2008 Book List

This is a list with, if I can remember enough about the book, a short summary of my reaction to it, of the books I've read this year. The list is in no particular order. The choice was militated as much by availability in airports as anything else.

• The Classical World, Robin Lane Fox
  I still haven't finished this but it is a remarkably unified view of classical history.
  
• Exit Music, Ian Rankin
  The Last Rebus novel, as ever I'm as much attracted by Rebus' taste in music as I am his generally fumbling way to the truth.
  
• American Gods (again), Neil Gaiman
  I reread this this year, for some reason the dread of the submerged cars in the lake didn't quite get to me this time. But I still love the idea of going Behind the Scenes.
  
• The Last Gospel, David Gibbins
  Pure Airline fodder I'm afraid, expect nothing of it and it will deliver it fine.
  
• TimeQuake, Kurt Vonnegut
  His last novel which reworks old material to a large degree but its Vonnegut from the perspective of the dying and in Vonnegut's Universe that's a curious place to view from.
  
• The Book of Air and Shadows, Michael Gruber
  I can't recall much of this at all.
  
• The Death of Dalziel, Reginald Hill
  This is the first of the Dalziel books I've read though I enjoy the TV series a lot. Dalziel (pronounced deeyell), is as direct and Yorkshire as you'd expect. I'll read more.
  
• The Shakespeare Secret, J. J. Cartrell
  More Airport fodder trying to be a little like Kate Mosse and a little like Dan Brown, the author is certainly better than Dan Brown. The visualisation of the Elisabethan theatre is I seem to remember very good. The thriller parts are so so.
  
• Revelation, C. J. Sansom
  Sansom is becoming a bit of a thing for me, none of the Reformation series nor his standalone novel have disappointed me at all. I haven't even read the series in the right order so I can see the character development over the three published so far. Highly recommended.
  
• House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
  There's an entire essay I could write about this but I won't, it might end up as a footnote to the book. If you like the semiotics of authorship, publishing and the interleaving of reality and proto-reality then you'll like this. If you find empty pages, or pages with one line printed on them irksome then give it a miss.
  
• Somnambulist, Jonathan Barnes
  To an extent this is Barnes showing off and Barnes showing off is sparkling indeed. For those that love the Victorian pastische. With lots of cream.
  
• Night Train to Lisbon, Pascal Mercier
  I don't have favourites of course but if I were pushed to it, this would be my novel of the year. Existentialism, Portugal and a repressed Swiss teacher, what could be finer?
  
• Azincourt, Bernard Cornwell
  A lovely romp through the Agincourt campaign and to be applauded if only for encouraging me to go and get Agincourt by Juliet Barker.
  
• Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon
  
• Wintersmith, Terry Pratchett
  The young adult books about Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men are both riotously funny and very, very sad.


• The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
  Being called his best by some. I'm not sure about that but the simplicity of the telling makes the difference.
  
• Un Lun Dun, China Miéville
  I loved this more and more the more I read it, hero/ines who aren't are the real hero/ine of the story will always get me.
  
• Anathem, Neil Stephenson
  I talked about this not so long ago, I think I prefer the alternate history rather than the alternate future of Stephenson but its nae bad for a'that. Having a French man as the Earth hero in a kind of homage to Planet of the Apes was fun.
  
• The State Counsellor, Boris Akunin
  I just love this series, can't help it its both knowing and surprising.
  
• The Embarrassment of Riches, Simon Schama
  I learned a lot about the Dutch and food reading this, but it seemed to be mostly about the food. I admit I found it a powerful good sleeping draught.
  
• Winter in Madrid, C. J. Sansom
  I thought I was going to hate this and bring up all sorts of comparisons with Hemingway, but I found myself trapped inside it. With the calls for reparation for the Franco atrocities its become topical as well.
  
• The Resurrectionist, James Bradley
  Another victorian pastische, not quite as successful it reminded me a little of a Charles Palliser novel but not as long, not nearly as long, which was a blessing. The ending appears to be from a different novel, which is, I guess, a pun on the Resurrectionist as a title.


• Agincourt, Juliet Barker
  I'm currently reading this and it shows the immense debt which Cornwell has to her for his novel (which he acknowledges), the blurb on the back says something about if its the only History book you read in a year to read this one. I'd hope you'd manage more than that but this and The Classical World would both be on my list.
  

I may add to the list if I remember any other highlights, there's at least one turkish author whose name and title I've forgotten for the present.