What I Have Read - So Far

I thought that this would be a good chance to put up a list of all the books I have finished reading in the first half of the year, as well as choosing my highlights for the year to date. Anyhow here is the complete list:

1. Table for Three: More Tales of Saffy and Amanda by Jason Hahn
2. The Iraq War by John Keegan
3. Lyra’s Oxford by Phillip Pullman (Young Adult)
4. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
5. All The Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer
6. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
7. Imperium by Robert Harris
8. Platform by Michel Houellebecq
9. The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford
10. The Epiplectic Bicycle by Edward Gorey (Illustrated Short Story)
11. Twelve Books that Changed the World by Melvyn Bragg
12. The Secret Goldfish and Other Follies by Tan Teck Howe
13. Those Feet: A Sensual History of English Football by David Winner
14. The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
15. Crispin: Cross of Lead by Avi (Young Adult)
16. Dreamers by Knut Hamsun
17. The Making of a Philosopher by Colin McGinn
18. Slow Waltz on Cedar Bend by Robert James Waller
19. A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut
20. Got Singapore by Richard Lim
21. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima
22. To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer
23. The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky
24. Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
25. Nothing But the Truth by Avi (Young Adult)
26. Lanzarote by Michel Houellebecq
27. Frameshift by Robert Sawyer
28. Alien Asian: A Singaporean in America by Simon Tay
29. Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
30. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
31. How To Read A Novel: A User’s Guide by John Sutherland
32. The Courage Consort by Michel Faber
33. The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
34. The Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
35. The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq by Patrick Cockburn
36. Six (Genesis) by Jim Crace
37. An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire by Arundhati Roy
38. Among the Dead Cities by A.C Grayling
39. Marley and Me by John Grogan
40. Continue to Pester, Nag and Bite: Churchill’s War Leadership by Martin Gilbert
41. The Sensation of Independence: A Biography of David Marshall by Chan Heng Chee
42. Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (Young Adult)
43. Everyman by Phillip Roth
44. The Eternals by Neil Gaiman (Graphic Novel)
45. The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
46. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
47. Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
48. The Children of Hurin by J.R.R Tolkien
49. Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
50. The Quarry by Damon Galgut
51. The Glamour by Christopher Priest
52. Shadowmancer by G.P Taylor

Titles in Bold are highly recommended, titles in Italics are recommended. I have limited myself to recommending 10 titles in total (out of the 52). All in all, the main factor governing my reading so far was that I tended to go for novels that were short (less than three hundred pages). This was due to the fact that I have had less time to read since starting work, and was generally only being able to complete a book over a number of sittings.

I guess I really could have used my reading time better: Slow Waltz on Cedar Bend and The Horse Whisperer were definitely inexcusable. But reading is for enjoyment and relaxation and you sometimes what you really need is 300 pages full of brainless crap. [I promise a more detailed write up on specific titles soonish whenever I have time - in other words don't count on it]