James Hynes

Well, I'm back. My day job has been pretty intense since January, but that's behind me now, and I've got a little more time for useless, unremunerative pursuits such as blogging. Of course, I haven't got a single goddamn thing to say, but (as I understand the rules) that's not actually a handicap in the blogosphere. In fact, I gather that it's an actual job requirement. (If you need proof, just read my previous posts.)

So, in the interest of filling some cyberspace, and reminding anybody who actually reads this thing (Hi, Mom!) that I still exist, I will append a list of the books I read last year. Inspired by my friend Keith Taylor, who's been doing it for years, I've been keeping an annual list for about ten years, and this morning, as I cleaned five months of accumulated papers and dust bunnies off my desk, I came across my list for 2008.

I attach it without comment, except to say, please don't give me a hard time for having read only 36 books last year. I'm a slow reader, and there's a lot of good stuff on TV.  Also, number 2, the Brian Green book, is about string theory, and it's beautifully written and almost completely incomprehensible, so it took me a really long time to read. Oh, and a few of the books are by friends or former students, and I read them in manuscript, meaning you can't find them on Amazon just yet.

1. The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins
2. The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene
3. Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama
4. The Tailor-King, Anthony Arthur
5. The Weight of Numbers, Simon Ings
6. Death of a Murderer, Rupert Thomson
7. The Unknown Terrorist, Richard Flanagan
8. Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, Susan Jacoby
9. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
10. Darkmans, Nicola Barker
11. Stoner, John Williams
12. Miles Gloriosus, Plautus
13. Roman Britain: Outpost of Empire, H. H. Scullard
14. The Origins of Britain, Lloyd and Jennifer Laing
15. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy, Ronald Hutton
16. The Heart of the West, O. Henry
17. The Excellent Empire: The Fall of Rome, Jaroslav Pelikan
18. Philly’s Best, Tom McAllister
19. The Magician’s Book, Laura Miller
20. The Good Thief, Jane Thurmond
21. Antigone, Sophocles, translated by Robert Fagles
22. Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties, Robert Stone
23. Devi, John Marks
24. Oedipus the King, Sophocles, translated by Robert Fagles
25. Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles, translated by Robert Fagles
26. Women of Trachis, Sophocles, translated by David Raeburn
27. The Agricola and The Germania, Tacitus, translated by H. Mattingly
28. Ajax, Sophocles, translated by David Raeburn
29. Nation, Terry Pratchett
30. Theogony, Works and Days, Hesiod, translated by M. L. West
31. The Works and Days, Theogony, The Shield of Herakles, Hesiod, translated by Richmond Lattimore
32. The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952, Charles M. Schulz
33. Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O’Nan
34. Schulz and Peanuts, David Michaelis
35. Life Class, Pat Barker
36. The Complete Peanuts 1952-1954, Charles M. Schulz

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