This is the third year, Iām capturing my reading lists (see 2017 here, 2016 here, andĀ see my monthly reads here). FYI, I read books on paper, on my Kindle and listen to audio books via Audible.
Total: 52 (down from last yearās 67). I realised that the time I spent commuting when I lived in Sweden last year has very much been missing this year.Ā
My male-female ration is worse than last year with 31% female to 67% male authors (the 2% other being The Secret Barrister of unknown gender).Ā
My fiction-non fiction ratio is 56% for fiction to 44% for non-fiction
Overall, this year was by no means as successful as last year. By which I mean that the books werenāt as good (Sloterdijkās Schelling-Projekt) and I seemingly read a lot more heavy and thick books which took a lot longer to read (Murakamiās 1Q84, Dickensā A Tale of Two Cities, Bulgakovās The Master and Margherita etc.) and some of which I should have stopped when I wasnāt feeling it (Austerās 4 3 2 1).
New categories: In addition to my āRead one Russian per yearā, I have decided upon two new categories. They will likely be on a monthly rather than yearly basis depending if I can find enough of them in the libraries around me. I have discovered philosophy biographies through series such as the āModern Mastersā and enjoyed some of those this year (Wittgenstein and Popper were good, Marx less so) and will read a feminist book per month (in the broadest sense). This shouldnāt be too difficult as I realised looking over the last months that I quasi have been doing it anyway. Also, I came across a great list of 150 books by and about women scientists and already added 12 books to my shelf for 2019.
The longlist: Looking back over the books that I have marked as recommendation over the year, I would be a lot more critical now at the end of the year as opposed to freely handing out recommendation stars on a monthly basis. But I shall not be messing with what I said months ago versus the benefit of hindsight. However, I will be more critical in 2019.Ā
Iām going to split my recommendations into a shortlist and longlist as opposed to Top 3 or Top 5 as in the last years:
Rutger Bregman: Utopia for Realists
The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How Itās Broken
James Comey: A Higher Loyalty
Steven Pinker: Enlightenment Now
Kazuo Ishiguro: Nocturnes
Mark Manson: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
Hilary Mantel: The Assassination of Margaret ThatcherĀ
Charles Dickens:Ā A Tale of Two Cities
Rutger Bregman:Ā Utopia for Realists
Peter Watson: Convergence - The Idea at the Heart of Science
The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken
Robert Menasse:Ā Die Hauptstadt
Ruchir Sharma:Ā The Rise and Fall of Nations
James Comey:Ā A Higher Loyalty
Charlie English:Ā The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu
Steven Pinker:Ā Enlightenment Now
Haruki Murakami:Ā What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Kazuo Ishiguro:Ā Nocturnes
Mark Manson:Ā The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck
Virginia Woolf:Ā Mrs Dalloway
Michael Lewis:Ā Boomerang
Sayaka Murata:Ā Convience Store Woman
Hilary Mantel:Ā The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
Hans Rosling:Ā Factfulness
Kazuo Ishiguro:Ā When We Were Orphans
Rebecca Traister:Ā Good and Mad
A.C. Grayling:Ā Wittgenstein
Naomi Alderman:Ā The Power
Bryan Magee:Ā Karl Popper