Reading List 2008
It’s that time again to look back on what’s been read in the year. I’ve not got time for a big analysis I fear so I shall just list all I’ve read in the year, in the chronological order in which I read it. Got that? Good.
God and the State – Michael Bakunin
The Prison Notebooks – Antonio Gramsci
Its Mawdsley – David Baker (see also)
Dawn of the Dumb – Charlie Brooker (see also)
A Handful of Dust – Evelyn Waugh (see also)
Violence – Slavoj Zizek (see also)
A Clockwork Apple – Belinda Webb (see below)
Renegade: The Life and Tales of Mark E Smith – Mark E Smith and Austin Collings
The Soul of Man Under Socialism - Oscar Wilde (see also)
Under the Sign of Saturn – Susan Sontag
Fear of Music – Gary Mullholland
Orwell in Tribune – George Orwell
Captive State – George Monbiot
Essays in English History – A J P Taylor
Beyond Good and Evil – Friedrich Nietzsche
The Line of Beauty – Alan Hollinghurst
There we have it. Not quite the full story, went through quite a few good art books as well, on Dada, Futurism, Bacon, G&G and others which I haven’t included. The T.S. Eliot and Gramsci (now there’s an unholy pair) I read a large amount of but not all. The last two (Nietzsche and Hollinghurst) I’ve not finished yet. But otherwise, that’s my year in books, and, once again………….Did I enjoy them all? Yes. A couple I might class more on the “interesting” side, but the interest is real nonetheless. Do I recommend them all then? Indeed I do! Drink the lot guys and gals, it’s a lovely heady brew for the head so it is.
And my book of the year? In sheer terms of the enjoyment I got out of it, it’s got to be “A Clockwork Apple”. See the reasons why again. What with this and the Wizard of Oz face-mask falling off Thatcher-Friedmanism, it certainly can’t have been all bad this year!
Happy New Year to all Spike readers, and remember, peer not too long at mediocrity, or mediocrity will peer into you.
