Wednesday, August 30, 2006

A bit of light reading


The summer is coming to an end and I suppose in a sense that it has been productive as I had the chance to do something other than think about about work. One of the best things was having the time and energy to do some reading. Usually, during the winter I don’t have the time or appetite for literature. Anyway, I have read over the last few months;

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

Little Children by Tom Perrotta


War Reporting for Cowards by Chris Ayres


Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner


Radical Chic, Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers by Tom Wolfe


The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Samurai Williams by Giles Milton

Bloody Foreigners by Robert Winder

Tourism by Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal

Going to Wars by Max Hastings

Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

The Writer and the World - Essays by V.S. Naipul

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan

I also I had time to listen to the following audio books.

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs


Infection by Scott Sigler


Neuromancer by William Gibson

7 comments:

melusina said...

You read as much as I do methinks, although I've only read two things on your list.

This summer, a friend from the U.S. brought me a recently published short story of Capote's that had never been published before, called Summer's Crossing. It was pretty good, it is supposed to be a blueprint for the character that would be Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's, but I don't see it. Not to mention, Summer's Crossing was unfinished, or seemed to be - but it is always fun reading brand new works by long dead authors.

Any of those books on your list you'd especially recommend, aside from Handmaid's Tale and Tiffany's?

teacher dude said...

I'd recommend

Tourism as the writing and insights are great.

Freakonomics as it does get you to think about the economics of everyday life in a completely different way. Plus it doesn't have any math in it. Pheeewww.

Tom Wolfe's short stories as they are wonderfully dry and satirical.


Bloody Foreigners for a positive slant on immigration (at long last).

A Short History as it is, despite its title a funny summer read. Perfect for the beach.

Anonymous said...

It's William Gibson, not Gibbons.

I am only this anal because he's my favorite writer.

teacher dude said...

Thanks John for pointing that out, I'll correct it now. He's one of my fav writers as well. BTW the audio book can be found at www.bittorrent.com.

melusina said...

Cool, I'll have to check those out when I'm allowed to buy books again. ;)

teacher dude said...

If you want, you can borrow mine.

melusina said...

I'm not allowed to borrow books anymore. Even from the library. I have to underline, make notes, etc., etc. This ban was made permanent by some of my best friends, including one who is a librarian.

This is my scarlet letter. I'm a bad, bad person.