I continued to hike and listen to books on Audible. At some point this year, I switched from Audible.com to Audible.ca. This was a good financial move since I pay less per month and my the amount isn’t dependent on the exchange rate.
The standout books this year were:
The Social Animal by David Brooks
KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps by Nikolaus Wachsmann: This is a book of history. It’s got a lot of detail, but it’s quite incredible.
The English and Their History by Robert Toombs: This is such a good book. It covers the names and the dates, but it also interprets history and offers an understanding of the English people.
A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage: This is history lite. But really interesting to read history through six beverages. I wish I wrote this book.
Don’t bother reading these:
The Swerve by Stephan Greenblatt
Stephen Greenblatt is a bright fellow, so I was baffled that he would write such a book. The whole book is based on a historical narrative in which Reason is the hero. You know, the story where, following the fall of glorious Rome, civilization fell into an age of intellectual and cultural darkness. But then in the Renaissance, we opened our eyes to the light of Reason and turned from the oppressive weight of God and His Church into glorious freedom.
In order to maintain his narrative, Greenblatt found it necessary to distort actual historical fact. For me, the merits of this book were clouded by the ridiculous story being told–perhaps I’m just too post-Modern to be able to stomach this nonsense.
Ulysses by James Joyce
I was defeated by Ulysses. I have never been beaten by a book. This one took round one. I got to about half-way and I realized that this was time that could be spent reading a book that I actually enjoyed instead of this piece of . . . literature.
I read some books in preparation for our trip to England this summer:
The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
To Rule the Waves by Arthur Herman
Tudors by Peter Ackroyd
Amped by Douglas E. Richards
Here’s the rest. I enjoyed all of them.
Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright
My Man Jeeves by P. G. Woodhouse
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan
Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
The Secrets of Story by Matt Bird
The Tao of Pooh byBenjamin Hoff
This is my third year with Audible. Come back to read about Audible Books: Year 4.