42 books for 2017

I feel like I've read fewer books than last year's mammoth readathon, probably because I've got a new, more exciting, but more exhausting, job, which has meant switching off with a good book has been harder. My commute is also shorter, and you'd be amazed how much that cuts down your daily reading time.

The interest in Japanese literature remains, but this year was dominated by a read through Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae – an outrageous but intriguing survey of western literature. That pushed me on to reading Wilde, Balzac and Baudelaire. Sady Doyle's first book (I'm a long-time fan of her writing) was a necessary dose of common sense after the sustained assault of Paglia's bold theories.

I wish I had read and written more about comics this year – have only managed three or so columns for the London Graphic Novel Network. I now live further away from the libraries that supply my comics obsession, so I'll need to work a bit harder. I also have to fight against the sense that I've read quite deeply into the medium now, and there's fewer things out there that feel fresh and new. Delving further beyond anglophone comics may be the solution to that.

I keep track of the things I read on Goodreads, and there are a few scattered links below where I've bothered to jot down a quote or write about a comic (several of the comic ones link to a great end of year roundup on the London Graphic Novel Network, which I contributed to).

Camille Paglia - Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson
Nick Clegg - Politics: Between the Extremes
Ed Balls - Speaking Out: Lessons in Life and Politics
Edmund Dell - The Chancellors: A History of the Chancellors of the Exchequer, 1945-90 [link]

Ryan Avent - The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power, and Status in the Twenty-first Century

Nick Srnicek / Alex Williams - Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work [link]
Jonathan Portes - Capitalism: 50 ideas you really need to know

Hattie Collins / Olivia Rose - This Is Grime [link]

Michael Azerrad - Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981–1991
Neil Kulkarni - Eastern Spring: A 2nd Gen Memoir
Sady Doyle - Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear... and Why
Catherine Millet - The Sexual Life of Catherine M.

Valerie Solanas - SCUM Manifesto

John Gray - The Soul of the Marionette: A short enquiry into human freedom

Carl Neville - Resolution Way
John le Carré - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Yukio Mishima - Confessions of a Mask

Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray (uncensored version)
Honoré de Balzac - Sarrasine / The Unknown Masterpiece / The Girl with the Golden Eyes
Charles Baudelaire - The Flowers of Evil

Yōko Ogawa - Hotel Iris

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki - Diary of a Mad Old Man
Jorge Luis Borges - Fictions
Kobo Abe - The Box Man
Ursula K. Le Guin - A Wizard of Earthsea

Kazuo Koike / Ryōichi Ikegami - Crying Freeman [link]
Tsutomu Nihei - Knights of Sidonia [link]
Akihisa Ikeda - Rosario + Vampire
Pierrick Colinet / Elsa Charretier - The Infinite Loop [link]
Marjorie M. Liu / Sana Takeda - Monstress vols. 1 & 2 [link]
Fumio Obata - Just So Happens [link]
Usamaru Furuya - Lychee Light Club
Ales Kot et al. - Zero, Vol. 1: An Emergency
Jason Shawn Alexander - Empty Zone vols. 1 & 2 [link]
Brian Wood - Channel Zero
Hubert / Kerascoët - Miss Don't Touch Me vols. 1 & 2
Enki Bilal - The Nikopol Trilogy
Daniel Clowes - David Boring
Joe Sacco - Palestine
Jonathan Hickman / Tomm Coker et al. - The Black Monday Murders, Vol. 1: All Hail, God Mammon [link]
Paul Auster / Paul Karasik / David Mazzucchelli - City of Glass: The Graphic Novel