Aside from blogging more, my goal was to watch less TV and read more books in 2018. The books are listed by the date I finished reading them. Some I have done separate posts on, others I have not.
January
- Ernest Hemingway – For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). Hemingway at his best. Gritty and insightful. 5/5
February
- Maitland Edey – Lost World of the Aegean (1976). The archaeology of the Ancient Minoans and Early Greeks. Dated but informative. 3/5
April
- Robert Bly – Iron John (1990). An allegorical interpretation of an old fairy tale suggesting what the ancient cultures can teach modern man. 3/5
May
- Aldous Huxley – Island (1962). The utopia to Brave New World’s dystopia. 4/5
June
- Barbara Kingsolver – The Poisonwood Bible (1998). A family saga of four girls and their missionary father in the Congo. 5/5
- Thomas Sowell – Ethnic America (1981). Details the history and experiences of 11 American immigrant groups. Good on facts and figures, less so on future projections. 4/5
July
- Paul M Handley – The King Never Smiles (2006). A critical analysis of the modern Thai monarchy. Banned in Thailand. 5/5
August
- Roland Tye – Weekender (2016). Five very different stories about five very different people one weekend in Edinburgh. The connection is revealed only at the very end. 5/5
- JD Salinger – Catcher in the Rye (1951). Great American Novel about a rebellious teenager in the late ’40s. 5/5
September
- Ian Morris – The Greeks: History, Culture and Society (2010). This old textbook is a good survey of ancient Greece if a little dry. 3/5
October
- Frederick Forsythe – the Dogs of War (1974). A business magnate hires a team of mercenaries to stage a coup in a fictional African country. Good, but not as good as Day of the Jackal. 3/5
December
- Jared Diamond – Guns Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies (1997). Explains why civilization arose in some parts of the world and not others. An excellent read for history and anthropology buffs. 5/5
- Frederick Forsythe – Day of the Jackal (1971). About an assassin hired to kill the president of France and the men chasing him. 4/5
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From the Parapet 