The Occasional...

Books…

I’ve decided there’s not much use in updating The Occasional with a separate posting for every single book I’ve read over the past few months and, instead, here’s a compilation that is, I hope, broadly accurate.

What I have found is that finishing work has brought my natural inquisitiveness back to the fore. I haven’t read many factual books for quite a while but this time to myself has made me less in need of escapism and more in need of thought-provoking non-fiction.

It makes me think that we tend towards fiction (and especially genres like science fiction and fantasy) when we need to escape from an unhappy real world. Conversely, perhaps when we’re happy with “where we’re at” we feel ready, willing and (most importantly) able to embrace books that encourage us to think.

Over the past few months I’ve read fiction including Lauren Beukes’ Moxyland (interesting enough), Richard Morgan’s The Steel Remains (overrated), Sarah Moss’ Cold Earth (excellent), All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman (a perfect gift for your loved one next February 14th), Ascent by Jed Mercurio (fantastic), Martin Amis’ Time’s Arrow (very clever but, for my money, hollow) and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (good but not as good as expected and nowhere near as good as the incomparable ten-part Martin Beck series (look it up)). Mainly hits and a couple of near misses.

My non-fiction reading started with books orientated to changing lifestyles and/or starting a business and included Timothy Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Work Week, The Magic Of Thinking Big by David Schwartz, and How To Make Millions With Your Ideas by Dan Kennedy. The first at least is worth picking up regardless of your employment situation - the latter two less so.

I also read Getting Things Done by David Allen after completing a great course organised by Brighton-based People Who Do (link to come). It’s like reading an instruction manual but has inspired me to change how I do things and, perhaps, how to share that with others.

Bill Bryson’s Down Under was a bit of light holiday reading but not up there with his best (although it has made me want to visit Oz sometime soon). I also whizzed through Kate Summerscale’s well received The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher, which I enjoyed but not as much as I’d have hoped.

Steven Johnson’s Emergence was interesting and might have influenced me to go back to school to complete my PhD but was quite poorly written in places and certain sections felt rushed and not quite as sharp as they needed to be.

Most imporantly I read Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point and Outliers. Read both (and Blink) when you get chance. Enjoyable and erudite.

That’s 16 books and there’s probably more I’ve forgotten but who’s counting?