Dean Sas

Reading 2018

  1. Man in the High Castle by Phillip K Dick – fantastic, though ending let it down slightly.
  2. World War Z by Max Brooks – unusual format – a series of fictional interviews. Nice take on zombie fiction though.
  3. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson. Gripping
  4. This is the Way the World Ends by Keith Taylor – Very like WWZ, it’s basically a derivative, it’s not quite as good but it’s worth reading if you enjoyed WWZ
  5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. I’d never read Harry Potter until now, what a great series, looking forward to reading it with Hugo when the time comes.
  6. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabhan
  8. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  9. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  10. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
  11. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
  12. SPQR – A History of Ancient Rome by Mary beard. Interesting and readable
  13. A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa – fascinating account of how someone arrived, lived in and left North Korea. Not a nice story. It’s very dark.
  14. Walkaway by Cory Doctorow. One of his better novels. Not so YA.
  15. Every Inch of the Way: My Bike Ride Around the World by Tom Bruce. Fairly humdrum account about an exciting and inspirational trip around the world by bike
  16. Fatbiking Across Mongolia by Tom Bruce. More of the same. I do find Mongolia interesting though.
  17. Spain to Norway on a Bike Called Reggie by Andrew P. Sykes. It was ok.
  18. The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi – brilliant, promises to be the start of a big space opera, I can’t wait for the rest.
  19. Redshirts by John Scalzi. It’s a Star Trek parody, it was ok. Probably better if I had ever watched anything other than TNG twenty years ago
  20. Steadfast by Lizzie Armitstead. I was worried it was going to be dull at first but it was really interesting once it got to the cycling bit
  21. Feral by George Monbiot. Interesting ideas
  22. Dune by Frank Herbert. re-read
  23. Quicksilver (Baroque Cycle) by Neal Stephenson. Re-read. Still fantastic. Still the best book of the series.
  24. The Confusion (Baroque Cycle) by Neal Stephenson. Re-read. Still fantastic.
  25. The System of the World (Baroque Cycle) by Neal Stephenson. As above.
  26. Lock-In by John Scalzi. Sort of a near-future sci-fi police drama. It was ok.
  27. Contact by Sagan – really enjoyed
  28. A Journey by Tony Blair, ehhh
  29. A History of Venice by John Julius Norwich. Reread in preparation for holidaying there
  30. 24 hours in Rome by Philip Matyszak. Really good, nice have an idea of everyday Rome rather than just the Senators and political class.
  31. SPQR – A history of ancient Rome by Mary beard, reread while in Italy
  32. Dunston by Conn Iggulden. Really good, reading the last kingdom series and this has piqued my interest in an area of history I know little of
  33. A Classical Education by Caroline Taggart. Interesting “cliffs notes” of classical stuff – some facts, light history and lists of other things to read
  34. How to be a Husband by Tim Dowling. Picked up after finding his guardian columns amusing. Some genuine laugh out loud moments
  35. Dad You Suck by Tim Dowling. Funny but retreads the columns quite heavily for all but the start of the book.
  36. Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. Really good. 1984esque
  37. Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Interesting premise. Felt the ending lacked, more of a cliffhanger might have been better
  38. Mythos by Stephen Fry. Started off really interesting and informative, could have ended a little earlier though, lost interest during some of the metamorphosis
  39. An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield. Really interesting
  40. Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson. Interesting. Fleshed out and made real some of the things that are hinted at in the Baroque Cycle
  41. Interdependency: Consuming Fire by John Scalzi. Really good sci-fi, doesn’t quite reach the heights of the first in the series. Too short.
  42. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Fantastic novel about people going to mars and taking earth with them
  43. Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Not quite as enjoyable as the first, probably because less is new but also felt a bit repetitive
  44. Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. As above.
  45. The Flame Bearer (Last Kingdom) by Bernard Cromwell. Re-read.
  46. The War of the Wolf (Last Kingdom) by Bernard Cromwell. Really good addition to the series
  47. Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson. It’s no “notes of…” and Bryson has got older and grumpier. It’s amusing though.
  48. Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi. Really good bit of Sci-Fi
  49. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. Weird, sci-fi/horror, not sure what to make of it, not desperate to read the rest of the series though.
  50. The Giver by Lois Lowry. Ok YA scifi, interesting world. Could have quite happily left the series here.
  51. Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry. Another Giver universe story, bit less of an interesting world
  52. Messenger by Lois Lowry. Separate story to The Giver but in the same universe, interesting world but feels under explained
  53. Son by Lois Lowry. The Giver universe, sort of anti-climatic finish to the series.
←
→

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s