Reading list for the summer (and beyond).

Following on from my last post about the stack of grubby second-hand books...
Beware! My list may sound a wee bit pretentious. The reason for this is that I'm far more inclined to put the highbrow books on the long finger. The last five books I finished were:

• John Perkins - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
• Jonathan Coe - Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of B.S. Johnson
• Asne Seierstad - With Their Backs to the World: Portraits from Serbia
• Bertrand Russell - Sceptical Essays
• Aldous Huxley - Brave New World

OK, not exactly a collection of popular fiction. I stand indicted of middle-brow tastes at the least. What can I say? When I want pure entertainment, I hit the town, go to the cinema, watch TV, scream at a football match, or listen to music. I still find books fun. For instance, that biography of B.S. Johnson was addictive. Best book I've read in ages. Even better: I have it in hardback. :)

Currently, I'm dipping in and out of, or juggling, a small cohort of books:

• Tacitus - The Annals and The Histories
• Gore Vidal - United States: Essays 1952-1992
• H.J. Blackham - Six Existentialist Thinkers
• F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Best Early Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Christopher Hitchens - Love, Poverty & War: Journeys and Essays
• Baylis & Smith - The Globalization of World Politics (a textbook: dull but necessary)
• Franz Kafka - The Complete Novels
• P.J. O'Rourke - Holidays in Hell
• Hamilton, Jay & Madison - The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States

Meanwhile, a fair few books haven't been started, or were abandoned half-way through. Among these, my priorities are:

• Stendhal - The Charterhouse of Parma
• Garrison Keillor - We Are Still Married
• Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness & Other Stories
• Marcel Proust - The Way By Swann's
• Byron - Selected Poetry of Lord Byron
• Homer - The Iliad and The Odyssey
• Norman Porter - Rethinking Unionism
• Henry James - The Portrait of a Lady
• Michel Foucault - Madness and Civilization

I would tell you about the books on my wish-list, but I think I'd lose my last few readers. Even if they're far more contemporary than the set you've just waded through! Masochists can click here for a look. Don't worry, I'm not fishing for gifts. I haven't added a mailing address or anything! ;)