Two years of reading (2013-15)

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, 2009-11 and 2011-13 lists.

At the end of the list I name my favourite book that I read during the period!

Full list of books read 2013-15

Fiction

• “A Most Immoral Woman: A Novel” – Linda Jaivin (2009)
• “Dinotopia: A Land Apart From Time” – James Gurney (1992)
• “Catch-22” – Joseph Heller (1961)
• “Lord of the Flies” – William Golding (1954)
• “Farenheit 451” – Ray Bradbury (1953)
• “Nineteen Eighty-Four” – George Orwell (1949)
• “Animal Farm” – George Orwell (1945)
• “Brave New World” – Aldous Huxley (1932)
• “Siddhartha” – Hermann Hesse (1922)

Biography

• “Diaries 1988–1998: Travelling to Work” Michael Palin (2014)
• “Diaries 1980–1988: Halfway to Hollywood” Michael Palin (2010)
• “The Life of Python” George Perry (2007)
• “Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years” Michael Palin (2006)
• “The Pythons: The Autobiography” Bob McCabe and Monty Python (2003)
• “Into the Wild” – Jon Krakauer (1996)

Comedy / humour

• “Spiritual Journey” – First Dog on the Moon and Jon Kudelka (2014)
• “The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History” – John Ortved (2009)
• “Observations From a Moving Vehicle” – The Sandman (1998)
• “This Is My Surfboard” – The Sandman (1996)

Environment / energy / sustainability / economics

• “Governomics: Can We Afford Small Government?” – Ian McAuley and Miriam Lyons (2015)
• “Sustainable Futures: Linking Population, Resources and the Environment” – Jenny Goldie and Katharine Betts (2015)
• “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate” – Naomi Klein (2014)
• “Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding” – George Monbiot (2013)
• “White Beech: The Rainforest Years” – Germaine Greer (2013)
• “The Energy of Slaves: Oil and the New Servitude” – Andrew Nikiforuk (2012)
• “Back From the Brink: How Australia’s Landscape Can Be Saved” – Peter Andrews (2006)
• “Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis” – Jeremy Leggett (2005)
• “The Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update” – Donella Meadows, Jørgen Randers and Dennis Meadows (2004)
• “Beyond Civilization: humanity’s next great adventure” – Daniel Quinn (1999)
• “The Basics of Permaculture Design” – Ross Mars (1996)

Music

• “Talking Smack: Honest Conversations About Drugs” – Andrew McMillen (2014)
• “How Music Works” – David Byrne (2012)
• “Entertain Us! The Rise and Fall of Alternative Rock in the Nineties” – Craig Schuftan (2012)
• “Passion Is A Fashion: The Real Story of The Clash” – Pat Gilbert (2005)
• “The Clash” – Bob Gruen (2001)
• “Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991” – Michael Azzerad (2001)

Psychology / society

• “The Art of Belonging” – Hugh Mackay (2014)
• “The Good Life: What Makes a Life Worth Living” – Hugh Mackay (2011)
• “The Shallows: How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember” – Nicholas Carr (2010)
• “Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard” – Chip Heath and Dan Heath (2010)
• “Watching the English – The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour” – Kate Fox (2004)
• “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community” – Robert D. Putnam (2000)

Science / medicine

• “Dear Life: On Caring for the Elderly” [Quarterly Essay 57] – Karen Hitchcock (2015)
• “Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients” – Ben Goldacre (2012)
• “The Leafcutter Ants : Civilization by Instinct” – Bert Hölldobler and E. O. Wilson (2011)
• “What Technology Wants” – Kevin Kelly (2010)
• “Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks” – Ben Goldacre (2008)
• “Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex” – Mary Roach (2008)

Miscellaneous literature / fiction

• “Distrust That Particular Flavor” – William Gibson (2012)
• “How to Read a Book” – Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren (1972)

Creativity / the process of writing

• “Funemployed: Life as an artist in Australia” – Justin Heazlewood (2014)
• “Daily Rituals: How Artists Work” – Mason Currey (2013)
• “So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love” – Cal Newport (2012)
• “Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative” – Austin Kleon (2012)
• “Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work” – Steven Pressfield (2012)
• “Do the Work” – Steven Pressfield (2011)
• “Reality Hunger: A Manifesto” – David Shields (2010)
• “Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity” – Hugh MacLeod (2009)
• “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles” – Steven Pressfield (2002)
• “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” – Stephen King (2000)
• “Bird by Bird : Some Instructions on Writing and Life” – Anne Lamott (1994)
• “The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path” – Julia Cameron (1992)
• “The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World” – Lewis Hyde (1983)

Comics / graphic novels

• “The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer” – Sydney Padua (2015)
• “Supercrash: How to Hijack the Global Economy” (a.k.a. “The Age of Selfishness: Ayn Rand, Morality, and the Financial Crisis”) – Darryl Cunningham (2014)
• “Floating Horizon” – Chris Guest (2014)
• “The Great War: July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle” – Joe Sacco (2013)
• “Science Tales: Lies, Hoaxes, and Scams” (a.k.a. “How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial”) – Darryl Cunningham (2013)
• “The Long Weekend in Alice Springs” – Joshua Santospirito (2013)
• “Blue” – Pat Grant (2012)
• “Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama” – Alison Bechdel (2012)
• “The Hive” – Charles Burns (2012)
• “Building Stories” – Chris Ware (2012)
• “X’ed Out” – Charles Burns (2010)
• “The Death-Ray” – Daniel Clowes (2011)
• “Skin Deep” – Charles Burns (2009)
• “Tales from Outer Suburbia” – Shaun Tan (2008)
• “What it Is” – Lynda Barry (2008)
• “The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: the Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need” – Daniel H. Pink (2008)
• “Burma Chronicles” – Guy Delisle (2007)
• “Fun Home” – Alison Bechdel (2006)
• “In the Shadow of No Towers” – Art Spiegelman (2004)
• “Blankets” – Craig Thompson (2003)
• “Notes from a Defeatist” – Joe Sacco (2003)
• “Safe Area Goražde” – Joe Sacco (2000)
• “Watchmen” – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1987)
• “When the Wind Blows” – Raymond Briggs (1982)
• “Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths” – Shigeru Mizuki (1973)

Comics theory

• “Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present” – Dan Mazur and Alexander Danner (2014)
• “The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics” – Denis Kitchen (2009)
• “Artists on Comics Art” – Mark Salisbury (2000)

Tintin and Tintinology

• “Tintin and the Secret of Literature” – Tom McCarthy (2006)
• “Tintin: the Complete Companion” – Michael Farr (2001)
• “Tintin: Hergé and his Creation” – Harry Thompson (1992)
• “Tintin and Alph-Art” – Hergé (1986)
• “Tintin and the Picaros” – Hergé (1976)
• “Flight 714” – Hergé (1968)
• “The Castafiore Emerald” – Hergé (1963)
• “Tintin in Tibet” – Hergé (1960)
• “The Red Sea Sharks” – Hergé (1958)
• “The Calculus Affair” – Hergé (1956)
• “Explorers on the Moon” – Hergé (1954)
• “Destination Moon” – Hergé (1953)
• “Land of Black Gold” – Hergé (1950)
• “Prisoners of the Sun” – Hergé (1949)
• “The Seven Crystal Balls” – Hergé (1948)
• “Red Rackham’s Treasure” – Hergé (1944)
• “The Secret of the Unicorn” – Hergé (1943)
• “The Shooting Star” – Hergé (1942)
• “The Crab with the Golden Claws” – Hergé (1941)
• “King Ottokar’s Sceptre” – Hergé (1939)
• “The Black Island” – Hergé (1938)
• “The Broken Ear” – Hergé (1937)
• “The Blue Lotus” – Hergé (1936)
• “Cigars of the Pharaoh” – Hergé (1934)
• “Tintin in America” – Hergé (1932)
• “Tintin in the Congo” – Hergé (1931)
• “Tintin in the Land of the Soviets” – Hergé (1930)

Buckminster Fuller

• “Best of Friends: Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi” – Shoji Sadao (2011)
• “New Views on R. Buckminster Fuller” – Hsiao-Yun Chu and Roberto Trujillo (2009)
• “Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe” – K. Michael Hays (2008)
• “BuckyWorks: Buckminster Fuller’s Ideas for Today” – J. Baldwin (1997)
• “Buckminster Fuller’s Universe: His Life and Work” – L. Steven Sieden (1989)
• “Fuller’s Earth: A Day with Buckminster Fuller and the Kids” Richard J. Brenneman (1984)
• “Critical Path” – R. Buckminster Fuller (1982)
• “Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking” – R. Buckminster Fuller (1975)
• “Bucky: A Guided Tour of Buckminster Fuller” – Hugh Kenner (1973)
• “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth” – R. Buckminster Fuller (1968)

Top book recommendation?

Feral (2013) by British writer George Monbiot is my favourite book that I read in this two year period. The book’s subtitle Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life gives you a strong indication of Monbiot’s thesis, which advocates the concept of ‘rewilding’.

Monbiot explores ‘rewilding’ on a landscape scale, as well as on a personal scale. Feral is bookended by chapters about George Monbiot’s own kayak fishing adventures, a pastime that he incorporated into his once- “ecologically bored” lifestyle. With a flair for writing, Monbiot makes you feel like you are beside him on the water, paddling through the sea to capture more energy than he expends.

A recurring theme of Feral is Monbiot’s desire to make our everyday surroundings seem alien and barren. He writes about the extreme ecological deprivation of Britain green hills. Although described by local councils as “wilderness”, Monbiot condemns these treeless hills as an ecological “moonscape” that graziers have imposed on sites that once hosted temperate rainforests. Monbiot lists a tantalising array of creatures that once lived in these forests, such as wolves, beavers, lynx, and even straight-tusked elephants. These creatures (or very similar creatures, such as the Asian elephant) could easily prosper in Britain, if humans would simply allow them sufficient space. Similarly, Monbiot compares today’s sparse marine ecosystem with the bounties of fish, turtles, sharks and whales that once thrived in the ocean. Monbiot again points to sensible policies that would allow fish stocks to begin regenerating.

Here are two tastes of George Monbiot that will allow you to decide if you want to read Feral:

As well as George Monbiot’s 2013 TED talk (above), I recommend this 2009 article about his love of kayak fishing. If either of those pieces speak do you, do yourself a favour and buy the book. (aff: new / used)