Bookshelf 07

A reasonably comprehensive listing of the books I read this year, roughly in order. I may have missed three or four. (An asterisk indicates a rereading.)

The Walk Book, Cardiff
Shadow Cities, Neuwirth
The Urban Revolution, Lefebvre
Skateboarding, Space and the City, Borden
Guerrilla Warfare, Guevara
Low Life, Sante
Ubik, Dick*
Berlin Stories, Isherwood*
Fun Home, Bechdel
Home Rules, Wood and Beck
The Good Terrorist, Lessing*
Total Chaos, Izzo
The Long Goodbye, Chandler
American Fascists, Hedges
The Stars My Destination, Bester*
Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy, Hickey
Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of COUM Transmissions & Throbbing Gristle, Ford
Black Swan Green, Mitchell
The Dhammapada: Verses on the Way, Wallis tr.
Underworld, DeLillo*
The Laws of Simplicity, Maeda
War of the World, Ferguson
Nineteen Seventy Four, Peace
American Psycho, Ellis
The Box, Levinson
Last Child In The Woods, Louv
The Confusion, Stephenson
Rainbow’s End, Vinge
Blue Monday, Varnelis and Sumrell
The Body In Pain, Scarry
Reassembling The Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory, Latour ed.
The System of the World, Stephenson
What the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer, Markoff
Spook Country, Gibson
Pattern Recognition, Gibson*
Lint, Aylet
Chourmo, Izzo
The 42nd Parallel, Dos Passos
1919, Dos Passos
Hard Times, Turkel
The Big Money, Dos Passos
A Bright Shining Lie, Sheehan
The Fall of Berlin 1945, Beevor
The Complete Short Stories: Volume I, Ballard
The Men Who Stare At Goats, Ronson
Tokyo Nights, Ritchie
Reyner Banham, Whiteley
Evil Paradises, Davis ed.
Skycar City, MVRDV
Outside Lies Magic, Stilgoe
Urban Forms, Samuels, Panerai et al.
Touching From A Distance, Curtis
The Shockwave Rider, Brunner*
Stand on Zanzibar, Brunner*
Moonseed, Baxter*
Solea, Izzo
Cloud Atlas, Mitchell
Tokyo Year Zero, Peace
The World Without Us, Weisman
Sixteen Acres, Nobel
The Man Who Japed, Dick*
The Divine Invasion, Dick
Designs on the Public, Miller
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Chabon
Nova Swing, Harrison
Light, Harrison*
Kingdom Come, Ballard
Close Up: How To Read The American City, Clay
Topologies: The Urban Utopia in France 1960-1970, Busbea
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, Moore
The Sea Came In At Midnight, Erickson*
The Road, McCarthy
Berlin: City of Stones, Lutes
The Intuitionist, Whitehead*
Plans and Situated Actions, Suchman*
Going, Going, Gone, Womack*

It’s easy to see the impact of curriculum development, and also that I tend to binge on series. A reread SF paperback should be considered the equivalent of comfort food.

I recommend these all, with the exception of the Maeda (garbage), the Vinge (meh) and the Markoff (curiously flat). Honestly, the Maeda was the only book I read this year – or at least the only one I finished – that I truly regret, although I’ll admit to reading Stephenson mostly out of obligation. Enjoy.

3 responses to “Bookshelf 07”

  1. Jamie says :

    All the parts of the Dos Passos _USA Trilogy_! Good on ya. 2007 was a good year to brush up on how to see the world through Eisenstein eyes. The Gert Ledig novel recommended by Enrique looks fascinating, in this regard.

    Which book on your list was written the earliest?

  2. AG says :

    Scary, revealing question. Discounting for the moment the Dhammapada (~2500 y), I think the earliest parts of the Berlin Stories were written in ’23 or so.

  3. AG says :

    Oh, and the Ronson was worthless, too.

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