Sunday, June 5, 2011

I'VE BEEN READING BOOKS & STUFF

Since this blog's been active for well over a year now, but there's a good chance you haven't been reading it for over a year, I thought I might put together my first backward-looking links post - this one to our many book reviews. 2010-11 has frankly been a bellweather season in my reading life. I finally tried to elevate actually books above my 7 magazine subscriptions, the daily paper, the free alternative weeklies and the many things to be found on the interweb. It's sort of working, and somehow I'm not giving those things short shrift either.

What's losing out? Hmm...let's see...my family, my health, my job - nope, I think it's music obsession and podcast listening. See, at least a third of the year's books were audiobooks. I even bought one of those AUDIBLE subscriptions where I get a download a month for $15, which is a pretty square deal in my eyes, when most audiobooks are listing at the hardcover price or higher. Anyway, podcast listening has suffered and "This American Life" and "Mike and Tom Eat Snacks" episodes are stacking up big-time on my iPhone - and  yeah, music still gets listened to in the car, but not when there's, say, an amazing 43-hour audiobook like Tony Judt's "POSTWAR" to get through (and which I am now 17 hours into - so look for that review around Xmas).

Here are a few things that got read or listened to around here the past 14 months or so:

"THE RATIONAL OPTIMIST" by Matt Ridley
"THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO" by Steig Larsson
"NIXONLAND" by Rick Perlstein
"WHAT THE DOG SAW - AND OTHER ADVENTURES" by Malcolm Gladwell
"HITCH-22" by Christopher Hitchens
"WE NEVER LEARN" by Eric Davidson
"REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN EUROPE" by Christopher Caldwell
"THE BIG SHORT" by Michael Lewis
"NOTHING TO ENVY - ORDINARY LIVES IN NORTH KOREA" by Barbara Demick
"THE MORAL LANDSCAPE" by Sam Harris
"SPRAY PAINT THE WALLS - THE STORY OF BLACK FLAG" by Stevie Chick
"LAND OF A THOUSAND BALCONIES" by Jack Stevenson
"ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE" by Bethany McLean & Joe Nocera
"JUST KIDS" by Patti Smith
"WATCHING THE DOOR" by Kevin Myers
"LAST CALL" by Daniel Okrent
"THE FATHER OF US ALL - WAR & HISTORY, ANCIENT & MODERN" by Victor Davis Hanson