Time for my annual round-up of the books I’ve read in the past year (see entries for 2013 and 2014). As usual, I’ve listed them by category – fiction, non-fiction, theology and other – and have singled out two favourites for each category. Books I’ve read before are marked with an asterisk. For extra nerdery, the underlying data is here.
Fiction
The big difference between 2015 and 2016 is the number of novels I’ve read. Last year I only read ten works of fiction; this year, fiction is the biggest category, with 32 books. This is related to the fact I made much better use of the library than in previous years: thirty of the books I read this year were library books, most of them fiction (or graphic novels).
It’s hard to single out favourites from this list. Moby Dick is an astonishing book; Andrew O’Hagan’s Be Near Me is a moving account of a gay priest caught up in the consequences of his behaviour; it was a delight to rediscover P.G. Wodehouse. This was also the year I got back into science fiction, with books by J.G. Ballard, Ursula Le Guin, Philip K. Dick and Kim Stanley Robinson, among others.
In the end, though, I’m picking out The Dispossessed, by Ursula Le Guin, for its superbly realised vision of an anarchist society, and Ali Smith’s “exciting and moving and clever and sexy” How to be Both (one of several books this year recommended to me by my wife).
- The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien*
- Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
- Acts and Omissions, by Catherine Fox
- Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel*
- High-Rise, by J.G. Ballard
- Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel*
- Be Near Me, by Andrew O’Hagan
- A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin
- How to be Both, by Ali Smith
- Angels and Men, by Catherine Fox
- Regeneration, by Pat Barker
- The Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
- Unseen Things Above, by Catherine Fox
- The Dispossessed, by Ursula Le Guin
- Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
- The Mating Season, by P.G. Wodehouse*
- Once Upon a Time in the North, by Philip Pullman
- A Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami
- The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula Le Guin
- Maigret, by Georges Simenon
- Right Ho, Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse
- Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons
- The Code of the Woosters, by P.G. Wodehouse*
- Dictator, by Robert Harris
- The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula Le Guin
- Roma Eterna, by Robert Silverberg
- Aurora, by Kim Stanley Robinson
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
- Dark Beyond the Stars, by ed. David Gatewood
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- Submission, by Michel Houellebecq
Non-fiction
The usual mishmash of different topics among these 24 books. Anarchism was something of a theme this year, with several books on this topic (in addition to Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed) as I explored my “anarcho-curiosity”. I loved Tom Holland’s account of the Julio-Claudian emperors, Dynasty and Helen Macdonald’s beautifully written H is for Hawk. But I’ve selected as my favourites John Grindrod’s celebration of postwar architecture, Concretopia, and Norman Davies’ vast, flawed but transformational Europe: A History (though I reserve the right to regret this choice once I’ve read Tony Judt’s hatchet-job review of it…).
- Debt: The First 5,000 Years, by David Graeber
- The Psychopath Test, by Jon Ronson
- Symmetry: A Very Short Introduction, by Ian Stewart
- Rings, Fields and Groups, by R.B.J.T. Allenby*
- The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union, by Serhii Plokhy
- A Philosophy of Walking, by Frédéric Gros
- Concretopia, by John Grindrod
- The Communist Hypothesis, by Alain Badiou
- The World That Never Was, by Alex Butterworth.
- Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction, by Colin Ward*
- Introduction to Japanese Culture, by Daniel Sosniski
- Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism, by David Harvey
- The Rise of Islamic State, by Patrick Cockburn
- Introducing Feminism: A Graphic Guide, by Cathia Jenainati and Judy Groves
- Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, by Peter Kropotkin
- Anarchism: A Beginners’ Guide, by Ruth Kinna
- Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar, by Tom Holland
- Consiglieri: Leading from the Shadows, by Richard Hytner
- Europe: A History, by Norman Davies
- Fascism: A Very Short Introduction, by Kevin Passmore
- The Shifts and the Shocks, by Martin Wolf
- H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald
- Introducing Continental Philosophy: A Graphic Guide, by Christopher Kul-Want
Theology / Spirituality
Not a vintage year for theology-related books, I have to admit. Something I hope to address in 2016. I loved the two Rowan Williams books, and have another of his queued up to read this year. It was interesting to read up a little on the Quakers, and even more so to explore Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life and theology in Sabine Dramm’s Introduction to his thought. My favourites for the year, though, are Heiko A. Oberman’s theological biography of Martin Luther, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, and Eugene F. Rogers’ Sexuality and the Christian Body – in particular for his discussions of what it means for us to be Gentiles grafted into the people of God “against nature”, and of marriage as an “ascetic vocation” and as a reflection both of the triune nature of God and of justification by faith.
- Being Christian, by Rowan Williams
- The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions, by Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright
- Augustine: A Very Short Introduction, by Henry Chadwick
- Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, by Heiko A. Oberman
- The Psalms: Prayer Book of the Bible, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer*
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer: An Introduction to his Thought, by Sabine Dramm
- The Mystery of Marriage, by Mike Mason
- Sexuality and the Christian Body, by Eugene F. Rogers
- Nowhere to Lay Our Head, by Wilf Wilde
- That Holy Anarchist: Reflections on Christianity and Anarchism, by Mark Van Steenwyk
- Ponder These Things: Praying with Icons of the Virgin, by Rowan Williams
- The Light that is Shining, by Harvey Gillman*
- Being a Quaker, by Geoffrey Durham
- The Quakers: A Very Short Introduction, by Pink Dandelion
Other
Mostly graphic novels and comic books, though also including Tim Dowling’s funny and perceptive account of modern marriage, How to be a Husband (another recommendation from my wife), which is one of my favourites for the year along with Robert Crumb’s extraordinary rendering of The Book of Genesis Illustrated. An honourable mention for Nicola Streeton’s heartbreaking story of bereavement and recovery, Billy, Me & You.
- How to be a Husband, by Tim Dowling
- Saga: Volume Four, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
- Lazarus: Volume One, by Greg Rucka
- Daredevil: Volume 1, by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson
- Daredevil: Volume 2, by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson
- Lazarus: Volume Two, by Greg Rucka
- Lazarus: Volume Three, by Greg Rucka
- Billy, Me & You: A Memoir of Grief and Recovery, by Nicola Streeton
- The Book of Genesis Illustrated, by Robert Crumb
- Saga: Volume Five, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Looking ahead
I’m not going to make any rash predictions or grandiose programmatic statements of intent about my reading for 2016. My shelves (sic) of unread books are full of enticing prospects, but I dare say I’ll get distracted by other things, as usual. I’m currently in the early stages of Paul Kingsnorth’s novel The Wake, which is looking very promising.