For no other reason than for the sake of completeness, here are the books I read in 2010. I will be better about writing here this year, I promise.
- World Without End – January, 2010 – Another great epic from Follett, a worthy sequel to The Pillars of the Earth.
- Great Plains – January, 2010 – This sat on my shelf for a long time because I never really wanted to read it. Turned out to be an enjoyable travelogue.
- A Man on the Moon – January, 2010 – Quite possibly one of the best books I’ve ever read. I’m completely fascinated by the Apollo program.
- Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe – February, 2010 – Interesting, learned quite a bit more about Magellan.
- Nineteen Eighty-Four – February, 2010 – One of my goals for the year was to read more of the Modern Library 100 best novels, and this is one of them. Enjoyed this, good to read for basic cultural literacy.
- Pacific Vortex! – February, 2010 – I wanted to see what Cussler was all about. This was terrible, don’t know if I can read another by him.
- The Grapes of Wrath – March, 2010 – Another Modern Library selection. I loved this, much more than I thought I would. I was amazed at how much Steinbeck could do with such simple language.
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – March, 2010 – This was a unique concept, written from the viewpoint of an autistic child.
- Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big – March, 2010 – Forgettable
- Haroun and the Sea of Stories – March, 2010 – I can see why people really like this book, but it is not my type of fiction.
- Eye of the Needle – April, 2010 – Experimenting with other Follett genres. We liked Pillars of the Earth genre better.
- How I Learned to Cook: Culinary Educations from the World’s Greatest Chefs – April, 2010 – Chef / cooking memoirs are a guilty pleasure of mine. This book was good exposure to a lot of different chefs and inspired me to pick up the Bourdain book.
- Invisible Man – May, 2010 – I could not get into this one. I really didn’t feel smart enough for this.
- Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly – May, 2010 – Loved this book and Bourdain’s style. Will seek out more by him.
- The Heart of the Matter – June, 2010 – Another Modern Library choice. Greene really knows how to pour on the tragedy.
- Brideshead Revisited – June, 2010 – Another Modern Library choice and very enjoyable.
- Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood – June, 2010 – Read this in about two hours. Hilarious stuff, really hits close to home.
- The First Three Minutes – June, 2010 – Good look into the beginning of the universe, but very technical stuff, found myself getting lost quite a bit.
- The Shack – July, 2010 – This was complete and total garbage. Looking back, I can’t believe I finished this book.
- All the King’s Men – August, 2010 – I loved some of the language in this, but struggled through parts of it. On the Modern Library list.
- Heart of Darkness – September, 2010 – My first Kindle book (free). A harder read than I expected. I was constantly rereading pages. This may have been a factor of adapting to Kindle reading.
- The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine – September, 2010 – Kindle book. Amazingly well written and researched history of the start of the financial meltdown.
- The Call of the Wild – September, 2010 – Modern library and Kindle book. I may have enjoyed this more as a young boy.
- Treasure Island – September, 2010 – Free Kindle book. Loved all the pirate lingo.
- Crime and Punishment – October, 2010. Another free Kindle book. This was incredibly hard to read and doubt I understood it all.
- Will Rogers: Reflections and Observations – November, 2010 – A collection of writings by my hero. I was surprised at how well his humor has aged over the last 80+ years.
- The Diamond Age – December, 2010 – The last of Stephenson’s earlier works on my “to read” list. He remains one of my favorite authors.
- See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War Against Terrorism – December, 2010 – Very interesting insider view of the CIA.
- Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory – December, 2010 – A very entertaining story, but still find it hard to gauge how much impact the plan had on the outcome of WWII.