In order to try and better understand the world around me, I will read more books. In our age of maxi communication we are bombarded with information, most of it useless and / or with a very short shelf life. Pay too much attention and before you know it you’re hooked to the 24 hour news cycle and too sated to form an intelligent opinion on anything except the latest feeding frenzy. This is one reason why its so difficult for everyone to think strategically, and to separate what is important from what feels important.
So, no more browsing the BBC website, except in extremis, no more Evening Standard on the train home (London micro campaigns shouted through a megaphone; property gorging; celebrity gorging / poking; London-centric anything; downcast economic analysis; random opeds by the Russian proprietor). Instead of watching the ‘Ten’, I shall lie in bed reading books. And I shall keep a list as I go along. Here’s what I can remember reading in the last 12 months.
2013
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel (Picador, 2009) – page 298 and counting
Hitch-22, Christopher Hitchens (Atlantic Books, 2010)
NW, Zadie Smith (Hamish Hamilton, 2012)
2012
The File, Timothy Garton Ash (Atlantic Books, 2009)
Boomerang, Michael Lewis (Penguin, 2011)
Snow, Orhan Pamuk (faber and faber, 2005)
Joseph Anton – A Memoir, Salman Rushdie (Jonathan Cape, 2012)
Touching the Void, Joe Simpson (Vintage, 1997)
Stasiland, Anna Funder (Granta, 2003)
The Blair Years, Alastair Campbell (Arrow Books, 2008)
Words of Mercury, Patrick Leigh Fermour (John Murray, 2003)
A Journey, Tony Blair (Hutchison, 2010)
The Road, Cormac McCarthy (Alfred A. Knopf, 2006) – second time
Frontline – The True Story of the British Mavericks Who Changed the Face of War Reporting, David Loyn (Michael Joseph, 2005)
Stamboul Train, Graham Greene (Vintage, 2004)
No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy (Picador, 2005)
Snow Drops, A.D. Miller (Atlantic Books, 2011)
STUFF HAPPENS 
incamedia
This is a list of some of the books I’ve read over the past year. Looking back it is the non-fictions that stand out: Into the silence is a fascinating and detailed account of a time of nationalism, heroism and adventure that would soon be gone forever; Emperor’s Malady an interesting and, considering it was written by a practioner, objective account of a disease that affects us all, directly or indirectly; Hare with the amber eyes, what a family story, beautifully written and sweeping across modern European history.
Of the fictions, Yacoubian Building, Tony Hogan, Lifeboat and Bring Up the Bodies stand out, for different reasons.
Into the silence: the Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest – Wade Davis
Long song – Andrea Levy
Bring up the bodies – Hilary Mantell
The Yacoubian Building – Alaa Al Aswany
A Case of Exploding Mangoes – Mohammed Hanif
Pigeon English – Stephen Kelman,
Tony Hogan bought me an ice cream float before he stole my ma – Kerry Hudson
Where the god of love hangs out – Amy Bloom
All that I am – Funder, Anna
Siege – Ismail Kadare
Stranger’s child – Alan Hollinghurst
Secret scripture – Sebastian Barry
Brazzaville beach – William Boyd
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer – Siddhartha Mukherjee
Chavs: the demonization of the working class – Owen Jones
Submission – Amy Waldman
Reluctant fundamentalist – Mohsin Hamid
Friend of my youth – Alice Munro
Verge – Z. Egloff
Pure – Andrew Miller
Religion for atheists: a non-believer’s guide – Alain De Botton
Map of a nation: a biography of the Ordnance Survey – Rachel Hewitt
Hewitt, Rachel
Clothes on their backs – Linda Grant
Lifeboat – Charlotte Rogan
Big bang: the most important scientific discovery of all time and why you need to know about it – Simon Singh
Island of wings – Karin Altenberg
Hare with amber eyes: a hidden inheritance – Edmund De Waal
We had it so good – Linda Grant
stuff-happens.org
Impressive list. Thanks. Lots of things I want to read. Not enough time!