Books of 2016

Because a couple of people asked, here’s a year in books. I wasn’t going to post this because doing so is becoming increasingly like the Art Garfunkel Library, which is a bit embarrassing, but hey-ho.

An asterisk* denotes an out-loud read while a dagger† denotes a re-read.

Robert MacFarlane – The Old Ways
Marie Kondo – Spark Joy
Tim Eyre – Crucible of Ice: Two Weeks in Greenland
Paul Auster – The Music of Chance†
Richard Maybe – Unofficial Countryside
Chris Kraus – I Love Dick
Mick Middles – Frank Sidebottom: Out of His Head
Dan Fox – Pretentiousness: Why it Matters
Keith Waterhouse – Billy Liar
Steve Coogan – Easily Distracted
Charles Foster – Being a Beast
Gerald Durrell – The Bafut Beagles*
Alexei Sayle – Thatcher Stole My Trousers
Helen Macdonald – H is for Hawk
Steve Aylett – Heart of the Original
Grayson Perry – Playing to the Gallery
Allan Brown – Inside The Wicker Man
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky – Roadside Picnic
Haruki Murakami – Hear the Wind Sing / Pinball, 1973
Edmund Crispin – The Moving Toyshop*
Ted Hughes – The Iron Woman
Julian Barnes – Arthur & George
Terry Pratchett – Mort*
Paul Manson – Postcapitalism
Paul Auster – Report from the Interior
Susan Juby – I’m Alice
Nikolai Gogol – The Nose
Sarah Bakewell – At the Existentialists’ Cafe
Patricia Highsmith – Ripley Under Ground
Richard Gordon – Doctor At Large*
Ewan Morrison – Swung
Dan Rhodes – Timoleon Vieta Come Home
Dan Rhodes – Anthropology
Dan Rhodes – When the Professor Got Stuck in the Snow
John Major – My Old Man: a Personal History of Music Hall
David Allen – Getting Things Done
Stephen Leacock – Nonsense Novels*
Beryl Bainbridge – A Quiet Life
L. Frank Baum – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz*
Tom Hodgkinson – Business for Bohemians
Jonny Trunk – The Art of Small Films
G.K. Chesterton – The Man Who Was Thursday

Comics (first time I’ve listed them separately — not sure why):

Peter David – X Factor Vol. 3
Grant Morrison – Animal Man Vol. 1
Charles Burns – X’d Out
Len Wein – Giant-Size X-Men Vol. 1
John Ostrander et al – Justice League International Vol. 2
Geoff Johns – Booster Gold Vol. 1
Peter Milligan – X-Statix Vol. 1
Daniel Way – Deadpool Vol. 1
Joe Hill – Locke and Key Vol. 1

Books read in substantial part but left unfinished:

Haruki Murakami – The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle†
Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams – Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work
Robert Atkinson – Island Going

But!

The main reading event of my year doesn’t appear in the list since it’s neither finished nor abandoned: Don Quixote. I’m about halfway through, almost at the end of Book 1. It’s good but knackering.

★ The post-print phase of New Escapologist is just beginning. Go here to join in.
★ You can also buy all thirteen issues in print or PDF (in newly discounted £20 bargain bundles) at the shop.