Books I will read and review in 2022, and why

Have moved house. Had to pack up one or two books and then unpack them. You’d think this would cure me of buying more. Ha ha ha ha.

It’s a damn pathology. I understand its roots, (I think), I understand the costs. I choose not to act to cure that pathology. Human, all-too-human.

But I can at least (try to) contain it, to shape and guide it. SO, from now, I will try to introduce some order into what I buy and what I read (Ha ha ha ha).

And so I make this list below to as a way of keeping myself less dishonest. The list is not exhaustive – I have a bunch of books borrowed from the University Library I shall have to add to it… But for now, this. It’s a crushingly white list. Will do better in future. Nb I reserve the right not to read them in the order of this list…

	Book (title and author)	Reason I am gonna read	Link to review (and date)
1	Utz by Bruce Chatwin	It was short?! It came recommended	Review published 15 April
2	The Days of Darkness by Douglas Orgill	I bought it recently	Review published 18 April
3	Weather War by Leonard Leokum and Paul	Climate stuff	Review published 18 April
4	Desdemona – if only you had spoken by Christine Bruckner (trans Eleanor Bron)	That “writing back into history” thing matters	Review, 22 April
5	Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl	Classic
6	The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Taylor	I do not read enough women	Review 08 May
7	The Clever Moron by Richard Scorer	Library – love a good jeremiad
8	The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvoir	Don’t know I’ve ever read any SdB?! And regret and responsibility is a big thing.
9	All Men are Mortal by Simone de Beauvoir	SdB
10	The Ice Age by Margaret Drabble		Review 11 May
11	Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer	Met Dyer once, briefly. Seems smart, good guy.	Review 22 May
12	The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
13	Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald	Sebald was by all accounts brilliant. Need to read it alongside City of Angels by Christa Wolf
14	City of Angels by Christa Wolf	wolf is brilliant. Seroiusly so.
15	Imaginary Friends by Alison Lurie	Lurie is brilliant, and this is a satire about academics studying a cult…
16	Nightmares of Eminent Persons by Bertrand Russell	Ah, Bertie!! Also, pen portraits of various folks
17	The Seventh Enemy by Ronald Higgins	Bought ages ago. Recommended by someone I respect
18	The Crimes of Olga Arbyelina by Andrei Makine	Makine is brilliant
19	La Testament Francaise by Andrei Makine	Makine is brilliant
20	Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s	Lots to learn from the Civil Rights Struggle
21	Deadline by David Leitch	Leitch a good journo
22	Millennium edited by Anthony Coleman	Last 1000 years, in 10 chapters. Why not
23	Our Dumb Century	The Onion!
24	Disaster! The Rise and Fall of News on Sunday	Bought it recently
25	Sold for a Spaceship by Philip E. High	Bought it recently
26	The Other Man: Conversations with Graham Greene by Marie-Francoise Allain	Bought it recently (well, was sent it in error)
27 and 28	Medusa and “The Doomed Oasis” by Hammond Innes	Bought it recently
29	The Black Tide by Hammond Innes	Bought it recently [eco-thriller]
30	Sabotage by Fletcher Knebel	Bought it recently (same theme as The Black Tide – and Justin Scott’s “The Ship Killer” for that matter)
31	Brother Esau by Douglas Orgill & John Gribbin	Bought it recently
32	The Climate Mandate by Walter Orr Roberts and Henry Lansford	Bought it recently
33	Climate and Man: From the ice Ages to the Global Greenhouse by Fred Pearce	Bought it recently
34	Offshore: A North Sea Journey by A. Alvarez	Bought it recently
35	The Stasi Game by David Young	Bought it recently
36	Made in Britain: Why our economy is more successful than you think by Evan Davis	Bought it recently
37	No love for Johnnie by Wilfred Fienburgh	Bought this recently. Abt MPs and disillusionment – from the 1950s…
38	Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley	Bought this recently Have enjoyed his other novels!	Review 27 April
39	The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller	Bought this recently
40	The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody by Will Cuppy	Bought this recently
41	Stick It Up Your Punter!: The Uncut Story Of The Sun Newspaper by Peter Chippindale	The history of the Scum newspaper… Will have horrifying anecdotes
42	American Guerrilla: My War Behind Japanese Lines (Memories of War) by Roger Hilsman	Bought this recently