Deeden

1 The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin (Buy this)

Steve Martin is a comic genius. Sadly he has not made a comedy film of note for a long time. The last film of his that I thought truly brilliant was LA Story, a film that splits even his fans. It was thus with trepidation that I started reading The Pleasure of My Company. I need not have worried, the man is still a genius. The book is not a comic novel, it simply tells the story of Daniel who lives alone in his apartment, has a substantial collection of neuroses and is interested in meeting a suitable woman.

Daniel is a strange individual whose life is affected by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. He can only cross streets at certain points, such as where driveways are exactly opposite each other. He can become obsessed on details such as finding new routes to the pharmacy, where one of the woman in his life works. He desperately wants to win a writing competition to find the “Most Average American” and spends hours crafting his entries. When he’s at home the total wattage of the lights which are on must always make up the same total, resulting in him turning lights on and off in different rooms to make sure things are as he wants them. Daniel is however likeable. Infuriating yes, but likeable. He gradually bends and tries to change in response to the events around him.

“The Pleasure of My Company” is a magnificent read. It has also done the job of reassuring me that Steve Martin is still a genius and that he’s not wasting his talent, he has just put it to different uses.

2 Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton (Buy this)

I read Just a Geek in about 36 hours, taking it with me on the train home and just zooming through the whole thing. It’s a great read, composed of original posts from Wheaton’s blog and commentary on those posts as well as new material. It’s a fascinating story detailing his journey as he deals with the fact that he may not be the person he thought he wanted to be, and accepts that the person he is is as good, if not better.

The book is not a Star Trek book. Star Trek is mentioned but not to the exclusion of all else. Wheaton’s family are much more important, and interesting, as is his life of auditions and, generally, rejection. I would recommend thus book to anyone, regardless of whether they know who Wil Wheaton is or not. Wheaton is clearly a writer with talent and I look forward to his next book as much as, actually probably more than, I looked forward to this one after Dancing Barefoot.

3 Dancing Barefoot by Wil Wheaton (Buy this)

Dancing Barefoot by Wil Wheaton, a surprisingly brilliant debut from a surprisingly good writer. Short stories which cover a variety of situations and perform the marvellous act of making me think of Wil Wheaton as a writer. Following this up with Just a Geek is a fantastic achievement. The book throughly deserves a third place in my best new reading of 2004.

4 Gullible’s Travels by Cash Peters (Buy this)

Gullible’s Travels by Cash Peters, a wonderfully funny book covering Cash’s experiences as he visits the strangest museums and takes the most bizarre tours, culminating in a visit to Graceland.

I bought the book for two reasons. One, I’ve listened to Cash on Up All Night for the last few years, nowadays using the listen again service to catch up. Secondly, both Kathryn, my sister, and my Mum recommended it to me. They’re both in a fine run of form right now.

It’s hard to describe the book without it sounding boring. The basic premise is that Cash goes from museum to museum and tour to tour and tells us about each. It could be boring, however it’s not. He covers each subject extraordinarily well and isn’t afraid to ridicule the frankly ridiculous while finding merit in the strangely compelling. It’s a book well worth a read for anyone who has visited an attraction and thought “Why?”.

5 Defying Hitler: A Memoir by Sebastian Haffner (Buy this)

A brilliantly written memoir of life in Germany in the 1930s, covering the period from before Hitler’s ascent to power to a few years before the start of the war in Europe. Sebastian Haffner wrote the book after he emigrated to Britain in 1938, however it was only published when his son discovered the manuscript after his father’s death.

The book is a wonderful study of life inside Germany during those tumultuous years. It covers life as Haffner studies to become a lawyer and lives his life in Berlin. We get to see how life changed under the Nazis and how each sphere of life gradually came under their influence. Haffner, his family and friends see their lives twisted and changed as friends turn against each other and people accept things which they found inconceivable only years before. It provides a fascinating insight into exactly how the Nazis came to exert such total control, seen from the point of view of one of the regular Germans rather than from the positions of power. A masterful and important book.

6 Perdido Street Station by China Miévelle (Buy this)

I read the back of Perdido Street Station, by China Miévelle, just after it came out in paperback. I saw it in Waterstones, while browsing the Science Fiction and Fantasy section, and was attracted by the cover. Not the best way of picking a book out, but I work on the general principle that when a sci-fi or fantasy book has a nice cover, which isn’t very showy or ridiculous, then it’s possible they feel that the content is enough to sell the book. So far this theory has held up fairly well. Anyway, I picked up the book and read the back. “Fantasy”, I thought, “not my favourite, but this sounds interesting”. It was almost the end of the month, near pay-day, so I didn’t buy the book I just filed it away for future reference.

Fast-forward to a couple of Christmases later and my parents buy Perdido Street Station and The Scar for me. Despite receiving the books then it took another few months for me to get around to reading Perdido, due to the eternal book backlog struggle which haunts me. One day though I was looking through a shelf of unread books and I picked Perdido Street Station, and that was a fine decision.

Perdido is set in New Crobuzon, a sort of steam-punk medieval city. It sounds strange, and it is, but is works as a setting. The population of the city is a menagerie of strange and unusual creatures; including cacti who live in their own enclosed neighbourhood, people who have been grafted onto machines, various flying gargoyles, parasites, multi-dimensional spiders and many even stranger ones. The inhabitants provide a rich background for the main story to play out against. Events impinge on the main story and give the impression of really taking place in the city, not of just conveniently taking place for the benefit of a plot twist. Civil strife is alive and well, political intrigue abounds, immigrants arrive, commerce continues.

Against this background Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, a scientist of the New Crobuzon variety, receives a visitor who wants his body restored to its former state. Thus begins a road that almost leads to the devastation of New Crobuzon and death of its citizens. The story takes many twists and turns, and goes off in some very strange directions, but it’s magnificently held together by Miévelle. Some of the ideas are truly bizarre, even for a fantasy book, but they make sense within the world that has been constructed.

Writing this I must admit that I’m wondering why I’ve put the book at only number 6 of my top ten. I will re-read the book at some point though, probably before I read The Scar. In retrospect I realise just how much I enjoyed reading in it in the first place. I do have a recollection that I was disappointed with the ending at the time, although I can’t put my finger on why.

7 American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (Buy this)

I had intended to read American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis for years, but never got around to buying it. Last year I received an Amazon voucher for my birthday, so I went ahead and bought it. Of course I didn’t read it for months once I received it, but I’m sure that surprises no one!

American Psycho took a while to get into. The constant detailed descriptions of what people were wearing was distracting for the first 30 pages or so, and it took me a while to get to the point where it didn’t bother me. After that however it became a fascinating read. Patrick Bateman as the protagonist is clearly a disturbed individual and just how sick and deranged he is is gradually revealed. First of all we get the occasional mention of people he has had run-ins with in the past, before we gradually get details of what actually happened. Later in the book we move on to graphic descriptions of how Bateman passes his time, and it really is extreme.

I wouldn’t say that I enjoyed the book, but I would say that it is a good read. It is also the most disturbing book of fiction that I’ve read. Bateman is a psycho, but we gradually see him sliding further into insanity throughout the book. How the book will end is unsure throughout, and I must admit that it ends in possibly the most disturbing fashion, but I won’t spoil that for you.

8 The WorldWar Series by Harry Turtledove (Buy this)

Number 8 in the series is actually a series of 4 books. The series is the WorldWar series by Harry Turtledove, comprising In the Balance, Tilting the Balance, Upsetting the Balance and Striking the Balance.

The (admittedly strange) premise is that an alien invasion arrives at Earth in the early 1940s and invades while the Second World War is taking place. It’s ridiculous, there’s no denying that, but it’s strangely compelling. I only intended on reading the first book initially, then I decided that I’d stop after the second and read one of the other books from my unread pile. However the moment I finished the second book I went hunting through the shelves for the third.

The series has a number of interweaving plots, involving most of the planet as well as a few focussing on the aliens. The books work well in that some of the aliens are likeable and some of the humans repugnant, making a more interesting story than just a simple goodie/baddie tale. There are also some conflicts within the humans, with different groups using the invaders against their own enemies. I also like the fact that many of the characters that the story focusses on die, generally suddenly and unexpectedly. This makes it a better read as you can be surprised by events.

I admit it’s a strange choice, but I don’t care. I thoroughly enjoyed the series; it provided me with some wonderful escapist reading. I was also delighted to discover that the series continued on after the 4 books; I bought those too.

9 Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland (Buy this)

Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic, to give it the full title, is an overview of the Roman Republic from it’s beginnings, when it was little more that the city of Rome, to the time of Augustus Caesar, when the Republic was well and truly killed off. Tom Holland does a magnificent job of dealing with the various upheavals, wars, political machinations and personalities without getting bogged down in the minutiae of every event.

The book deals with the Republic’s history in a chronological manner starting with the kings of Rome and continuing through the glory days of the Republic and onto the dark days of civil war and collapse. The intricacies of the Roman political system are dealt with well and the manoeuvring for power within it are clearly and interestingly explained. The events don’t feel like they’re two thousand years old, they feel like they’re taking place now.

The prolonged collapse of the Republic is probably the most interesting part of the book as the more familiar names come to the fore; Caesar, Brutus, Sulla, Crassus, Cicero, Spartacus, Cleopatra, Pompey and Augustus amongst them. The slide from Republic to Empire is clearly demonstrated and it is shown how each step was allowed to happen, and why. The various turning points are well explained, showing why particular events turned out the way they did.

Overall the book is excellent, covering a lot of history without getting distracted and without skipping over important events.

10 The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat (Buy this)

Nicholas Monsarrat’s “The Cruel Sea”, a book written in the 1950s about life on 2 different ships during the Second World War. It does a fantastic job of describing the hardships and despair of supporting convoys on the Atlantic crossing; dealing with the fear of u-Boats, watching your fellow ships sink while you can’t go to their aid for example.

The book focuses on the crews of the corvette Compass Rose and the frigate Saltash as the narrator starts his war service on one and transfers to the other. It’s not a dashing war story by any stretch of the imagination as the drudgery of long watches in the cold and wet are described again and again, with the desire for “action” tempered by the knowledge of exactly what that involves.

It’s not a happy or unhappy novel. It just deals with a small portion of the war, with it’s accompanying triumphs, tragedies, joys and sorrows. The rest of the war is very much in the background, not really impinging on the story of the crews. Well worth a read, not necessarily as a war story but more as the story of the people trying to survive whilst involved in a war.