Two years of reading (2015-17)

Top book recommendations

As with past years, I am using this as an opportunity to declare my favourite books that I read during the period. Here’s my Top 3 countdown for my favourite books that I read during the period 2015-2017:

#3: The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships by Neil Strauss

The Truth (2015) is an autobiographical story about the infamous pickup artist Neil Strauss, who realised that he’d spent so much time training himself how to seduce women that it had turned into a compulsion that was ruling his life. Women—to him—had become a sort of video game for him to play and conquer.

This book begins with Neil him checking himself into a sex rehab centre, and a whole series of events that unfold from that point. I enjoyed this book greatly for its honesty, and Neil’s writing style. When I was reading this book, I was totally engrossed by its narrative, and felt a constant urge to learn what happened next.

Buy The Truth by Neil Strauss from The Book Depository (affiliate link).

#2: This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki

This One Summer (2014), by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki is my favourite graphic novel that I read during the last two years.

The story is about a girl named Rose who goes on summer holiday with her parents to a Canadian lakeside holiday town. This One Summer is all about what it’s like to be on summer holiday as a kid. The artwork and storytelling in this book really engages all of your senses, as you imagine the experience of being on holiday in summer.

Buy This One Summer by the Tamaki cousins from The Book Depository (affiliate link). Or watch my video review of this book, as part of my Top 10 Essential Graphic Novels countdown.

#1: The Course of Love by Alain de Botton

My absolute favourite book of the last two years is The Course of Love (2016) by Alain de Botton.

This is a story about a fictional couple who fall in love and begin a romantic relationship. But Alain de Botton, who is known for founding The School of Life, has written this book as a test-case scenario for us to think about our own romantic relationships. His writing perceptively charts the emotions that accompany the various stages in the course of a romantic relationship.

If you’ve ever been in a relationship, I think you’ll appreicate this book. If you’re in a relationship right now, I highly recommend that you and your partner read and discuss this together.

Buy The Course of Love by Alain de Botton from The Book Depository (affiliate link).

Video of me discussing my Top 3 book choices

In the above video, I take 5 minutes to discuss why I like those three books the best. And then I recap some of the books that won my “Favourite book” nods in previous years.

Full list of books read 2015-17

And now 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 previous four reading lists: 2008-09, 2009-10, 2011-13, and 2013-15.

Fiction

• “The Course of Love: A Novel” – Alain de Botton (2016)
• “Goodwood” – Holly Throsby (2016)
• “The Rosie Effect” – Graeme Simsion (2014)
• “The Rosie Project” – Graeme Simsion (2013)
• “Essays in Love” (a.k.a. “On Love”) – Alain de Botton (1993)
• “Monkey Grip” – Helen Garner (1977)

Biography

Comedy / humour

• “A Billion Jokes! (Volume One)” – Peter Serafinowicz (2012)
• “I’ll Go Home Then, It’s Warm and Has Chairs” – David Thorne (2012)
• “The Internet is a Playground” – David Thorne (2011)
• “Wall and Piece” – Banksy (2010)

Architecture / design

• “150 Best Sustainable House Ideas” – Francesc Zamora (2014)
• “Innovative Houses : Concepts for Sustainable Living” – Avi Friedman (2013)
• “The Passivhaus Handbook: A Practical Guide to Constructing and Retrofitting Buildings for Ultra-Low-Energy Performance” – Janet Cotterell and Adam Dadeby (2012)
• “Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home” – Julie Moir Messervy and Sarah Susanka (2008)

Environment / energy / sustainability / economics

• “Postcapitalism : A Guide to our Future” – Paul Mason (2015)
• “An Economy is Not a Society: Winners and Losers in the New Australia” – Dennis Glover (2015)
• “Collision Course: Endless Growth on a Finite Planet” – Kerryn Higgs (2015)
• “Atmosphere of Hope: Searching for Solutions to the Climate Crisis” – Tim Flannery (2015)
• “Big World, Small Planet: Abundance within Planetary Boundaries” – Johan Rockström and Mattias Klum (2015)
• “State of the World 2015: Confronting Hidden Threats to Sustainability” – The Worldwatch Institute (2015)
• “Enough is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources” – Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill (2012)
• “Toward Sustainable Communities: Solutions for Citizens and Their Governments” – Mark Roseland (2012)
• “Worldchanging 2.0: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century” – edited by Alex Steffen (2011)
• “The Plundered Planet: How to Reconcile Prosperity With Nature” – Paul Collier (2011)
• “Man-Made World: Choosing Between Progress and Planet” [Quarterly Essay 44] – Andrew Charlton (2011)
• “Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet” – Jeffrey D. Sachs (2008)
• “Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century” – edited by Alex Steffen (2006)
• “Dark Age Ahead” – Jane Jacobs (2004)
• “The Nature of Economies” – Jane Jacobs (2000)
• “Responsive Environments: A Manual for Designers” – Ian Bentley, Alan Alcock, Paul Murrain, Sue McGlynn and Graham Smith (1985)
• “Buckminster Fuller: At Home In The Universe” – Alden R. Hatch (1974)
• “The Economy of Cities” – Jane Jacobs (1969)

Memoir / essays

• “Wasted: A Story of Alcohol, Grief and a Death in Brisbane” – Elspeth Muir (2016)
• “Everywhere I Look” – Helen Garner (2016)
• “The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book about Relationships” – Neil Strauss (2015)
• “I Call Myself A Feminist: The View from Twenty-Five Women Under Thirty” (2015)
• “Hand to Mouth : The Truth About Being Poor in a Wealthy World” – Linda Tirado (2014)
• “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory” – Caitlin Doughty (2014)
• “Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life” – Neil Strauss (2009)
• “Marco Polo Didn’t Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer” – Rolf Potts (2008)
• “Dirt Cheap: Life at the Wrong End of the Job Market” – Elisabeth Wynhausen (2005)
• “The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists” – Neil Strauss (2005)

Music

• “Grant & I: Inside and Outside the Go-Betweens” – Robert Forster (2016)
• “Route 19 Revisited: The Clash and London Calling” – Marcus Gray (2009)
• “Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer” – Chris Salewicz (2007)
• “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” [33⅓ #32] – Miles Marshall Lewis (2006)
• “Passion Is A Fashion: The Real Story of The Clash” – Pat Gilbert (2005)
• “Dusty in Memphis” [33⅓ #1] – Warren Zanes (2003)
• “The Clash: Return of the Last Gang in Town” – Marcus Gray (2002)
• “It Crawled From The South: An R.E.M. Companion” – Marcus Gray (1997)

Politics

• “Econobabble: How to Decode Political Spin and Economic Nonsense” – Richard Denniss (2016)
• “A Short History of Stupid: The decline of reason and why public debate makes us want to scream” – Bernard Keane and Helen Razer (2014)
• “The Selling of the President 1968” – Joe McGinniss (1969)

Psychology / society

• “First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Story About Anxiety” – Sarah Wilson (2017)
• “Beyond Belief: How we find meaning, with or without religion” – Hugh Mackay (2016)
• “Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity” – Douglas Rushkoff (2015)
• “Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity” – Andrew Solomon (2012)
• “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” – Jon Ronson (2015)
• “Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion” – Alain de Botton (2012)
• “We Have Met the Enemy: Self-Control in an Age of Excess” – Daniel Akst (2011)
• “The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry” – Jon Ronson (2011)
• “Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now” – Douglas Rushkoff (2013)
• “Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back” – Douglas Rushkoff (2009)

Science / medicine

• “Skeleton School: Dissecting the Gift of Body Donation” – Andrew McMillen (2016)

History

• “A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction” – Joel Greenberg (2014)
• “Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years” – Jared Diamond (1997)

Miscellaneous literature / fiction

• “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” – Carol S. Dweck (2006)

Creativity / the process of writing

• “TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking” – Chris Andersony (2016)
• “Daily Rituals: How Artists Work” – Mason Currey (2013)
• “Personal Kanban: Mapping Work, Navigating Life” – Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry (2011)

Comics / graphic novels: humour

• “Supermutant Magic Academy” – Jillian Tamaki (2015)

Comics / graphic novels: fiction

• “Ghosts” – Raina Telgemeier (2016)
• “Paper Girls, Vol. 1” – Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang and Matthew Wilson (2016)
• “The Sculptor” – Scott McCloud (2015)
• “Two Brothers” – Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá (2015)
• “Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen” – Dylan Horrocks (2015)
• “Sleepwalk and other stories” – Adrian Tomine (2015)
• “This One Summer” – Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (2014)
• “Here” – Richard McGuire (2014)
• “The Nao of Brown” – Glyn Dillon (2012)
• “Tina’s Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary” – Keshni Kashyap and Mari Araki (2012)
• “A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel” – Hope Larson and Madeleine L’Engle (2012)
• “Days of the Bagnold Summer” – Joff Winterhart (2012)
• “Anya’s Ghost” – Vera Brosgol (2011)
• “Page by Paige” – Laura Lee Gulledgel (2011)
• “Level Up” – Gene Luen Yang and Thien Pham (2011)
• “Sensitive Creatures” – Mandy Ord (2011)
• “Hicksville” – Dylan Horrocks (2010)
• “Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?” – Brian Fies (2009)
• “Essex County” – Jeff Lemire (2009)
• “Skim” – Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (2008)
• “Berlin: City of Smoke (Book 2)” – Jason Lutes (2008)
• “Sleepwalk and other stories” – Adrian Tomine (2008)
• “Shortcomings” – Adrian Tomine (2007)
• “Re-Gifters” – Mike Carey, Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel (2007)
• “The Arrival” – Shaun Tan (2006)
• “The Left Bank Gang” – Jason (2006)
• “La Perdida” – Jessica Abel (2006)
• “The Fate of the Artist” – Eddie Campbell (2006)
• “American Born Chinese” – Gene Luen Yang (2006)
• “Tricked” – Alex Robinson (2005)
• “Why Are You Doing This?” – Jason (2005)
• “Night Fisher” – R. Kikuo Johnson (2005)
• “Embroideries” – Marjane Satrapi (2003)
• “Jar of Fools” – Jason Lutes (2003)
• “BOP!: More Box Office Poison” – Alex Robinson (2003)
• “The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures” – Phoebe Gloeckner (2002)
• “Brick Dog and other stories” – Mandy Ord and Amber Carvan (2002)
• “Box Office Poison” – Alex Robinson (2001)
• “Berlin: City of Stones (Book 1)” – Jason Lutes (2000)
• “A Child’s Life and Other Stories” – Phoebe Gloeckner (1998)
• “Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer” – Ben Katchor (1996)
• “Bone, Vol. 2: The Great Cow Race” – Jeff Smith (1996)
• “It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken” – Seth (1996)
• “Flood!: A Novel in Pictures” – Eric Drooker (1992)
• “The Snowman” – Raymond Briggs (1978)

Comics / graphic novels: non-fiction

• “Patience” – Daniel Clowes (2016)
• “Out on the Wire: the Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio” – Jessica Abel (2015)
• “Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas” – Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks (2013)
• “Feynman” – Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick (2011)
• “Psychiatric Tales: Eleven Graphic Stories About Mental Illness” – Darryl Cunningham (2011)
• “T-Minus: The Race to the Moon” – Jim Ottaviani, Zander Cannon and Kevin Cannon (2009)
• “Louis Riel” – Chester Brown (2003)
• “Stuck Rubber Baby” – Howard Cruse (1995)

Comics / graphic novels: memoirs

• “March: Book Three” – John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell (2016)
• “Something New: Tales from a Makeshift Bride” – Lucy Knisley (2016)
• “Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir” – Tom Hart (2016)
• “March: Book Two” – John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell (2015)
• “Honor Girl: a Graphic Memoir” – Maggie Thrash (2015)
• “Re-Gifters” – Mike Carey, Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel (2007)
• “Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir” – Liz Prince (2014)
• “An Age of License: A Travelogue” – Lucy Knisley (2014)
• “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir” – Roz Chast (2014)
• “Sisters” – Raina Telgemeier (2014)
• “March: Book One” – John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell (2013)
• “Relish: My Life in the Kitchen” – Lucy Knisley (2013)
• “The Property” – Rutu Modan (2013)
• “Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes” – Bryan Talbot and Mary M. Talbot (2012)
• “Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir” – Ellen Forney (2012)
• “Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22” – MariNaomi (2011)
• “The Reason She Left and other stories” – Kristen Caven (2011)
• “Smile” – Raina Telgemeier (2010)
• “Drinking at the Movies” – Julia Wertz (2010)
• “The Impostor’s Daughter: A True Memoir” – Laurie Sandell (2009)
• “Funny Misshapen Body: A Memoir” – Jeffrey Brown (2009)
• “French Milk” – Lucy Knisley (2008)
• “The Complete Persepolis” – Marjane Satrapi (2007)
• “The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain” – Peter Sís (2007)
• “Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China” – Guy Delisle (2006)
• “Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea” – Guy Delisle (2005)
• “Black Hole” – Charles Burns (2005)
• “American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar” – Harvey Pekar (2003)
• “Unlikely” – Jeffrey Brown (2003)
• “Clumsy” – Jeffrey Brown (2002)
• “Our Cancer Year” – Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner and Frank Stack (1994)

Comics theory

• “Mastering Comics: Drawing Words & Writing Pictures Continued” – Jessica Abel and Matt Madden (2012)
• “Drawing Words and Writing Pictures” – Jessica Abel and Matt Madden (2008)
• “Manga Studio For Dummies” – Doug Hills (2008)
• “The Education of a Comics Artist: Visual Narrative in Cartoons, Graphic Novels, and Beyond” – Michael Dooley and Steven Heller (2005)
• “Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form” – Scott McCloud (2000)
• “Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist” – Will Eisner (1990)

Tintinology

• “Tintin: Herge’s Masterpiece” – Pierre Sterckx (2015)
• “Tintin: The Art of Hergé” – Michel Daubert (2013)
• “The Adventures of Herge: Creator of Tintin” – Michael Farr (2008)