A running list of the books I’ve read

2024

  1. Veniss Underground, Jeff VanderMeer

  2. The Village Carpenter, Walter Rose

  3. The Anarchist’s Toolchest, Christoph Schwarz

  4. Encounters with the Archdruid, John McPhee

  5. The Trespasser’s Companion, Nick Hayes

  6. The Southern Gates of Arabia, Freya Stark

  7. South from Grenada, Gerald Brenan

  8. Driving Over Lemons, Chris Stewart

  9. Voices of the Old Sea, Norman Lewis

  10. In Sicily, Norman Lewis

  11. Error of Judgement, Chris Mullin

  12. The Tin Men, Michael Frayn

  13. His Master’s Voice, Stanisław Lem

  14. Istanbul: Memories of a City, Orhan Pamuk

2022 & 2023

  1. Who Owns England? Guy Shrubsole

  2. Windswept and Interesting: My Autobiography, Billy Connolly

  3. The Solace of Open Spaces, Gretel Ehrlich

  4. The Fens: Discovering England’s Ancient Depths, Francis Pryor

  5. Fingers in the Sparkle Jar: A Memoir, Chris Packham

  6. Round Ireland in Low Gear, Eric Newby

  7. Terry Pratchett: A Life in Footnotes, Rob Wilkins

  8. In A Lonely Place, Dorothy B Hughes

  9. Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy

  10. Napoleon: A Garden in Life and Shadows, Ruth Scurr

  11. Lost Kingdom: A history of Russian nationalism, Serhii Plokhy

2021

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  1. Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

  2. A New History of the Isle of Man: the Medieval Period 1000-1406, Seán Duffy & Harold Mytum (Eds.)

  3. The Western Wind, Samantha Harvey

  4. Seashaken Houses: A Lighthouse History from Eddystone to Fastnet, Tom Nancollas

  5. Levels of the Game, John McPhee

  6. The Debatable Land, Graham Robb

  7. Troy, Stephen Fry

  8. And Away…, Bob Mortimer

  9. Dune, Frank Herbert

2020

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  1. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

  2. Born Standing Up, Steve Martin

  3. The Missing Lynx: The Past and Future of Britain’s Lost Mammals, Ross Barnett

  4. How to Build a Boat: A Father, his Daughter, and the Unsailed Sea, Jonathan Gornall

  5. Kings of the Yukon: An Alaskan River Journey, Adam Weymouth

  6. The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Bill Bryson

  7. Oak and Ash and Thorn: The Ancient Woods and New Forests of Britain, Peter Fiennes

  8. Gone Fishing: Life, Death and the Thrill of the Catch, Mortimer & Whitehouse

  9. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernières

  10. Gotta Get Theroux This: My life and strange times in television, Louis Theroux

  11. Ramble Book: Musings on childhood, friendship, family and 80s pop culture, Adam Buxton

  12. Why I Write, George Orwell

  13. Coming into the Country, John McPhee

  14. Black and British: A Forgotten History, David Olusoga

  15. Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process, John McPhee

2019

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  1. King Solomon’s Mines, Henry Rider Haggard

  2. The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt

  3. Viking Britain: A History, Thomas Williams

  4. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, Hunter S. Thompson

  5. Outliers: the Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell

  6. West, Carys Davies

  7. Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals, John Gray

  8. Hawksmoor, Peter Ackroyd

  9. The People in the Trees, Hanya Yanagihara

  10. Maskerade, Terry Pratchett

  11. The Violent Bear It Away, Flannery O’Connor

  12. The Black Prince, Michael Jones

  13. One Man and His Bike, Mike Carter

  14. The Pine Barrens, John McPhee

2018

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  1. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx

  2. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett

  3. Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor

  4. Under the Skin, Michel Faber

  5. Turn Right at Machu Picchu, Mark Adams

  6. It’s All About the Bike: The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels, Robert Penn

  7. Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake

  8. Reflections in a Golden Eye, Carson McCullers

  9. A World Without Us, Alan Weisman

  10. The Traitor’s Niche, Ismail Kadare

  11. The Orchard Keeper, Cormac McCarthy

  12. The Vorrh, Brian Caitling

  13. Poisoned Arrows: An investigative journey to the forbidden territories of West Papua, George Monbiot

  14. Uncle Willy, and other stories, William Faulkner

  15. Scoop, Evelyn Waugh

  16. Galapagos, Kurt Vonnegut

  17. The Crofter and the Laird, John McPhee

  18. The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart, Glenn Taylor

  19. The Southern Reach Trilogy: III, Acceptance, Jeff VanderMeer

  20. The Girl With All The Gifts, MR Carey

  21. A Month in the Country, JL Carr

  22. The Thin Man, Dashiell Hammett

  23. Snow Falling on Cedars, David Guterson

  24. He Wants, Alison Moore

  25. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje

2017

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  1. The Road to Oxiana, Robert Byron

  2. The White Cities: Reports from France 1925-39, Joseph Roth

  3. The Oregon Trail, Francis Parkman

  4. The Plague, Albert Camus

  5. A Rage in Harlem, Chester Himes

  6. Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy

  7. Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I, Charles Spencer

  8. The Room, Hubert Selby Jr.

  9. Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe

  10. Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby Jr.

  11. Feet of Clay, Terry Pratchett

  12. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, Philip K Dick

  13. Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell

  14. Hotel Savoy, Joseph Roth

  15. A Dance of Folly and Pleasure: Stories, O Henry

  16. Hell at the Breech, Tom Franklin

  17. Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys

  18. Feral, George Monbiot

  19. Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans, Louis Armstrong

  20. If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young, Kurt Vonnegut

  21. The Marrowbone Marble Company, Glenn Taylor

  22. The Southern Reach Trilogy: I, Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer

  23. The Southern Reach Trilogy: II, Authority, Jeff VanderMeer

  24. The Dog Stars, Peter Heller

  25. The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper

  26. Collected Short Stories, Michael McLaverty

  27. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler

  28. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks