When I’m not writing music reviews or books of my own, I spend a reasonable chunk of my free time reading books, for pleasure or for education. I’m not all about the hot new releases, the recommendations or the best-sellers. I read what I want, when I want, and occasionally, I read what I get sent (which is usually something I want to read anyway, which is a double bonus in many respects). So, in 2013, I read 28 books. They’re listed below. It’s not a ‘best of’ list, and the list isn’t about critical appraisal. I enjoyed some of the books I read more than others. Some, I’ve reviewed. Most, I haven’t. A handful of them I’d read before, the majority I hadn’t. So there you have it.
Warren Ellis – Gun Machine
Stewart Home – Mandy, Charlie and Mary-Jane
Arthur Miller – Focus
Davis Schneiderman – Blank
Davis Schneiderman – Drain
John Tottenham – Antiepithalamia & Other Poems of Regret and Resentment
JG Ballard – Concrete Island
Carl van Cleave – Incisions, Collisions and Aborted Missions
Michel Houellebecq – The Map and the Territory
James Higgerson – The Almost Lizard
Christopher Landon – The Shadow of Time
John D. Chadwick – The Theosophical Teapot
Robert Silverberg – The Second Trip
Jim Thompson – Savage Night
Mark Thomas – Bravo Figaro!
JG Ballard – Rushing to Paradise
Jim Thompson – The Killer Inside Me
Valerie Solanas – S.C.U.M. Manifesto
Brendan Behan – Borstal Boy
Davis Schneiderman – [SIC]
Elmore Leonard – Djibouti
Martin Amis – The Information
Aldous Huxley – Brave New World
JG Ballard – Kingdom Come
Clinton Heylin – Bootleg! The Rise & Fall of the Secret Recording Industry
Ed McBain – The Heckler / See Them Die
Michel Houellebecq – Whatever
Mark Manning – Crucify Me Again
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