The Books I Read in 2018

Being the book nerd that I am, every time I’ve finished reading a book I write the title and author in a wee notebook. I’ve done it since 2008.

Why?

Who knows…

Maybe I like lists too much. But I do like looking back and seeing what I’ve read. Seeing the titles sometimes triggers a memory. For instance, I’ve just flicked back to 2012 and seen My Search for Truth by Henry Thomas Hamblin. Instantly, I see myself sitting up in bed with a chest infection, the book on my lap.

Not a good memory, but a memory nonetheless.

Anyhow, I thought I’d share with you my reading list for 2018… without the memories. Most of them I read for the first time, but there are several that I revisited just for the sheer pleasure of it. I’ve finished the year off by reading screenplays, so I’ve included those, too.

Let’s see if I’ve read anything you like:

1. Mouse, Bird, Snake, Wolf – David Almond
2. Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales – Gordon Jarvie
3. Season of Secrets – Sally Nicholls
4. Junk – Melvin Burgess
5. Just So Stories – Rudyard Kipling
6. Seeds from a Birch Tree – Clark Strand
7. Little Women – Louisa M. Alcott
8. Quiet Influence – J. B. Kahnweiler
9. The War of Art – Steven Pressfield (audiobook)
10. As a Man Thinketh – James Allen (audiobook)
11. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
12. Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones
13. The Philosopher Next Door – Anna Wallis
14. How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method – Randy Ingermanson
15. Literary History of Taiwanese Indigenous Peoples: Volume 1 – Pasuya Poicon
16. Sabriel – Garth Nix
17. A New Illustrated History of Taiwan – Wan-yao Chou
18. The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
19. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
20. Tortilla Flat – John Steinbeck
21. A Theory of Human Motivation – A. H. Maslow
22. God Needs to Go – J. D. Brucker
23. Cannery Row – John Steinbeck
24. Frindle – Andrew Clements
25. Acres of Diamonds – Russell Conwell
26. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
27. Stopping for a Spell – Diana Wynne Jones
28. Coraline – Neil Gaiman
29. The White Mercedes – Philip Pullman
30. Lyra’s Oxford – Philip Pullman
31. Natives of Formosa: British Reports of the Taiwanese Indigenous People, 1650-1950 – Edited by Henrietta Harrison
32. Poppy – Avi
33. Big Magic – Elizabeth Gilbert
34. Reading Like a Writer – Francine Prose (only read 50%… got bored)
35. The Coral Island – R. M. Ballantyne (only read 50%… got bored)
36. Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut
37. The Formosan Encounter: Notes on Formosa’s Aboriginal Society: A Selection of Dutch Documents – Edited by Leonard Blusse
38. Call of the Wild – Jack London
39. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce
40. The Indian in the Cupboard – L. R. Banks
41. Hard Times – Charles Dickens
42. Taiwan’s 400-Year History – Su Beng
43. Babe: Pig in the City – Justine Korman
44. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
45. The Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane
46. Rogue Trader – Nick Leeson
47. K-PAX – Gene Brewer
48. Intimacy – Hanif Kureshi
49. Disgrace – J. M. Coetzee
50. Anna’s Book – Fynn
51. A Street Cat Named Bob – James Bowen
52. Paperboy – Vince Vawter
53. My Name is Mina – David Almond
54. The One and Only Ivan – Katherine Applegate
55. The Tightrope Walkers – David Almond
56. Five Children and It – Edith Nesbit
57. Steppenwolf – Hermann Hesse
58. Theodore Boone: The Abduction – John Grisham
59. Fiesta – Ernest Hemingway
60. The Sorrows of Young Werther – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
61. Everyman – Philip Roth
62. Happy – Derren Brown
63. High Fidelity – Nick Hornby
64. The Stolen Bicycle – Wu Ming Yi
65. Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World – Mark Williams & Danny Penman
66. Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami
67. Eat Pray Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
68. Demian – Hermann Hesse
69. Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
70. Italian Neighbours – Tim Parks
71. Joyland – Stephen King
72. The Bird of Night – Susan Hill
73. Waking Up – Sam Harris
74. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
75. Skellig – David Almond
76. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
77. The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
78. Withnail and I – Bruce Robinson (screenplay)
79. Writing Screenplays That Sell – Michael Hauge
80. Good Will Hunting – Matt Damon & Ben Affleck (screenplay)
81. Storytelling Made Easy – Michael Hauge
82. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Eric Roth (screenplay)
83. Reservoir Dogs – Quentin Tarantino (screenplay)
84. Man on the Moon – S. Alexander & L. Karaszewski (screenplay)
85. The Man Who Invented Christmas – Susan Coyne (screenplay)
86. The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius