A round-up of my reading, H1 2021

Here’s a list of all the books that I’ve associated with over the last six months, (in roughly the order I read them).

Finished:

• The Mountains According to G, Geraint Thomas
• Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum
• Autumn Journal, Louis MacNeice
• This Sporting Life, David Storey
• Happy Birthday, Wanda June, Kurt Vonnegut
• How Sweet It Is, Lamont Dozier.
• The Crime Writer’s Handbook, Michael O’Byrne
• 218 Facts A Writer Needs To Know About The Police, Kevin N Robins
• Starstruck, Val McDermid
• The Air Year, Caroline Bird
• Galapagos, Kurt Vonnegut
• God Bless You, Dr Kevorkian, Kurt Vonnegut
• Joe Kirby: King of Comics, Mark Evanier
• Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn
• White Bicycle, Joe Boyd
• Nick Drake, Patrick Humphries
• Capitalism: 50 Ideas You Need To Know, Jonathan Portes
• Exercises in Style, Raymond Queneau
• Antarctica, Clair Keegan <- course recommended reading
• Lumen, Tiffany Atkinson
• The Iron Man, Ted Hughes
• Life Studies, Robert Lowell <- course recommended reading
• The Good Ancestor, Roman Krznaric
• In Praise of Men and Other People, Ann Sansom
• Come Closer and Listen, Charles Simic
• Exit Management, Naomi Booth
• First Person Singular, Haruki Murakami
• Ambit Pop
• The Little Black Book of Data and Democracy, Kyle Taylor
• Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson
• The Illustrated History of Football, David Squires
• Ways of Seeing, John Berger <- course recommended reading
• Lunch Poems, Frank O’Hara <- course recommended reading
• Two Days in Yorkshire, Peter Cossins and Andrew Denton
• The Unaccompanied, Simon Armitage

On the go:

• Word Perfect, Susie Dent
• The Nanny State Made Me, Stuart Maconie
• Racing Hard, Willian Fotheringham
• Selected Poems, Tony Harrison

Acquired but not read

• Notes of a Native Son, James Baldwin
• Pity the Reader, Kurt Vonnegut
• Writing Poetry, Peter Sansom
• Careful What You Wish For, Peter Sansom
• Children of Men, PD James
• A Question of Blood, Ian Rankin
• There and Back Again, Don Letts
• How to be a Liberal, Ian Dunt
• London Incognita, Gary Budden
• The Secret Barrister
• The Creative Writing Coursebook, Julia Bell and Paul Magrs (ed)
• The Echo Chamber, Luke Williams
• The Unfolding of Language, Guy Deutscher
• The Blizzard 50
• The Artist and Writer’s Yearbook 2021 (a pressie – very kind indeed!)
• Why Women Will Save the Planet, Friends of the Earth and C40 Cities
• Rialto 96
• Tenth of December, George Saunders (Father’s Day pressie – thanks!) <- course recommended reading
• Too Much Happiness, Alice Munro (Father’s Day pressie – ta!) <- course recommended reading
• Other Stories and Other Stories, Ali Smith (Father’s Day pressie – merci!) <- course recommended reading
• The Birds & Other Stories, Daphne du Maurier (Father’s Day pressie – muchos gracias!) <- course recommended reading
• The Shropshire Lad, AE Housman
• The Misunderstanding and Caligula, Albert Camus
• Bar Mitzvah Boy and Other Television Plays, Jack Rosenthal
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
• The Invisible Man, HG Wells
• Hotel insomnia, Charles Simic
• —–> (I’m sure I’ve missed some. Ah well!)

Bought for my wife:

• AOC: A Celebration of the Fierce Brilliance, Lynda Lopez
• Jacinda Ardern: A New Kind of Leader, Madeleine Chapman
• Ruth Baden Ginsberg, Jane Sherron De Hart