Books read in 2012 (and my favorites)
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I read 39 books in 2012. Here’s a few of my favorites:
The Chairs are Where the People Go, Misha Glouberman (with Shelia Heti)
In many ways a frustrating book, but also very interesting. I posted some of my favorite insights back in January.
Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World, Nicholas Ostler
A fascinating look at world languages throughout the ages, including a look at how they out-live their speakers.
Debt: The First 5,000 Years, David Graeber
Graeber argues that the popular conception of how money evolved is wrong: it actually arose from debt. Physical money prospered in times of unrest and war. That’s just one facet of this very interesting book. Wikipedia has a nice summary.
Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming, Peter Seibel
This book is a great peak into the minds of some legendary programmers. I posted some of my favorite insights from the book.
Travel Light, Naomi Mitchison
When The Lord of the Rings came out, Naomi Mitchison blurbed it because she was a far more popular author. Today, she has largely been forgotten and this book is hard to find (I got it after waiting over a year on Paperback Swap but it was re-printed in 2005 and you can get it on Amazon).
Travel Light is a charming and subversive fairy tale that is well-worth reading. Find a copy.
The Ruin of the Roman Empire, James J. O’Donnell
A somewhat revisionist history of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. O’Donnell notes the Roman-ness of the “barbarian” Theodoric and his continuance of normal life under his rule to argue (much like L. Sprague De Camp in Lest Darkness Fall) that the real fall of Rome occurred under Justinian.
I picked up The Ruin of the Roman Empire while browsing at the library simply because it looked interesting. When so much of what I read is recommended by algorithms, an old-fashioned random choice is nice now and again.
The full list is below. For comparison, here are lists from 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.
The Player of Games, Ian M. Banks
The Chairs Are Where the People Go, Misha Glouberman, with Sheila Heti
The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajamiemi
The Children of the Sky, Vernor Vinge
Travels with Charley in Search of America, John Steinbeck
Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson
The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson
The Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson
Fixing the Game: Bubbles, Crashses, and What Capitalism Can Learn from the NFL, Roger L. Martin
Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World, Nicholas Ostler
Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, Atul Gawande
Island in the Sea of Time, S. M. Stirling
Debt: The First 5,000 Years, David Graeber
The Ancient Engineers, L. Sprague De Camp
The Stone Canal, Ken MacLeod
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, Charles C. Mann
The Ballad of Beta-2, Samuel R. Delany
The Ghost, Robert Harris
The Passage, Justin Cronin
Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson
Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, Chris Hedges
Empire Star, Samuel R. Delaney
Conspirata, Robert Harris
Last Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
The Infinitive of Go, John Brunner
Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
The Guns of Avalon, Roger Zelazny
Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming, Peter Seibel
Sign of the Unicorn, Roger Zelazny
The Hand of Oberon, Roger Zelazny
The Courts of Chaos, Roger Zelazny
Travel Light, Naomi Mitchison
The Magic of Recluse, L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
The Ruin of the Roman Empire, James J. O’Donnell
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, Tim Weiner
Falling Free, Lois McMaster Bujold
Off Armageddon Reef, David Weber