highly recommended for everyone else!
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