Books of 2008
As I did last year, I figured I'd make another list of the books I read in 2008. My rate of consumption has been pretty damn low of late, though I am currently in the middle of about four different books, which upon finishing will be added to this list.
1) Neil Gaiman: Sandman 5 (finished 01-05) A very good continuation of a very good series.
2) Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene (finished 02-20, because I'm lame) Excellent account of how the mindless replication of individual genes can adequately explain higher-order behaviors once thought to be good indications of group selection or fundamentally altruistic pressures. While some of the specifics are now out of date (it was written more than 30 years ago), I still found it to be a very interesting read.
3) Jean Aichison: Language Change: Progress or Decay? (finished 02-26) A fascinating account of one of the things I'm most interested in with regard to linguistics.
4) Barry Glassner: Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things (finished 03-04) Excellent, albeit somewhat depressing. He spends a fair bit of time talking about all the much deeper, more serious problems we pretty much ignore in favor of the exaggerated or wholly invented "dangers" that take up the most news time.
5) Douglas Adams: The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul (finished mid-March sometime) Typical quality from Adams, which means excellent and hilarious
6) Barbara Kingsolver: The Poisonwood Bible (finished 04-01) Very well written and intensely moving book, much like everyone always told me.
7) Clive Cussler: Atlantis Found (finished 04-15) Typical Cussler, so entertaining and trite and completely unrealistic.
8) Terry Pratchett: The Colour of Magic (finished 05-16) The first Discworld novel, and a very good start to the series. I'm not going to comment on every single one of them unless something stands out particularly.
9) Terry Pratchett: Equal Rites (finished 05-22)
10) Terry Pratchett: The Light Fantastic (finished 06-01)
11) Charles Sheffield: Tomorrow and Tomorrow (finished 06-07) Excellent, sweeping epic of future history, along with a love story. I quite like Sheffield, as he gets the science pretty right without sacrificing characters in so doing.
12) Charles Sheffield: Starfire (finished 06-20) Excellent sequel to Aftermath, which I read and quite enjoyed last year in Mexico.
13) Terry Pratchett: Mort (finished 06-25)
14) Terry Pretchett: Sourcery (finished 06-30)
15) Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson: Hunters of Dune (finished 07-22) The first sequel to the original Dune saga, it was rather like the prequel trilogy, in that it's an interesting story and not badly written. It's also very much not Frank Herbert any more.
16) Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson: Sandworms of Dune (finished 07-28) A decent ending to a good series, though some parts seemed a bit overdramatic and contrived.
17) Paulo Coelho: The Alchemist (finished 07-29) Excellent story, though not life-changing for me like it apparently has been to some other people I've talked to. It did make me want to travel again, however.
18) Barry Glassner: The Gospel of Food (finished 08-08) Also excellent. Along the same lines as Culture of Fear, this one focuses on common beliefs and myths about food. I wrote a more detailed entry about part of it here.
19) Michio Kaku: Hyperspace (finished 08-26) Very well-written overview of some of the history of the development of string theory. Specifically, Kaku does a good job explaining some of the mathematics without getting bogged down in details, but also without dumbing down the concepts.
20) David Brin: The Postman (finished 09-04) Well-written and post-apocalyptic, so of course I enjoyed it. Parts seemed a bit trite, though, which was unfortunate.
21) David Brin: Sundiver (finished 09-16) Set in the same universe, and prior to Startide Rising, which I read last year. It's quite an interesting universe he's set up, so I plan on reading the rest of the books set therein.
22-24) Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson: the Butlerian Jihad trilogy (last one finished 11-20) Like the others by these two, this trilogy was enjoyable but nothing spectacular.
25) Robert A. Heinlein: Tunnel in the Sky (finished 11/23) Enjoyable, humorous, and poignant, like most Heinlein I've read. There's also the persistent oddness of his mixture of ideas that are progressive even today, and notions from the 1950s that seem woefully old-fashioned to us now.
26) Stephen King: Firestarter (finished 12/08) Typically interesting and realistic character development, which is why I so consistently enjoy even those King novels with uninspiring plot lines.
1) Neil Gaiman: Sandman 5 (finished 01-05) A very good continuation of a very good series.
2) Richard Dawkins: The Selfish Gene (finished 02-20, because I'm lame) Excellent account of how the mindless replication of individual genes can adequately explain higher-order behaviors once thought to be good indications of group selection or fundamentally altruistic pressures. While some of the specifics are now out of date (it was written more than 30 years ago), I still found it to be a very interesting read.
3) Jean Aichison: Language Change: Progress or Decay? (finished 02-26) A fascinating account of one of the things I'm most interested in with regard to linguistics.
4) Barry Glassner: Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things (finished 03-04) Excellent, albeit somewhat depressing. He spends a fair bit of time talking about all the much deeper, more serious problems we pretty much ignore in favor of the exaggerated or wholly invented "dangers" that take up the most news time.
5) Douglas Adams: The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul (finished mid-March sometime) Typical quality from Adams, which means excellent and hilarious
6) Barbara Kingsolver: The Poisonwood Bible (finished 04-01) Very well written and intensely moving book, much like everyone always told me.
7) Clive Cussler: Atlantis Found (finished 04-15) Typical Cussler, so entertaining and trite and completely unrealistic.
8) Terry Pratchett: The Colour of Magic (finished 05-16) The first Discworld novel, and a very good start to the series. I'm not going to comment on every single one of them unless something stands out particularly.
9) Terry Pratchett: Equal Rites (finished 05-22)
10) Terry Pratchett: The Light Fantastic (finished 06-01)
11) Charles Sheffield: Tomorrow and Tomorrow (finished 06-07) Excellent, sweeping epic of future history, along with a love story. I quite like Sheffield, as he gets the science pretty right without sacrificing characters in so doing.
12) Charles Sheffield: Starfire (finished 06-20) Excellent sequel to Aftermath, which I read and quite enjoyed last year in Mexico.
13) Terry Pratchett: Mort (finished 06-25)
14) Terry Pretchett: Sourcery (finished 06-30)
15) Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson: Hunters of Dune (finished 07-22) The first sequel to the original Dune saga, it was rather like the prequel trilogy, in that it's an interesting story and not badly written. It's also very much not Frank Herbert any more.
16) Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson: Sandworms of Dune (finished 07-28) A decent ending to a good series, though some parts seemed a bit overdramatic and contrived.
17) Paulo Coelho: The Alchemist (finished 07-29) Excellent story, though not life-changing for me like it apparently has been to some other people I've talked to. It did make me want to travel again, however.
18) Barry Glassner: The Gospel of Food (finished 08-08) Also excellent. Along the same lines as Culture of Fear, this one focuses on common beliefs and myths about food. I wrote a more detailed entry about part of it here.
19) Michio Kaku: Hyperspace (finished 08-26) Very well-written overview of some of the history of the development of string theory. Specifically, Kaku does a good job explaining some of the mathematics without getting bogged down in details, but also without dumbing down the concepts.
20) David Brin: The Postman (finished 09-04) Well-written and post-apocalyptic, so of course I enjoyed it. Parts seemed a bit trite, though, which was unfortunate.
21) David Brin: Sundiver (finished 09-16) Set in the same universe, and prior to Startide Rising, which I read last year. It's quite an interesting universe he's set up, so I plan on reading the rest of the books set therein.
22-24) Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson: the Butlerian Jihad trilogy (last one finished 11-20) Like the others by these two, this trilogy was enjoyable but nothing spectacular.
25) Robert A. Heinlein: Tunnel in the Sky (finished 11/23) Enjoyable, humorous, and poignant, like most Heinlein I've read. There's also the persistent oddness of his mixture of ideas that are progressive even today, and notions from the 1950s that seem woefully old-fashioned to us now.
26) Stephen King: Firestarter (finished 12/08) Typically interesting and realistic character development, which is why I so consistently enjoy even those King novels with uninspiring plot lines.