Bibliography, August 2008

Books bought / received (0)


Books read (16)
M. Amis, Koba the Dread
D. Cruickshanks, Around the world in 80 treasures
D. Devonshire, Counting my Chickens
N. Ferguson, Colossus
D. Lodge, How far can you Go?
V.M. Manfredi, Tyrant
M. Marquese, War minus the shooting
A. Maupin, Tales of the City
I. McEwan, Amsterdam
T. Mosely, Zogonia
R.T. Moss, Cleopatra's wedding present
M. Rendell, The death of Marco Pantani
J. Solomon, Accessing Antiquity
J. Steinbeck, The short reign of Peppin IV
S. Townsend, Number Ten
A. van Voght, Moonbeast

A triumph of willpower. I have successfully resisted buying a single book and read many, though my unread percentage is still way too high, with 8.5% of my collection unread.

A lot of the reading though was average where it should have been good. Some were dire - Townsend especially; other merely a bit empty - Maupin, McEwan; and Ferguson's Colossus promised much but fell down on the history. There are better analysts of the future, and he didn't give enough attention to the past.

However, there were some gems. my infatuation with David Lodge is increasingly as I loved this one and would be about to go on a major raid if I could spare the shelf space. Another deft and witty triumph. He packs a great deal into short books, but they are enormously satisfying. I reread Moss' great book on Syria which still sparkles as it did when I read it in 2003. Though there are better books on the region, he treads a unique path. Similarly, Koba the Dread was best when it spoke more personally about Amis' own experiences with the communist-apologist left rather than his documentation of the communist years themselves. There are better surveys of the history though.

Unprecedentedly, two of the best books I read this month were sport books, and I don't even have a large sport section (15 books). Rendell's book was a fascinating account of a strange sport and a strange character. I'm an occasional cycling follower, essentially just doing the Tour, but this was none the less compelling and a well told tragic tale. Marquese's book - about the 1996 world cup - was great, with a great story to tell, and in its backdrop of subcontinental security fears, very apposite given the current crisis over Pakistan. Of course, it is also worth a read given how much has changed in 12 years - No Twenty20 even on the horizon - but most of all, it's a great book about a game and a culture.