2006 Books

Here is the list of book I read in the year 2006, this time they are in order, since I began this list as I read the books, unfortunately, some maybe be out of order… best laid plans and what not, you know how it goes:

1. In Patagonia - Bruce Chatwin (reread of the classic travel novel)
2. Marley and Me - John Grogan (Don’t ask… alright, I’ll tell you, I was flying home with it to give to my sis’ bf who has the same dog and can relate, it read very fast, but there is something about Grogan I don’t like, overall I do not recommend the book.)
3. Computer and the Brain - John Von Neumann (Old, sometimes dated, material on modeling neurons, but still a very different view and approach than, say, Edelman’s Wider Than the Sky. Let’s not forget, in it is time, it was visionary.)
4. Book of Dust - Agnes Denes (It is an art book, see. Apt I tell ya, apt!)
5. Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction - John Monaghan and Peter Just (I enjoyed this book. I recommend it for any observer of the human species. I almost hatched a scheme because of this book, but I put it off for another time, perhaps when I next move locales.)
6. The Nimrod Flipout - Etgar Keret (Short stories that remind us to use humor when life pushes one to the wall. See also.)
7. About Time: Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution - Paul Davies (Hmm… I read this book. I clearly remember reading it, but right now, I cannot recall a single thing about it. Go figure, must be a time thing.)
8. What Good Are the Arts? - John Carey (Is Carey an anti-modernist? Perhaps. Some of his points in this book are apt, others are rehashed and almost incomplete, to me at least.)
9. Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World - Mark Pendergrast (About coffee, in depth, informational, colorful, and best taken in doses with breaks.)
10. Borges On Writing - Jorge Luis Borges (A great find at Greenwood Books, I blogged about reading this book [Borges on the Brain, II].)
11. Time and Again - Jack Finney (Words escape me. I love this book.)
12. Mysteries of Pittsburgh: A Novel (P.S.) - Michael Chabon (Made me wanna go to Pittsburgh, but not enough to force the issue.)
13. The Willowdale Handcar: or the Return of the Black Doll - Edward Gorey (Does this count? I guess I should know, since I make my own rules yada-yada. This is possibly the most tragic Gorey book I’ve read. Tragic in a Haneke since, where no violence happens on screen, but you just kind of know it is bad, really bad. But that’s my interpretation.)
14. Nude with Violin - Noel Coward (Plays by a man I adore and who was brought to my attention by a woman I adore. It doesn’t get better than that… oh wait, it does…)
15. Three Plays: Blithe Spirit, Hayfever, Private Lives - Noel Coward (See above; ad infinitum.)
16. A Personal Anthology - Jorge Luis Borges (Another reread, cover to cover. Eureka! Oh the sleepless nights have a source and I’ve found it. The dilemma is what to do now?)
17. A Guide to the Study of Fresh-Water Biology - Needham and Needham (Who could forget the free material that launched a long-winded memory under water, my own madeleine.)
18. Those Barren Leaves - Aldous Huxley (This was a fabulous read. Another blog-worthy book. The selections made by John Carey in Pure Pleasure - which is where I heard about this novel - bring to mind an aphorism by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg in his Waste Books - which I just got for the holiday - unfortunately, I am still looking for that particular aphorism so I can’t share it now.)
19. A Country Doctor’s Notebook - Mikhail Bulgakov (Another Pure Pleasure pick, and another fast, quick, yet worthwhile read about a young doctor’s trials and tribulations.)

Kind of a weird year, some hefty novels mixed with lots of short story collections and unusual pieces. Neat.

No comments yet.