Books

This is a list of books (fiction and non-fiction), art books, architectural volumes (of a visual nature) and comics that I have read since 1993. I guess this list started because I was reading too many books at the same time and often abandoning them before I could finish them. I decided that a list would help me focus and it did.

Before 1993, I have read way too many books to remember. Thus, if the 'Lord of the Rings', 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', 'Neuromancer' are missing, you can be sure that I have read them sometime in the seventies and eighties. And if it is juvenile fiction like Enid Blyton's 'St Claire's' or 'Malory Towers', yes I have read them, likewise, Tom Swift, Hardy Boys, Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators, etc. And of course pulp fiction like Robert E. Howard's Conan books, Agatha Christie's mysteries and so forth.

The list, of course, includes everything like pulp fiction (Modesty Blaise, Conan the Barbarian, etc), trash (Dragonlance, George R.R. Martin, David Eddings), conspiracy theory novels (Historical Illuminatus!)  to literature (Franz Kafka, Milan Kundera, etc).

Initially when I started the list, listed mainly SF and fantasy. Eventually, that changed.

This list will also include picture photos, books of photo images, art books, architectural books, comics, etc. It will, however, not include newspapers and magazines or online stuff.

The list will also include books that I read the past or have read a second time. I have read the Lord of the Rings at least four or five times. And it will also include books that I started many years back and finally gotten around to finishing it. (ie Clash of Civilisations, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, etc)

In the course of reading, I know I have probably forgotten to list a couple of books. Too bad, that's life.

Don't expect book reviews as I won't be writing any. However, if you are interested in my views on a particular book read, you can, of course, send me an email. If I can remember, I will tell you what I think. Again, they are my opinions, not gospel. And I can't remember everything I read, especially the pulp fiction! Some views of the books I read can be found in my blog: http://shyuechou.blogspot.com

Lastly, as a note, before you ask how I found so much time to read, well, I don't. I spend a lot more time sleeping, being online or playing computer games than reading. Somehow, reading and learning, like drawing is a passion. Thus...

* I'm in the midst of transferring this list online. The list dates back to 1993 when I started keeping a list.


2007 November

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's most powerful Mercenary Army - Jeremy Scahill

 

2007 October

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA - Tim Weiner
Introducing Cultural Studies - Ziauddin Sardar, Borin Van Loon
Special Ops: Journal of the elite Forces & SWAT Units Volume 41
Kingdom Come - J.G. Ballard
Istanbul: Memories of a City - Orhan Pamuk
Modesty Blaise - Peter O'Donnell
Football and Gangsters: How organised Crime controls the beautiful Game - Graham Johnson
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos: The Collected Concept Art - Mark Ralphs
Special Ops: Journal of the elite Forces & SWAT Units Volume 40
 

2007 September

Killing Pablo - Mark Bowden
Infantry Mortars of World War II - John Norris
Operation Draguet - French Air Force in the Gulf War - Eric Micheletti
Stryker: Interim Armoured Vehicle - Carl Schulze and Ralph Zwilling
Duty calls - Sandy Mitchell
Gebirgsjager: German Mountain Infantry - Gordon Rottman, Stephen Andrew
In evil Hour - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Battle on two Fronts 1944-45 - Tom Cockle
Slaine: Book of Invasions III - Pat Mills, Clint Langley
 

2007 August

Constant Battles: Why we fight - Steven A. Le Blanc and Katherine E. Register
Introducing Consciousness - David Papineau, Howard Selina
Lions, Donkeys and Dinosaurs: Waste and Blundering in the Military - Lewis Page
Axis Forces in North Africa 1940-43 - Claudio Antonucci
Invasion! - Marc Gascoigne and Christian Dunn
The Complete Yes Minister - Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay
The Complete Yes Prime Minister - Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay
 

2007 July

Brothers of the Snake - Dan Abnett
Spectrum 2 - Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner
The History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century - Sir Charles Oman
 

2007 June

Cathar Castles: Fortresses of the Albigensian Crusades 1209-1300 - Marcus Cowper
Shattered Sword: The untold Story of the Battle of Midway - Jonathan Parshall, Anthony Tully
Japan's Greatest Victory Britain's Worst Defeat from the Japanese Perspective - Masanobu Tsuji
Medieval Mercenaries: The Business of War - William Urban
Just Cause: Intervention in Panama 1989-90 - Gordon Rottman, Dmitriy Zgonnik
British Armoured Battle Group - Tim Matzold, Daniel Nowak
Ravenor Rogue - Dan Abnett
Introducing Psychology - Nigel C. Benson
Journal of Armoured Assault & Heliborne Warfare Volume 18
Introducing Evolutionary Psychology - Dylan Thomas, Oscar Zarate
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

2007 May

The Undiscovered Mind: How the Brain defies Explanation - John Horgan
Dead lines - Greg Bear
Panzer on the Ostfront 1941-43 - Frank V. DeSisto

2007 April

The History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages Volume 1 A.D.378-1278 - Sir Charles Oman
March to the West: The German Invasion of France and the Low Countries - Gordon Rottman, S Andrew
British Sherman Tanks - Dennis Olivier
The History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages Volume 2 A.D. 1278-1485 - Sir Charles Oman
 

2007 March

Witch Killer - C.L.Werner
Idoru - William Gibson
Indian Castles 1206-1526: The Rise and Fall of the Delhi Sultanate - Konstanin Nossov
Russian Fortresses 1480-1682 - Konstanin Nossov
The Real Thing: Truth and Power at the Coca-Cola Company - Constance L. Hays
 

2007 February

F.I.A.S.C.O. - Frank Partnoy
Slaine: Book of Invasions I - Pat Mills and Clint Langley
Slaine: Book of Invasions II - Pat Mills and Clint Langley
Arsenal for Aggression: Armoured Vehicles of the Warsaw Pact - Robert Michulec
Newton's Wake - Ken Macleod
Against the Odds: The remarkable Story of Risk - Peter L. Bernstein
Panzer Vor! 3: German Armour at War 1939-45 - Frank V. DeSisto
Crescent and Cross: The Battle of Lepanto - Hugh Bicheno
Panzer Vor! 4: German Armour at War 1939-45 - Frank V. DeSisto

2007 January

Age of Conquerors - Tim Newark
John Hawkwood: An English Mercenary in the Fourteenth Century - William Caferro
Special Ops: Journal of the Elite Forces & SWAT Units Volume 39
Victory of the West: The Story of the Battle of Lepanto - Niccolo Capponi
Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System that beat the Casinos and Wall Street - William Poundstone
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist explores the Hidden Side of Everything - Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking - Malcolm Gladwell
The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many are smarter than the Few - James Surowiecki
The Seduction of Place: The City in the Twenty-First Century - Joseph Rykwert
US Airborne Vietnam - Kevin Lyles
Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis
 

2006 December

The Greeks - H.D.F. Kitto
The Armour of Contempt - Dan Abnett
Introducing Sociology - Richard Osborne
Tornado - Ian Rentoul and Tom Wakeford
Certain Shield: The Multi-National Airborne Division on exercise - Michael Jerchel
Introducing Modernism - Chris Rodrigues, Chris Garrat
Fighting Techniques of a Japanese Infantrymn 1941-1945 - Leo J. Daugherty III
The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power - Colin Imber
Battle Angel Alita Last Order: Angel's Visions - Yukito Kishiro
Learning the World - Ken Macleod
A Bloody Business: America's War Zone Contractors and the Occupation of Iraq - Gerald Suhumacher
Soldat: (2) The German Soldier on the Eastern Front 1943-44 - Gordon Rottman & Stephen Andrew
Maple Flag - Mike Reyno
Panzer in the Gunsights 2: German AFVs and Artillery in the ETO 1944-45 in US Army Photos - Steven J. Zaloga
Altered Carbon - Richard K. Morgan

2006 November

Waffen-SS at War: The Early Years 1939-42 - Robert Michulec
Waffen-SS at War: The Late Years 1943-44- Robert Michulec
Antares Victory - Michael McCollum
Modesty Blaise: Cry Wolf - Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero
The Vietnam Brown Water Navy - Riverine and Coastal Warfare 1965-69 - Gordon Rottman
The Northern Crusades - Eric Christiansen
Crusader Castles of the Teutonic Knights (1): The Red Brick Castles of Prussia 1230-1466 - Stephen Turnbull
Crusader Castles of the Teutonic Knights (2): The Stone Castles of Latvia and Estonia 1185-1560 - Stephen Turnbull
Introducing Anthropology - Merryl Wyn Davis
Panzer IV: The Panzerkampfwagen IV Medium Tank 1939-1945 - Kevin Hjermstad
US Army Light Forces: Panama to the Middle East - Michael Green
Marines on the Ground: Operation Iraqi Freedom I - Gordon Arthur
Introducing Marx - Ruis (Eduardo del Rio)
The Teutonic Knights: A Military History - William Urban
Operation Desert Shield: Prelude to Desert Storm - Yves DeBay and Michael Green
The City: A Global History - Joel Kotkin

2006 October

Gangs: A Journey into the Heart of the British Underworld - Tony Thompson
The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of World Order - Samuel P. Huntington
Explorers of the New Century - Magnus Mills
The French Religious Wars 1567-1598 - Robert J. Knecht
The Weather Makers - Tim Flannery
The Two-Timers - Bob Shaw
Century Rain - Alastair Reynolds

2006 September

Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe - Bert S. Hall
Panzer Vor 2! - Frank V. De Sisto
Journal of Armoured Assault and Heliborne Warfare Volume 16
Special Ops: Journal of the Elite Forces & SWAT Units Volume 38
Renaissance War Galley 1470-1590 - Angus Konstam
Armies of the German Peasants' War 1524-26 - Douglas Miller
Antares Dawn - Michael McCollum
Antares Passage - Michael McCollum
Ringworld - Larry Niven
The World of Tatja Grimm - Vernor Vinge

2006 August

Battle Angel Alita: Last Order: The Angel and the Vampire - Yukito Kishiro
Battle Angel Alita: Last Order: Guilty Angel - Yukito Kishiro
Cities - John Reader
Landsknecht Soldier 1486-1560 - John Richards
The Swiss at War 1300-1500 - Douglas Miller and Gerry Embleton
Introducing Islam - Ziauddin Sardar
The Fourth Power - Juan Gimenez

2006 July

Modesty Blaise: The Green-Eyed Monster - Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia Romero
Black Celebration: Depeche Mode - Steve Martins

2006 June

Journal of Armoured Assault and Heliborne Warfare Volume 15
Stalingrad Inferno: The Infantry War - Gordon Rothman and Ronald Volstad
The Fencing Master - Arturo Perez-Reverte
Cardinal Crimson - Will McDermott

2006 May

The Chinese Army today - Dennis J. Blasko
The North Korean People's Army - James Minnich
Horus Rising - Dan Abnett

2006 April

The Art of Warhammer 40,000 - compiled by Marc Gascoigne and Matt Ralphs
The Art of the World of Warcraft
Modesty Blaise: The Puppet Master - Peter O'Donnell, Enric Badia Romero
The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the US Marines - Bing West, Ray Smith
Collapse: How Societies choose to fail or succeed - Jared Diamond
V for Vendetta - Alan Moore and David Lloyd
In the company of soldiers: A chronicle of battle - Rick Atkinson
Spectrum 12
No True Glory: A frontline account of the Battle for Fallujah - Bing West
Illicit: How smugglers, traffickers and copycats are highjacking the Global Economy - Moises Naim
The War in Afghanistan 1979-1989: The Soviet Empire at high tide - David Isby
Robert the Bruce: King of the Scotts - Ronald McNair Scott
Witch Hunter - C.L.Werner
Witch Finder - C.L.Werner

2006 March

Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War - Anthony Swofford
Twenty-First Century Small Arms - Steve Crawford
The Gun Digest Book of Assault Weapons 6th Edition - Jack Lewis
The Serpent and the Rainbow - Wade Davis
Death or Glory - Sandy Mitchell
Blood Royal - Will McDermott & Gordon Rennie

2006 February

My War: Killing Time in Iraq - Colby Buzzell
Heavy Metal: A Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad - Jason Conroy, Ron Martz
The Daemon's Curse - Dan Abnett & Mike Lee
Kal Jericho: Underhive Bounty Hunter - Gordon Rennie, K. Kopinski, Wayne Reynolds

2006 January

This kind of War - T.R. Fehrenbach
Tomorrow Now - Bruce Sterling

2005 December

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke