I saw this book appear in the Standard Ebooks newsletter since they had just added it to their catalogue. I remember liking Crime and Punishment very much, and I had never heard of this novel so I was intrigued. I ended up not reading that version. Although I think they make excellent ebooks, the version in the public domain is the Constance Garnett translation, and it seems there are far better ones now.
This is a short Japanese novel about an architect who builds a tower to house criminals. The tower is not a prison but a good quality housing block. The term Homo Miserabilis has been adopted to refer to these people, in contrast to Homo Felix for the rest of the population. This distinction is an attempt to recognise that they are not entirely in control of their own destiny, and to elicit sympathy for them.
This is a history book written by David Mitchell, who played Mark Corrigan on Peep Show. I love that show, and I’m interested in history, so thought I’d give this a go. This book sits at an interesting level: he is a comedian rather than a professional historian, so it’s funny, and he’s happy to gloss over details and call people twats. I think he did actually study history though, and I believe he is fascinated by it, so it’s not just a superficial celebrity book.
This is a biography of Terry Pratchett written by his assistant, Rob Wilkins. He says that Pratchett always meant to write an autobiography, and had lots of notes for the beginnings of one, but his early onset Alzheimer’s meant that it was never finished.
I spotted this in WHSmith while waiting for a flight to Hong Kong. I almost bought it, but it turned out I already had a copy on my e-reader. I read some of it while on the flight, but ended up putting it aside, as it really isn’t holiday reading. Once back, I picked it up again and finished it.
This is the third Discworld book, and the first in the witches series. It introduces Granny Weatherwax, one of the main characters of the whole series.
I knew a little about Fred and Rose West before reading this. I remember seeing the house in Gloucester on the news when I was a child. This book is the first I’ve read about them, it’s written by someone who was a journalist at the time and was reporting on the case. It prominently features extracts of the interviews that Fred West gave to the police during their investigations.
I read this one on a flight to Hong Kong. This is a non-fiction book about a group of libertarians who decide to all move into a particular town and try to collectively get their ideas adopted in its running. They believe that the government, other than in its most core functions such as national defence is a tyranny. They refuse to pay any taxes viewing it as theft, and think nearly all regulations and laws should be repealed. They seem to believe that when they achieve this people will be truly free and come together collectively to build a kind of utopia.
This book feels like two stories in one. The first is in what appears to be Russia, which is under strict authoritarian control. Their president effectively lives forever, as when their body dies the consciousness is passed on to another.
This is a dystopian novel by Philip K. Dick, which he described as semi-autobiographical. It tells the story of Robert Arctor and his flatmates and friends, who are drug addicts. Most of them are addicted to a drug called Substance D, or death, which deteriorates the user’s brain over time until they lose track of reality.
This is a 1950s post-apocalyptic novel about everyone in the world other than the protagonist turning into vampires. The main character still lives in his house, and has burnt the surrounding houses to the ground. Each night vampires bang on his walls and call out for him. His neighbour in particular calls for him by name over and over.
This is a post-apocalyptic book from 1987 by Robert McCammon. It’s a very long book at nearly 1000 pages, and I think it’s heavily influenced by The Stand by Stephen King which was released a few years before. The apocalypse in this particular story is nuclear war between the US and Russia. Over the first few chapters missiles start flying overhead and destroying the world around the characters we have met.
This is a science fiction book by Iain M. Banks. The only book I’ve read by him before was The Wasp Factory, which despite having read it a long time ago I still think about every now and then. It has stuck with me as a particularly dark and intense read.
This is a non-fiction book about a working class guy from London, who became a trader for Citibank. He makes a lot of money, but becomes increasingly disgusted about the inequality in the economy, and is predicting that it’s going to get progressively worse for ordinary working people.
This is a Philip K. Dick book. I’ve been a fan of his for years, but he wrote so many books that there are tons that I’ve never read. As is pretty common with his books this one deals with mental illness, and an unstable grip on reality.