LesMiserables' 2012 Reading List

I have no doubt I will not get through this but it will at least give me a wide variety of reading and a goal to aim for. Many of these titles could quite easily jump into other genres, but you have to label them even though it might not be exactly the closest fit. I have left an 'other' section for those books and stories I may read not planned or that I have to do for professional reasons.
I have no particular order in which to tackle these...

x5 Scott
- Rob Roy (1817)
- The Heart of Midlothian (1818)
- Tales of a Grandfather (1828-31)
- Guy Mannering (1815)
- The Antiquary (1816)

x5 Stevenson
- In the South Seas (1896)
- The Merry Men and other tales and Fables (1887)
- Island Nights' Entertainments (1893)
- Memories and Portraits (1887)
- Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers (1881)

x5 Science
- The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
- The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
- Easy & Not-So-Easy Pieces by Richard P. Feynman
- The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
- The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw

x5 Scottish History
- The History of the Scottish people 1560-1830 by TC Smout
- A History of Scotland by Neil Oliver
- Scotland's Books: The Penguin History of Scottish Literature by Robert Crawford
- The Lowlands of Scotland: Glasgow and the North by Maurice Lindsay
- Journal by Sir Walter Scott

x5 Ancient History
- The Campaigns of Alexander by Arian
- The Peloponnesian war by Thucydides
- Hellenika by Xenophon
- The Twelve Caesar's by Suetonius
- The Anabasis by Xenophon

x5 Fiction
- Underworld by Don DeLillo
- Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
- Papillon by Henri Charriere
- Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian

x5 Biography
- Untold Stories by Alan Bennett
- Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
- Seven Pillars of Wisdom by TE Lawrence
- Autobiography by Bertrand Russell
- Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves

x5 Philosophy
- The Republic by Plato
- Ethics by Aristotle
- The History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
- On Virtue Ethics by Rosalind Hursthouse
- The Cambridge Companion to Rousseau by Patrick Reilly

x5 Political
- The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama
- How to Change the World by Eric Hobbsbawm
- Selected Works by Marx/Engels
- Historical Materialism by Marx/Engels/Lenin
- Capital by Marx

x5 Myths & legends
- The Epic of Gilgamesh by Andrew George (trans)
- Beowulf by Seamus Heaney (trans)
- The Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths and Legends by Peter Berresford Ellis (Ed)
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Simon Armitage (trans)
- The Greek Myths by Robert Graves

x5 British History
- A History of Ancient Britain by Neil Oliver
- Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA by Richard English
- Making Sense of The Troubles by David McKittrick and David McVea
- The Lost Revolution: the Story of the Official IRA and Workers' Party
- Elizabeth I by JE Neale

x5 European History
- Natasha's Dance by Orlando Figes
- A History of Twentieth Century Russia by Robert Service
- The Bayeux Tapestry by Carola Hicks
- The Struggle for Mastery in Europe by AJP Taylor
- The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle

x5 World History and Historiography
- A People's History of the World by Chris Harman
- In Defence of History by Richard J Evans
- The Great War for Civilisation by Robert Fisk
- Spice, The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner
- What is History by EH Carr

x5 Ecology and Environment
- Eco-Socialism by David pepper
- Deep Green resistance by McBay, Keith and Jensen
- Ecological Ethics by Patrick Curry
- The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram
- Becoming Animal by David Abram

x5 American History
- Democracy in America by Tocqueville
- Thomas Jefferson by RB Bernstein
- The Divided Union by Batty and Parish
- History of the United States During the Administrations of Jefferson by Henry Adams
- Writings by Jefferson

x5 Muir
- The Story of My Boyhood and Youth
- My First Summer in the Sierra
- The Mountains of California
- Stickeen
- Selected Essays

Other
- The Folio Book of Days by Roger Hudson
- King James Version of the Bible with Apocrypha

Wow! That's quite a list! Some I have read and some I would like to read. Will be interested in what you have to say about it all.

> 2

Bugger! I feel under pressure now. :-)

Nice list. Let's see how many additional books you will squeeze in because of recommendations in LT :)

> 4

You are joking, right!

A great list of books

> 6

Why thank you baswood (and very nice to meet you!).

Anything in particular there that stands out for you?

I find all of you who plan their reading for the year so impressive! I have wishlists, tbr lists, unread lists, but I never organize them into a specific reading program. That would be the kiss of death for me. I always pick up my next book on a whim.

>8 krazy4katz: I'm with you, k4k... I have to just pick one at random... otherwise, too much pressure!

#7 Two of your books have been on my TBR pile for some time: The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle and The History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell.

last year I read and really enjoyed Beowulf (trans Heaney) and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (trans by Armitage)

happy Reading

That's quite an excellent reading plan, LesMiserables. I note your interest in Stevenson. Have I already asked you, in another group, if you've read Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer by Richard Holmes, wherein Holmes retraced Stevenson's trip through the Cevannes?

Here's to a good reading year!

11> No, I don't believe you have. Yes I am a great fan of RLS. I am a member of the RLS Society etc. Talking about the Cevennes, it is a long held ambition for myself and my wife to walk the route in France http://www.walking-languedoc.com/Trekking_the_Stevenson_Trail_France.html. It's around 250km. I think 3 weeks would be a decent amount of time for it, to make it enjoyable.

Later I would like to do the longer 'kidnapped' walk http://www.stevensonway.org.uk/

>8 krazy4katz:

Last time I made a list of books to read, it had 10 books and was supposed to be for 2 months (so I could read other things as well). At the end of the two months, I had read one of the 10. So no more lists for me.

>5 LesMiserables:

We shall see :)

>12 LesMiserables: Both of those walks look like such a good time. I think I could manage the Cevennes, but I doubt I'm rugged enough for the Kidnapped walk. I'd like to make it to Mull someday, though. Not to be cliche', but "I Know Where I'm Going" is one of my favorite films.

Please do post pics if you and your wife manage either trip.

> 14

Oh I will post the pics to be sure: will you be here in a round 7 years time! :-) That's when we plan it, around Long Service leave etc.

I have walked the 'West Highland way' from Glasgow to Fort William. I did it though when I was in my early twenties and a young fit soldier on leave. Carried everything on my back: tent, food, etc and made it in 5 days. This is more worth praise then you may think, as me and my mates, drank copious amounts of Guinness at every pub, day and night, on route.

Those were the days!

I think I'll just bold up my read books in post #1.

Well that is at least #1 out of the way. Phew! Pressure off. :-)

What did I think of The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw?

I definitely learned one or two things about electrons that I didn't know and I found out Quantum Physics requires a detachment from common sense analysis.

On the whole though I found myself lost in the mathematics and as a book aimed at a non scientific - or pop-physics audience, I came away with little impression and somewhat slightly disappointed. If I was to be fair to the authors, I would say they tried their best to describe a complex subject, but unlike their contemporary Simon Singh, they failed to weave a narrative which is important for the audience they are aiming at, and ultimately could not explain in the most crystal clear fashion, like for instance Bertrand Russell could, the theories they were propounding.

Just added my first 'other' to my lsi which I will read throughout the year..

The Folio Book of Days by Roger Hudson

And another I am going to read daily.

King James Version of the Bible with Apocrypha

Quantum physics is impenetrable to me. I don't get any of it.
HAppy new year to you lesmis!

> 20

Cheers!

Just finished Master and Commander. What a great novel. High adventure and being slung on tenterhooks till the last. Altogether capital!

I keep putting off reading the Aubrey-Maturin series. Not sure what I'm waiting for, but maybe next year. Are you going to tackle the rest? I didn't see any on your already daunting list.

> 23

It would be nice to continue of with Post Captain and a surer way to reach my arbitrary target if I was to whizz through the series, but I will resist the temptation. I have so may great reads on there I have been meaning to delve into for a great length of time and one must sometimes just grasp the nettle and be bold about it.
I have revisited that list a few times in the past days and yes indeed it is daunting and probably beyond me, but what's the saying, reach for the stars and you might just hit the moon?

Nice quote. And yes, I have put myself in the same sort of box by listing about fifty books I "hope" to read this year that are actually at hand. Trouble is, I really want to read those books, but I keep reading in these threads about other interesting-sounding books, so it is a delicate balancing act to try to stick to a plan on the one hand, and on the other, to throw it all overboard and read randomly. I expect I'll end up doing a bit of both.

>24 LesMiserables:

Or you might burn your fingers on the home fire. :)
You have more restraint than me - if I like a book, I won't just go through a series but through anything the author had written. One of the reasons I do not post plans.

> 26

What? It has just dawned on me you have no reading list! Why you, you...

>27 LesMiserables:

Too lazy to type it down is as good explanation as "I know I cannot follow a plan of reading". :)

I dare not even think about starting the Aubry Maturin series. I know I will never be able to stop.

I loved the movie, absolutely briiliant.

> 29

I loved M&C FSOTW too! The film has certain characteristics that remain true but on the whole is quite removed from the plot line.

Loved it though, and the soundtrack. Tallis ete

Stopping by here for the first time. Love you list in post 1, good luck. I'm also reading through the bible this year, although my versions will vary. My first choice will be Robert Alter's translations, but where he hasn't translated, I'll likely use the KJV.

I have abandoned my list. I have not felt under so much pressure to read since making that damned list. I also feel like a straight-jacketed interrogated amateur, naked on the stage, in full glare of the frowning crowd and glare of the stinging stage lights.
Back to my old meandering reading of fancy and fortune. The cloud has passed.

Welcome to the land of freely reading. Post back to tell us what you are reading though :)

Please don't give up on your list. I also made an ambitious list of books I merely "hope" to read, and I enjoy perusing it and trying to inhale, but it just doesn't seem to work.

It's lovely list, even if you never pursue it. But i'm certainly glad you might actually enjoy your reading now.

It's a very worthy list, but one doesn't always feel in the mood for a worthy book. You could spread it over a few years, perhaps. Enjoy your reading.

Inspiring list and helped convince me to join this group. I do understand abandoning it though, but at least read Rob Roy. I just finished rereading it and it had lost nothing over the years.

Oh what a fool I was!

#32 said it all. For the record I ended up reading a measly montage of...

The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
Officers and Gentlemen by Evelyn Waugh
The Quiet Man by Maurice Walsh
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Unconditional Surrender by Evelyn Waugh
In The South Seas - Robert Louis Stevenson
Reading the Oxford English Dictionary - Ammon Shea
Unweaving the Rainbow - Richard Dawkins
Please Understand Me II by David Keirsey
Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin by Tracy Lee Simmons
Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
Call for the Dead - John le Carré
The Social Animal by David Brooks
Socialism made Easy - James Connolly
Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution - Ruth Scurr
The German Ideology - Marx and Engels
How Marxism Works - Chris Harman
The Pleasure Trap - Douglas J Lisle
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
African Diary - Bill Bryson
Songs of Innocence and of Experience - William Blake

Measly? Looks like a terrific list of books read.

Absolutely a wonderful and impressive list of books read. And, for the record, I am coincidentally off the reservation (having never been able to make a list) and reading Lés Miserables. I am only 7% of the way through it, but fantastic so far.

I have so many unread books on my kindle...

k4k

> 40

I loved Lés Miserables. Absolutely brilliant.