I dedicate last year to Amazon. Has it ever been this easy to find good books? I still enjoy browsing shelves in the book store, but it feels like one of my senses has been cut off. Yes, this one looks interesting, but where do I click to find 50 reviews from other buyers, a list of recommended alternatives, and the full bibliography of the author? Amazon has raised my standards, not just for book stores but for books. When I explore an author, I expect to read the best that author has written. When I explore a new subject, I expect to find the classics and the standard works. Amazon helps me do that better than any physical store I've been in.

So I read a lot of good books last year. I began a side-bar for mini reviews down to the left, but I haven't updated it, so I thought I'd make one big mini-review of all the books I read in 2003 that were worth reading. I also have two challenges for readers, so read on.

Politics

George Orwell - The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters (Vol 2, Vol 3, Vol 4) [uk 1 2 3 4]. This lay on the shelf for a while, the size scared me off. Four volumes of what the title says, even parts of a diary. Much of it can be skipped, including most of volume 1, but the rest is highly recommended, especially in light of Orwell's popularity with bloggers. Orwell was wrong about many things, but his basic insights about how to think about politics are timeless and inspiring. ... Cristopher Hitchens - A Long, Short War [uk]. Essays written for Slate leading up to the Iraq war, including several blogosphere favourites. ... Also by Hitchens, the Trial of Henry Kissinger [uk]. Makes a good case that US foreign policy under Nixon and Kissinger was immoral and suspect. Fails at what it sets out to show, though, that Kissinger in particular must be singled out for blame, and that he is a war criminal. ... Stephen Schwartz - The Two Faces of Islam [uk]. A look at the roots of Wahhabism, and the influence it has on Islam through Saudi wealth. Schwartz is himself a Sufi, which in light of some of the things he writes about Sufism should have been mentioned in the book, but that's a minor point. ... Paul Berman - Terror and Liberalism [uk]. An investigation of radical Islamic thought and its relationship with totalitarianism. By its existence this book, written by an anti-Bush leftist, also stabs the myth that the war on terrorism is an exclusively "neo-conservative" or even conservative project. ... Robert Baer - Sleeping with the Devil [uk]. Looks at the many financial ties between Saudi Arabia and Washington. Relevant to the still open debate on whether Bush really intends to deal with the Saudi's. ... Robert Kagan - Of Paradise and Power [uk]. Kagan explains the ideological differences between Europe and the US as rationalizations of their respective military capabilities. One of the more influential books published in 2003, (there's already a Norwegian translation), and that's deserved. ... Robert D. Kaplan - Soldiers of God [uk]. Account of his experiences as a journalist in Afghanistan during the war with the Soviet Union. Written in 1990, it leaves out retrospectively important factors such as the Saudi influence through Osama bin Laden, and is naive about the Mujahedin at times, (as Kaplan himself points out in the post-9/11 preface). Read it as a war zone eyewitness/travel account. ... Anna Politkovskaya - A Small Corner of Hell [uk]. Disturbing accounts of Russian abuse in Chechnya, collected by one of the few independent journalists in the area.

History

A.J.P. Taylor - The Course of German History [uk]. Published just after WW2, this is something of an anti-German book, in that it describes the rise of Hitler as a natural conclusion to one and a half century of German history. Can't vouch for the accuracy of his theory, but I can vouch for the force and style he presents it with. ... E.P. Thompson - The Making of the English Working Class [uk]. Thompson was a leading socialist activist, which colors this book, but there's no activism in this history of the living conditions and beliefs of the English working class of the early 19th century. It's honest, well researched, well written and .. I just loved it. All history books should be written like this. ... Robert Conquest - Harvest of Sorrow [uk]. The story of one of the lesser known genocides of the 20th century, that of the Ukrainians in 1933. Disturbing and gloomy, but show me a genocide book that isn't. ... David Fromkin - A Peace to End All Peace [uk]. Perhaps too detailed, but the subject is interesting - how the British and French carved out today's Middle East from the Ottoman Empire after World War 1.

Science

Most of what I read in science last year fell in the intersections between darwinism and psychology. Steven Pinker - The Blank Slate [uk]. Part summary of the current state in evolutionary psychology, part look at its philosophical and political implications. I miss a clear distinction between speculation and theories supported by evidence, but I think it's a good introduction to the field. ... Matt Ridley is a more careful writer, so probably more reliable. In The Red Queen [uk] he covers the role of sex in evolution and vice versa. The Origin of Virtue [uk] deals with the evolution of cooperation, emotions and morality. Genome [uk] is organized areound one gene from each chromosome, picked to represent various scientific, medical and philosophical aspects of genetics. ... Danicel C. Dennett - Darwin's Dangerous Idea [uk]. General but thorough introduction to darwinism. Captures the essence and scope of it better than anything I've read. ... Pascal Boyer - Religion Explained [uk]. Arrogant title, nuanced content. Builds a theory of religion and other supernatural beliefs on top of the theory of inference engines from evolutionary psychology. Much of it is speculation, but even if solid rock is your requirement, the book is worth buying for the first chapters alone, where Boyer takes apart various common sense explanations of religion, (irrationality, comfort, morality, etc.) Even if we don't have the answer to why religion exists, it's important to look in the right place, which I think Boyer does. ... William Dement - The Promise of Sleep [uk]. Still the most useful book I read last year. Explains how sleep works, and how it fails. ... John McWhorter - The Power of Babel [uk]. How languages change, mix and split, "evolving" slowly over time. Almost makes me sorry I only ever learned two. ... David Murray, Joel Schwarz and S. Robert Lichter - It Ain't Necessarily So [uk]. Not science, but close enough. Explains popular methods activists use to cheat with statistics in the media. ... Thomas Gilovich - How We Know What Isn't So [uk]. Exactly what the title says. Covers some of the mental traps that lead people into false beliefs. ... Reid Hastie and Robyn M. Dawes - Rational Choice in an Uncertain World [uk]. A more thorough introduction to the psychology of decision making. This and the previous book should be on the pundit curriculum. Anyone who claims to know on a regular basis should be aware of the inescapable irrationality of human thinking. Being able to recognize mistakes in others is not enough. It's your own mistakes your brain is trying to hide from you.

Fiction

Bad year for fiction, this. Read a total of three and a half books, of which two were enjoyable: American Gods by Neil Gaiman [uk], where Odin and other gods of the Old World fight the gods of the New, and the fifth Harry Potter book [uk]. Also got around to continuing Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Book 9 [uk] was ok. It's the first book he's written in years where anything actually happens. Book 10 [uk] is another of those where nothing happens. At least the first half is, which is all I bothered to read. Fellow semi-fans will know what I mean when I say that the Wheel of Time is stuck in the mud again. But this is a good opportunity to recommend the first couple of books in the series, which were really good. Start reading from number 1 [uk], and stop when you feel like it. Never mind the unfinished threads. They're still not finished, after 15 years of writing, so you're not missing out on anything, and you get to spend your shelf space on authors who treat their fans with respect.

Other

Hunter S. Thompson - Hell's Angels [uk]. Account of Hunter's time with the Oakland Angels in the mid-60's. Great snapshot of the time, the area and the people. Favourite moment: Hunter introduces the bikers to the acid heads. ... W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman - 1066 And All That [uk]. The story of all the Good Things that lead to C of E, England becoming Top Nation, History coming to an End, etc., consisting only of facts and dates you can remember. Enjoyment proportional to existing knowledge of English history, to which none will be added by this book. ... Dave Barry - Dave Barry Slept Here [uk]. Same genre, US history. ... Will Cuppy - The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody [uk]. Hannibal's obsession with elephants, Alexander's questionable "greatness", and other unusual angles to history. I feel guilty about placing this book under "other", and not "history". It's genuine and truthful, or claims to be. But you'll want to read it for the dry humor and the cynical attitude. ... Mark Twain - Autobiography [uk]. Probably as untruthful as any autobiography, but makes up for it by being enjoyable.

As for Norwegian books, I didn't read many, and I've reviewed most of them already: Torbjørn Knutsen - Blodspor, Hans Fredrik Dahl and Henrik G. Bastiansen - Hvor fritt et land?, Odd Sverre Hove - Mediekampen om Israel, and Siri Lill Mannes - Livvakt i Helvete.

And now the challenges. The first one is easy, and goes to everyone: List your favourite books from last year, the ones you think we all should read. The second challenge goes to anyone who has disagreed with me about anything in the past year. The bigger the disagreement the better. You may recommend up to three books that cover your point of view, and I will read them. I'm serious. I don't trust my own ability to find good books that cover views I disagree with. I could go for the most popular books, but we all know there's a lot of crap on the bestseller lists. So this is your chance to change my mind. Whatever strange idea you believe in, I will give it at least this one chance to explain itself.

Oh, and I before I forget. The cliches. Can't write a review without them, but to save space I've decided to put them all down here at the end. For the record, every book listed above is "terrific" and "thrilling", they're "page turners" that will keep you "glued" to the "edge of your seat". They're "instant classics", "brilliant" "tour de force's" by the "leading thinkers" of their fields. Says so on the covers, every single one of them, including the ones I've left out, so there must be something to it. Now, if I was a professional blurb writer, I'd say something original like "buy this book within five days or a family member will die", "the most profound book since the Bible", "had he been born 2500 years ago, author X would have been among the founders of Western Civilization" or "I've burned all the others, this is the only book I'll ever need". But I don't know much about selling books, so edge-of-the-seat page-turners it is.

Wow, I wish I disagreed with you on something so I could recommend something persuasive and literate. This not being the case, however, I will simply recommend the best fiction series I have ever read. Read Douglas Adams' [i]Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy[/i] series and discover:

1) The repugnant nature of intergalactic bureaucracy.
2) The past and future of genetically modified livestock.
3) The meaning of life, the universe and everything.

It's light-hearted, clever and insightful reading. It will keep you up at night. It's a cult classic and will make you more 'hip' and attractive to women. If you don't read it, the world will be overrun by super intelligent mice and their pet elephants, and the forces of evil will make and babies cry.

So hop to it.

Robert Jordan. I used to reccommend the first three books because they were some of the best fantasy around. But I think the later books have poisoned me to the series. I used to buy his books, but now I read them from the library because I suspect I will be disappointed. He needs to be introduced to the idea of minor characters and plotlines which are alluded to without spending an entire book on them. He may be the only author whom I wish would show less and tell more.

Terry Goodkind. His first three books are really quite good (the first is the best), although at first his "Sword of Truth" series is disturbingly similar to Robert Jordan's "wheel of time", except better and published first.

Most of the books, I've read this year were released ages ago, some a few hundred years ago.

For Fiction, Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 (a more believable action story than most, involving terrorism/counter-terrorism).

Homer's Odyssey (750 BC) is also pretty good, being a classic of oral poety rivaling and surpassing perhaps even shakespeare, I'm only disappointed that I couldn't his work about Troy. Speaking of fiction, Timothy Zahn's 3 book cycle is worth reading, for a sci fi fan.

Its also well worth going back to where it all began with Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, and Marx's Das Kapital.

Also Plato's statements concerning just and unjust men in "the Republic" are an interesting read, putting to bed the myth that "nice guys finish last". Whereas Machiavelli's "the Prince", reasserts why its good to be bad.

I finished off the year with a Nietsche reader, and summary of his work. A bleak and depressing philospher, it contains many valuable insights into the human condition ie; "there are no moral phemonemon only moral intrepretations."

The human zoo, the Naked ape, And "A species in denial" are also good works concerning evolutionary physchology.

For more on the 19th working/underclass you might want to check out "The Complete History of Jack the Ripper" by Philip Sugden, which contains a lot of astonishing background info on the underclass millieu in which the Whitechapel murders took place. For a Trans-Atlantic comparison, Luc Sante's "Low Life" documents the dregs of New York society before WWI. The degradation of daily life described in both books beggars belief.

You may have already read Kent Beck's "Extreme Programming Explained". His iconoclastic explanations of why so many software projects fail in the same ways for the same reason over and over again had me saying hallelujahs, and I believe his diagnosis and solution (in the philosophy if not the detail) applies to many other disciplines beyond programming.

Finally, if you've ever been tempted by the more doctrinaire elements of Libertarian/Objectivist philosophy, read the unintentionally hilarious Crisis Investing by Douglas Casey. It's not just leftists who get their analyses and predictions spectacularly, ludicrously, disastrously wrong, then refuse to apologise, feign amnesia and maintain that they were right all along afterwards.

Also I forgot to mention "Out Of It" by Stuart Walton makes an interesting if not entirely persuasive case that intoxication is an important social necessity with a diverse and distinguished history across many different cultures. You thought you've had a bad trip? Wait until you read about the drug-fuelled initiation rituals of Papuan tribesmen.

Samantha Power: A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide.

Excellent book. Plenty of food for thought. Finished it weeks ago and am still digesting.

1066 and all that. Agreed with your analysis, but eacvh time you read it it gets funnier as one learns more history. Follow that up with CN Parkinson's Parkinsons Law. A brilliant satirical disection of burearocracy

I just stumbled across your blog, and love it! Though I've wasted way too much time reading many old comments.

Earlier this year I read "Battle Cry of Freedom" by James McPherson. The best summary of America's Civil War I've ever read. I was reminded of it recently when reading the news of Jose Padilla. Lincon dealt with many similar issues. So this kind of tension has been going on a long time and the Republic survives.

Two by Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order, and Beyond the Dreams of Avarice. The first develops the history and progress of the political structure of the United States, in it's deep roots in Anglo-Saxon history. The second is a series of essays from the 50s developing the ideas of true American conservatism.
I discovered Kirk in the early 90s, read through his work and have just started reading through it again.
One fiction, The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler...oddball choice, yes, but in this book she creates a set of genuinely American characters, invests them with life and emotion. They are all ordinary and quite typical, and the book, at first blush will seem dull because there are no fantasies, no chases, no blood, just the day to day struggles of typical people. Told with style.
I suggest these three books because they are temperate, well constructed, and assume the reader is intelligent.

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