The Books I Read in 2018
Being the book nerd that I am, every time I’ve finished reading a book I write the title and author in a wee notebook. I’ve done it since 2008.
Why?
Who knows…
Maybe I like lists too much. But I do like looking back and seeing what I’ve read. Seeing the titles sometimes triggers a memory. For instance, I’ve just flicked back to 2012 and seen My Search for Truth by Henry Thomas Hamblin. Instantly, I see myself sitting up in bed with a chest infection, the book on my lap.
Not a good memory, but a memory nonetheless.
Anyhow, I thought I’d share with you my reading list for 2018… without the memories. Most of them I read for the first time, but there are several that I revisited just for the sheer pleasure of it. I’ve finished the year off by reading screenplays, so I’ve included those, too.
Let’s see if I’ve read anything you like:
Mouse, Bird, Snake, Wolf – David Almond
Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales – Gordon Jarvie
Season of Secrets – Sally Nicholls
Junk – Melvin Burgess
Just So Stories – Rudyard Kipling
Seeds from a Birch Tree – Clark Strand
Little Women – Louisa M. Alcott
Quiet Influence – J. B. Kahnweiler
The War of Art – Steven Pressfield (audiobook)
As a Man Thinketh – James Allen (audiobook)
The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones
The Philosopher Next Door – Anna Wallis
How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method – Randy Ingermanson
Literary History of Taiwanese Indigenous Peoples: Volume 1 – Pasuya Poicon
Sabriel – Garth Nix
A New Illustrated History of Taiwan – Wan-yao Chou
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
Tortilla Flat – John Steinbeck
A Theory of Human Motivation – A. H. Maslow
God Needs to Go – J. D. Brucker
Cannery Row – John Steinbeck
Frindle – Andrew Clements
Acres of Diamonds – Russell Conwell
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Stopping for a Spell – Diana Wynne Jones
Coraline – Neil Gaiman
The White Mercedes – Philip Pullman
Lyra’s Oxford – Philip Pullman
Natives of Formosa: British Reports of the Taiwanese Indigenous People, 1650-1950 – Edited by Henrietta Harrison
Poppy – Avi
Big Magic – Elizabeth Gilbert
Reading Like a Writer – Francine Prose (only read 50%… got bored)
The Coral Island – R. M. Ballantyne (only read 50%… got bored)
Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut
The Formosan Encounter: Notes on Formosa’s Aboriginal Society: A Selection of Dutch Documents – Edited by Leonard Blusse
Call of the Wild – Jack London
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce
The Indian in the Cupboard – L. R. Banks
Hard Times – Charles Dickens
Taiwan’s 400-Year History – Su Beng
Babe: Pig in the City – Justine Korman
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
Rogue Trader – Nick Leeson
K-PAX – Gene Brewer
Intimacy – Hanif Kureshi
Disgrace – J. M. Coetzee
Anna’s Book – Fynn
A Street Cat Named Bob – James Bowen
Paperboy – Vince Vawter
My Name is Mina – David Almond
The One and Only Ivan – Katherine Applegate
The Tightrope Walkers – David Almond
Five Children and It – Edith Nesbit
Steppenwolf – Hermann Hesse
Theodore Boone: The Abduction – John Grisham
Fiesta – Ernest Hemingway
The Sorrows of Young Werther – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Everyman – Philip Roth
Happy – Derren Brown
High Fidelity – Nick Hornby
The Stolen Bicycle – Wu Ming Yi
Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World – Mark Williams & Danny Penman
Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami
Eat Pray Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
Demian – Hermann Hesse
Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
Italian Neighbours – Tim Parks
Joyland – Stephen King
The Bird of Night – Susan Hill
Waking Up – Sam Harris
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Skellig – David Almond
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Withnail and I – Bruce Robinson (screenplay)
Writing Screenplays That Sell – Michael Hauge
Good Will Hunting – Matt Damon & Ben Affleck (screenplay)
Storytelling Made Easy – Michael Hauge
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Eric Roth (screenplay)
Reservoir Dogs – Quentin Tarantino (screenplay)
Man on the Moon – S. Alexander & L. Karaszewski (screenplay)
The Man Who Invented Christmas – Susan Coyne (screenplay)
The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius
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