June 2009 books
This is the latest post in a series I started last year, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging which will fall in 2023. Every six-ish days I've been revisiting a month from my recent past, noting work and family developments as well as the books I read in that month. I've found it a pleasantly cathartic process, especially in recent circumstances. If you want to look back at previous entries, they are all tagged under bookblog nostalgia.
In June 2009, the German TV channel ZDF did a brief spot about my work at the start of the month:
The big news story was the European Parliament elections, which saw the continuing erosion of the larger parties to the benefit of the fringes, most notably in the UK where UKIP came second and the ruling Labour party came third. For me it was most memorable because I wrecked my back driving home from the results party, and had to stay in bed for a week - one of the worst bouts of ill health I have had in my life. I did manage a field trip to (North) Macedonia and Montenegro later in the month.
And I read 34 books.
Non-fiction: 9 (YTD 45)
McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime, by Misha Glenny
What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction, by Paul Kincaid
The Problems of Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell
Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything, or Old Bob Exposes His Ignorance
The Devil's Highway, by Luís Alberto Urrea
How To Make Good Decisions And Be Right All The Time, by Iain King
Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi
About Time: The Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who, 1970-1974, 2nd edition, by Tat Wood
The Vorkosigan Companion, edited by Lilian Stewart Carl and John Helfers
Fiction (non-sf): 6 (YTD 27)
Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
To The Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
Cities of Salt, by Abdelrahman Munif
Sunset at Blandings, by P.G. Wodehouse
The Inner Shrine [by Basil King]
The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood
Scripts: 1 (YTD 20)
Edward III, possibly by William Shakespeare and others
SF (non-Who): 7 (YTD 43)
METAtropolis, by Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, John Scalzi and Karl Schroeder
This Immortal, by Roger Zelazny
Gods of Ireland vol II: The Enchanted Isles, by Casey Flynn
The Summer Tree, by Guy Gavriel Kay
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling
Hiding under the Light, by Ruth Coleman (MS)
The Restoration Game, by Ken MacLeod (MS)
Who 2: (YTD 16)
The Last Dodo, by Jacqueline Rayner
Byzantium! by Keith Topping
Comics: 10 (YTD 16)
Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politic, by Howard Tayler
Loven-Boven: Geschiedenis der stad Leuven, by François Stas
Fables vol 11: War and Pieces, by Bill Willingham
Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, by Guy Delisle
Serenity: Better Days, by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews
Shortcomings, by Adrian Tomine
Fables vol 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers, by Bill Willingham
The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle, by Jim Butcher
Y: The Last Man: Whys and Wherefores, by Brian K. Vaughan
Girl Genius 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, by Phil and Kaja Foglio
Total page count 9,400 (YTD 48,100)
6 (YTD 34/165) by women (Woolf, Atwood, Rayner, Foglio, Carl, Rowling)
3 (YTD 10 / 165) by PoC (Tomine, Munif, and Urrea)
As my regular reader knows, I usually list two good books and one bad for each month, but it's the season of goodwill so I will skip over the ones I didn't like and recommend four that I did. Ken MacLeod was good enough to let me read his draft of The Restoration Game, and I made a few minor suggestions, about half of which are in the final text (the longest of them is the roll call of school children on the bus). It was published a year later and you can get it here. Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings is a particularly good graphic novel; you can get it here. Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz aka If This is a Man is just essential reading; you can get it here. And the second edition of the third volume of About Time is full of fantastic stuff about the Third Doctor; you can get it here.
In June 2009, the German TV channel ZDF did a brief spot about my work at the start of the month:
Click to viewThe big news story was the European Parliament elections, which saw the continuing erosion of the larger parties to the benefit of the fringes, most notably in the UK where UKIP came second and the ruling Labour party came third. For me it was most memorable because I wrecked my back driving home from the results party, and had to stay in bed for a week - one of the worst bouts of ill health I have had in my life. I did manage a field trip to (North) Macedonia and Montenegro later in the month.
And I read 34 books.
Non-fiction: 9 (YTD 45)
McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime, by Misha Glenny
What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction, by Paul Kincaid
The Problems of Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell
Robert Anton Wilson Explains Everything, or Old Bob Exposes His Ignorance
The Devil's Highway, by Luís Alberto Urrea
How To Make Good Decisions And Be Right All The Time, by Iain King
Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi
About Time: The Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who, 1970-1974, 2nd edition, by Tat Wood
The Vorkosigan Companion, edited by Lilian Stewart Carl and John Helfers
Fiction (non-sf): 6 (YTD 27)
Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
To The Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf
Cities of Salt, by Abdelrahman Munif
Sunset at Blandings, by P.G. Wodehouse
The Inner Shrine [by Basil King]
The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood
Scripts: 1 (YTD 20)
Edward III, possibly by William Shakespeare and others
SF (non-Who): 7 (YTD 43)
METAtropolis, by Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, John Scalzi and Karl Schroeder
This Immortal, by Roger Zelazny
Gods of Ireland vol II: The Enchanted Isles, by Casey Flynn
The Summer Tree, by Guy Gavriel Kay
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling
Hiding under the Light, by Ruth Coleman (MS)
The Restoration Game, by Ken MacLeod (MS)
Who 2: (YTD 16)
The Last Dodo, by Jacqueline Rayner
Byzantium! by Keith Topping
Comics: 10 (YTD 16)
Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politic, by Howard Tayler
Loven-Boven: Geschiedenis der stad Leuven, by François Stas
Fables vol 11: War and Pieces, by Bill Willingham
Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, by Guy Delisle
Serenity: Better Days, by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews
Shortcomings, by Adrian Tomine
Fables vol 4: March of the Wooden Soldiers, by Bill Willingham
The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle, by Jim Butcher
Y: The Last Man: Whys and Wherefores, by Brian K. Vaughan
Girl Genius 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, by Phil and Kaja Foglio
Total page count 9,400 (YTD 48,100)
6 (YTD 34/165) by women (Woolf, Atwood, Rayner, Foglio, Carl, Rowling)
3 (YTD 10 / 165) by PoC (Tomine, Munif, and Urrea)
As my regular reader knows, I usually list two good books and one bad for each month, but it's the season of goodwill so I will skip over the ones I didn't like and recommend four that I did. Ken MacLeod was good enough to let me read his draft of The Restoration Game, and I made a few minor suggestions, about half of which are in the final text (the longest of them is the roll call of school children on the bus). It was published a year later and you can get it here. Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings is a particularly good graphic novel; you can get it here. Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz aka If This is a Man is just essential reading; you can get it here. And the second edition of the third volume of About Time is full of fantastic stuff about the Third Doctor; you can get it here.