Enjoy!

This is the list of all the books during 2018. When I read the book in English, my notes are in English, et en français quand je l’ai lu en français.

Enjoy!

The Cure is my favourite band. Lol Tolhurst, former drummer, keyboardist and alcoholic, did a great job at telling the story of the early years. It is a book about rock, life, friendship and alcohol. I think even people not interested in The Cure would find it a good read.

A classic, I wanted to read it before watching the movie. It’s dark, very well done and a bit depressing. I think I would still recommend the book, but I don’t plan on watching the movie any more.

Un de ces livres qui créent un lien avec ses protagonistes et qui même s’il fait plus de 1000 pages, vous semble trop court. Prenant comme un polar.

I loved Life After Life by Kate Atkinston, this is not really a sequel, but the development of the same story from another point of view. It focuses on the life of a British pilot during WWII. The best war book I read, not that I read many, but that definitely made me a pacifist, not that I was a war monger.

The memoirs of Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live star and producer/actress in 30 Rock, among other. Funny as you would expect it from Tina.

Another kind of novel... more a management book that a novel. A quite entertaining way to learn more about Lean Management and Kaizen. I think the authors could have had more fun writing it, making it totally a novel and adding notes after the chapters to expand on the academic side of the book.

This started as a short story on reddit and ended up as a full novel. Very enjoyable, it reminded me of San Francisco and made me realise what a piece of work type fonts were.

Il m’aura fallu plus de 1001 nuits pour lire les deux volumes. Toutes les histoires n’y sont pas, point de trace d’Aladdin, d’Ali Baba ou des 40 voleurs ici, ni d’érotisme. En revanche j’ai eu ma dose de sexisme et de racisme.

Troisième et dernier volet de ce roman jeunesse. Passé l’installation de l’univers de ce roman écolo, le troisième volet est plus versé dans l’action, ce qui n’est pas sa principale force.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution are a very simple and efficient way of getting things done to grow a business. It is actually so simple that a 10 pages book would have been enough. Quick read, just do it.

My first JG Ballard. Concrete Island is a great novel about a guy who gets stuck on an island in between motorways. This idea is brilliant and the book long enough to get you in the mood but not too long to spoil the idea. Highly recommended.

J’aimais bien Foenkinos, mais là on sombre dans un pathos déprimant typiquement français, ultra dispensable.

Un livre incroyable, où la fiction s’invite dans le réel, Orhan Pamuk ayant créé un musée de l’innocence à Istanbul. 

I love Murakami and want to read all of his books. 1Q84 is one of his great novel, so big it has been released in three books. As I don’t want to spoil a good novel and respect the way it was published, I didn’t want to read all three books one after the other, so I read the first book and then moved on to something else.

J’avais détesté les Essais de Montaigne quand j’avais dû en lire des extraits en Terminal. Ce livre trainait dans ma bibliothèque depuis 3 ans et je me suis dit pourquoi pas le lire. Bonne surprise, j’ai trouvé ces analyses de textes extrêmement moderne et pleine de sagesse. Malheureusement, 6 mois après il ne m’en reste rien, peut être devrais je le relire l’été prochain...

J’ai adoré la série des Falsificateurs par Antoine Bello, et j’aurais dû en rester là. Cette enquête est un mix entre Memento (le film de Christopher Nolan) et un duel d’érudit d’Agatha Christie. Loin d’être palpitant, le ton du roman m’a agacé. Au moins il m’aura donné envie de lire le livre suivant...

This is so great that it became a classic and influenced many writers and screen writers whose works are better fitted for the XXIst century. This didn’t age that well, but the portraits are still a great read. Worth noting that Kenneth Branagh adaptation of the book is really good. 

I didn’t want to wait too long before reading book 2, really good as well. I am looking forward to read book 3

Un livre magnifique qui fat plongé dans le Paris de l’entre deux guerres. Je pense qu’il a inspiré Woodu Allen pour son Minuit à Paris. J’adore Paris!!!

A book my son was reading and I thought I should also read it as it is a classic. Main characters are children, which made it difficult for me to identify to the characters, but still interesting.