2009 Year in Reading

Reviewing the books I read in 2009 is very psychologically revealing, and disappointing in many ways.  I had a richer reading year in 2008.

Favorite Fiction:

1. The Naked Sun – Isaac Asimov
2. The Time Machine – H. G. Wells
3. Orphans in the Sky – Robert A. Heinlein
4. Dracula – Bram Stoker

Favorite Non-Fiction:

1. The First Three Minutes – Stephen Weinberg
2. Why Women Have Sex – Cindy M. Meston and David M. Buss
3. The Evolution of God – Robert Wright
4. The Beatles – Bob Spitz

The Whole List:

1. Farnham’s Freehold – Robert A. Heinlein (3rd time)
2. Hyperion – Dan Simmons (2nd time)
3. From Here to Eternity – Modern Scholar audiobook about science fiction
4. Bellwether – Connie Willis (2nd time)
5. The Green Hills of Earth – Robert A. Heinlein (2nd time)
6. The Naked Sun – Isaac Asimov (2nd time)
7. Roadmarks – Roger Zelazny
8. More Than Human – Theodore Sturgeon (2nd time)
9. The Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri
10. The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien
11. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union – Michael Chabon
12. The Byrds (4th edition) – Johnny Rogan
13. The Canon – Natalie Angier
14. Dune – Frank Herbert (2nd time)
15. Bet Me – Jennifer Cruise
16. Variable Star – Robert A. Heinlein (2nd time)
17. To Your Scattered Bodies Go – Philip Jose Farmer (2nd time)
18. The Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut (2nd time)
19. The Time Machine – H. G. Wells (3rd time)
20. The War of the Worlds – H. G. Wells (2nd time)
21. The Fall of Hyperion – Dan Simmons
22. The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time – Will Durant
23. Persuasion – Jane Austin
24. Mayflower – Nathaniel Philbrick
25. The First Three Minutes – Stephen Weinberg
26. Dracula – Bram Stoker
27. The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner
28. The Very First Light – John C. Mather & John Boslough
29. The Beatles – Bob Spitz (abridged audio)
30. The Year’s Ten Top Tales of SF – ed. Allan Kaster
31. Replay – Ken Grimwood (3rd time)
32. The Evolution of God – Robert Wright
33. The Black Swan – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
34. Ringworld – Larry Niven (2nd time)
35. Magnificent Desolation – Buzz Aldrin
36. The Good Solder – Ford Maddox Ford
37. Orphans of the Sky – Robert A. Heinlein (3rd time)
38. The Man Who Was Thursday – G. K. Chesterton
39. Flood – Stephen Baxter
40. Why Women Have Sex – Cindy M. Meston and David M. Buss

It’s pretty obvious this year I’m reliving my reading past.  I’m in two online book clubs devoted to classic science fiction and that’s dominating my selection of books.  My favorite science fiction book of the year in terms of pure entertainment was The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov.  Dune was very impressive, a true masterpiece, but I didn’t connect with it emotionally.  On the other hand I was dazzled by the imaginative speculation in Orphans of the Sky.  Most of the other SF books were page turning fun, but ultimately not that innovative. 

Overall, my reevaluation of classic science fiction has been disappointing.  Even on the online book clubs, enthusiasm for old SF books isn’t that high, we mostly love this stuff for nostalgic reasons.  I grew up thinking science fiction was genius thinking, but it’s not. Science fiction is fun, full of wild ideas, but ultimately, it’s superficial philosophically and contains very little scientific insights.  Few science fiction stories are as brilliant as The Time Machine, most are closer to The War of the Worlds.  The absolute best science fiction, like Orphans of the Sky and Dune, stand out for imagining unique concepts, while other great science fiction novels are merely good examples of story telling. 

Two science books, The First Three Minutes and The Very First Light, and are about the discovery of the cosmic background radiation and were my most mind expanding reads this year in terms of understanding reality.  The Canon was a great overview of science history, with an abundant of fascinating details.  I highly recommend it to people wanting a quick study of science.

In terms of religious philosophy and history, The Evolution of God was quite educational and rewarding.  Again expanding my knowledge of reality significantly.  I’ve been slowly reading the Bible and The Evolution of God makes a great supplement.

The two music biographies, The Byrds and The Beatles, were fantastic reads and terrific strolls down memory lane.  I could only get the abridged version of The Beatles on audio, but I have bought the fat hardback and I’m looking forward to reading it.  However, reading these two books only reinforces my looking backwards towards the 1960s.

The lesson I’m learning from writing this post is I need to make 2010 the year of living in the present.  I’ve already started that by playing contemporary music on Lala.com.  Musically, the huge gravity well of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s holds me inside an event horizon and I have struggle to see the light of modern music. 

The past is obviously a black hole pulling me into it – and I realize I need to fight its powerful pull.  I desperately need to blast out of the orbit of looking backwards if I want to keep my mind expanding.  I will never be young again, and I worry that nostalgia is a kind of premature burial.  I do believe I stay current with computers and the Internet, at least more so than my age group peers.  I’m also in touch with the current pop culture of movies and television.  And I watch a lot of news and documentary shows, and I consume vast quantities of wordage from the Internet.

I find my reading year more exciting and fulfilling when I read new novels and books.  The only 2009 books I read in 2009 were The Evolution of God, Why Women Have Sex and Magnificent Desolation.  I’d like to read at least 12-15 2010 books in 2010.

JWH – 12/31/9