This is the last list I’ll be posting on stuff from 2009, I promise. After this it’s all about looking forward. I’ve been tracking my reading on aNobii for some time. Here’s a list of the books I’ve found particularly worthwhile, ordered chronologically. My three absolute favorites are marked in bold.
- Faith in Fakes, Umberto Eco
- Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
- Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
- What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami
- Black Dogs, Ian McEwan
- Out of Control, Kevin Kelly
- Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino
- Game Design Workshop (2nd edition), Tracy Fullerton
- The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster
- Fight Club, Chuck Paluhniuk
- A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
- The Image of the City, Kevin Lynch
- Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
- Underworld, Don DeLillo
- Rum Punch, Elmore Leonard
- Digital Ground, Malcolm McCullough
- The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
Common themes: cities, complexity, society & the individual, inner & outer space, design.
I’ve been quite picky with what I read last year and will probably continue to do so this year. Many of these have heaps of dog ears and margin notes and its a wonderful feeling to have them sitting in my studio bookshelf, ready to be picked up and used when required.