When I was younger I never used to read much. Nothing really caught my attention. In fact nearly all my reading was of magazines about cars. During my final year at uni’ I figured I needed to read more. Basically I had to read lots of dull computing books, and I figured the best way to improve my reading speed and concentration span was to read more fiction as way of training. I’ve not really stopped since. One book that I particularly loved at that time was Hunter S Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

The following is more a reference for my self and by no means a definitive list (my memory isn’t that good). It’s pretty clear to see where my interests lie though, mostly travel and or history titles.

2024

• A Food Forest in your Garden – Alan Carter

2023

The Wym Hof Method – Wym Hof
Time will tell – Jeffery Archer
Deep Work – Cal Newport
Rough Magic – Lara Palmer

2022 (NY Resolution: 1 book per month)
Freakonomics – Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
A Murder of Quality – John LeCarre
Digital Minimalisation – Cal Newport
?
You, your child, and school – Ken Robinson
The Price of Money – Rob Dix

2021
Call for the Dead – John LeCarre
Chaves?
???

2020
The Last Fighting Tommy – Harry Patch with Richard Van Emden
A Matter of Honour – Jeffrey Archer
The Explorer – Katherine Rundell
Five on Brexit Island – Enid Blyton or Bruno Vincent
Guide to Bees & Honey – Ted Hooper
The Natural Beekeeper: Learnjng Organic Beekeeping Successfully – David Thomas
The Constant Gardener – John LeCarre

2019
The Permaculture Garden – Graham Bell
Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert Kiosaki
Permaculture Design – Aranya
Rainwater Catchment Systems – John Gould & Eric Nissen
Haynes Bee Manual – Claire & Adrian Waring
Going Solo – Roald Dahl

2018
Botswana Time – Will Randall
Whatever you do, Don’t run – Peter Allison
Compact Living – Michael Guerra
The Meaningful Money Handbook – Pete Matthew

2017
The Powered Para Gliding Bible – Jeff Goin

2016
Low Level Hell – Hugh L Mills Jr
The Richest Man in Babylon – George S. Clason
Telegram from Guernica – Nicholas Rankin
The rules of wealth – Richard Templar
Corsairville – Graham Coster

2015
Damn His Blood – Peter Moore

2014
False Impressions – Jeffrey Archer
Innovative Houses. Concepts for sustainable living – Avi Friedman

2013
The Rules of Wealth – Richard Templar
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe – Douglas Adams
Alone in Berlin – Hans Fallada

2012
Economics, a very short introduction – Partha Dasgupta
To Have and Have Not – Ernest Hemingway
Air America – Christopher Robbins
The Rules of Parenting – Richard Templar
Continuum Concept – Jean Liedloff

2011
Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
Helicopter Pilot’s Manual, volume 1: Principles of Flight and Helicopter Handling – Norman Bailey
Fatherhood, The Truth – Marcus Berkmann
They Fuck You Up – Oliver James

2010
Apache Dawn – Damien Lewis
Shuttlecock – Graham Swift
Corsair – Timothy Severin
The Hunt for Red October – Tom Clancy
The Helicopter Pilot’s Companion – Helen Krasner
Guerilla Warefare – Che Guevara
A Man in Full – Tom Wolfe
As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner (abandoned)
Survive the Savage Sea – Dougal Robertson
Apache – Ed Macy
A Question of Blood – Ian Rankin
Spanish Lessons – Derek Lambert
The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
A Long Way Gone – Ishmael Beah
The Complete Maus – Art Spiegelman

2009
Jupiter’s Travels – Ted Simon
La Isla de los 5 faros – Ferran Ramon-Cortes
La Rebelion en la Granja – George Orwell
Perder el tiempo –
King Solomon’s Mines – Henry Rider Haggard
Kiatoski y el robo de los chicles – Jurgen Banscherus
Motorworld – Jeremy Clarkson
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
Jeruso quiere ser gente – Pilar Mateos
Twelve – Nick McDonell
Coming Through the Slaughter – Michael Ondaatje
The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
Popcorn – Ben Elton (read in one sitting on the way to Mongolia)
If you likes school, you’ll love work – Irvine Walsh
Aggressor – Andy McNab
First Among Equals – Jeffrey Archer
The Caves if Steel – Isaac Asimov

2008
The Bristol Story – Eugene Byrne & Simon Gurr
Long Way Down – Ewan McGregor & Charlie Boreman
Without Remorse – Tom Clancy
The Observer Book of Books
Classic Espionage Stories – (Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Auther Conan Doyle, William le Queux, Patricia McGerr, David Huddle & Ted Allbeury)
Down and out in Paris and London – George Orwell
Ultimate Race Preparation Guide – Simon McBeath
My Legendary Girlfriend – Mike Gayle
Jogging around Majorca – Gorden West
The Spanish Civil War, a very short introduction – Helen Graham
Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
A Passage to India – E.M. Forster

2007
Burmese Days – George Orwell
Buddhism, a very short intro – Damien Keown
The Beach – Alex Garland
Kane & Able – Jeffrey Archer
The Backpacker – John Harris (Possibly the worst book I’ve ever read)
The Aviators (Brotherhood of War) – W.E.B Griffin
The Quiet American – Graham Green
The Sorrow of War – Bao Ninh
First They Killed My Father – Loung Ung
Cambodia Year Zero – Francois Ponchaud
La Travesia del Viajero del Alba – C.S. Lewis
I know you got soul – Jeremy Clarkson
England England – Julian Barnes
A quiver full of arrows – Jeffrey Archer
Untouchable – Mulk Raj Anand
The Hippopotamus – Stephen Fry
To kill a mocking bird – Harper Lee
Down Under – Bill Bryson
Executive Orders – Tom Clancy
The Prodigal Daughter – Jeffrey Archer
Bravo Two Zero – Andy McNab
True War Stories – Jon E Lewis
The Time Travellers Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

2006
The Liar – Stephen Fry
High Society – Ben Elton
Travelling with Che Guevarra (The Making of a Revolutionary) – Alberto Granado
The Rum Diary – Hunter S Thompson
For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
If this is a Man – Primo Levi
The sum of all fears – Tom Clancy
A long way down – Nick Hornby
The Truce – Primo Levi
Full Circle – Machael Palin
The Adventures of Sherlock Homes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Every Man a Tiger – Tom Clancy

2005
Animal Farm – George Orwell
Mother Tongue – Bill Bryson
Goldie – Nine Lives
Prison Diaries Vol 3 – Jeffery Archer
A year in the Merde – Stephen Clarke
Charlotte Grey – Sebastian Faulks
Letters from the war zone – Michael Moore
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert M Pirsig

2004
The Life of Pie – Yann Martel
Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
Bridge over the River Kwai – Pierre Boull
Mr Nice – Howard Marks
A brief history of everything – Bill Bryson
Lord of the Flies –
One hit wonderland – Tony Hawks
Prison Diaries Vol 2 – Jeffrey archer
Motorcycle Diaries – Che Guevara
About a Boy – Nick Hornby
Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
Dead Famous – Ben Elton
Red Storm Rising – Tom Clancy
Prisoner 13498: A True Story of Love, Drugs and Jail in Modern China – Robert H Davies

2002 – 2003
Quantity theory of insanity – Will Self
Notes from a small island – Bill Bryson
Dispatches (Vietnam) – Michael Herr
Around Ireland with a fridge – Tony Hawks
Behind The Lines – ?
Justin’s WW2 book – ?
High fidelity – Nick Hornby
Prison Diaries Vol 1 – Jeffrey Archer
Stupid White Men – Michael Moore
Playing the Moldovans at tennis – Tony Hawks
1984 – George Orwell
The Beach – Alex Garland

Bold italic text denotes pick of the year

Titles to source / read
A wish list if you will…

The world according to garp – ???
Rebel Radio Diary – Ninja Tune
Rocinante to the road again – John Dos Pasos (Rickshaw Run Robbie)
Dope Stories – Howard Marks
Finding George Orwell in a Burmese coffee shop – Emma Larkin
Air America – Christopher Robbins (Tour guide chap in Laos)
The Ravens – Christopher Robbins
Shooting at the Moon – Roger Warner (Tour guide chap in Laos)
Tragedy in Paradise – Charles Weldon
Corseairville – Graham Coster (Jeremy Clarkson)
Lost for a day – ???
The Zanzibar Chest – Aidan Hartley
Around the World in 80 days – Jules Verne
In Retrospect – Robert McNamara
Eurasia Moke – Albert Laing (Aussie couple between Whitsundays and Cairnes)
Back o Carnes – In Idriss
The Life of Captain James Cook – JC Beaglehole
We of the never never – Jeannie Gun
Voces del Desierto – Marlo Morgan
The Fall of the Roman Empire – Borris Johnson (Owen Pie)
A Soldier of the Great War – Mark Helprin (Owen Pie)
Island of my own – Tom Neil
The Best and the Brightest – Halberstrom
Be Here Now – Baba Ram Das (Activist American couple in Cook Islands)
The New Pearl Harbor – David Ray Griffin
Lady Chatterlies Lover – DH Lawrence
Don Quixote – Cervantes (Edith Grossman translation)
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush – Eric Newby
Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
Odyssey Through the Arctic – ?
The last road race – Richard Williams (Henry Catchpole)
The Road to Wigan Pier – George Orwell
Coming up for air – George Orwell
Build your own sports car on a budget – Chris Gibbs
Dreaming of Jupiter – Ted Simon
The Bolivian Diary – Che Guevara
Cider with Rosie – Laurie Lee (Benedict Allen)
When I set off on a midsummers morning – Laurie Lee
A moment of war – Laurie Lee
Media Control – Noel Chomsky (German chap and Philippe’s bubble brunch)
The Prince – Niccola Machiavelli (Yasha)
??? – Cyrus Cylinder (Yasha)
The Man Who Cycled the World –
Alone in Berlin – Hans Fallada (Tom Yorke)
Unto this last – John Ruskin
A time of gifts – Patrick Leigh Fermor
Walden – Henry David
Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
Persepolis – Marine Satrapi
Caesar in Abyssinia – George Steer
Tree of Gernika – George Steer
An Astronaut’s guide to life on Earth – Col Chris Hadfield (Matteus)
Five days in London – John Lukacs
The Moneyless Man – Mark Boyle
Storm Front – Rowland White (Henry Catchpole)
How to build a car – Adrian Newey
Route 66, The Mother Road – Michael Wallis
Roadside Picnic – Strugatski
Shantaram – Gregory D Roberts (Mario’s daughter, Harties guesthouse & Veenal & Ketul)
Rich Dad Poor Dad – R Kiyosaki (Rob and Rob)
Nuts and Bolts of Property – (Rob and Rob)
The Four Hour Week – Tim Ferris (Andy B)
Magic of thinking big – David Schwartz (Rob and Rob)
Ultimate Sales Machine – Chet Holmes (Rob and Rob)
The Elements of Eloquence – Mark Forsyth (Veenal)
Diving Adventure – Willard Price (Veenal)
Dr Jekyll & Mr. Hyde – Robert Stevenson (Pete)
The Age of Wonder – Richard Holmes (Pete)
Stasiland – Anna Funder (Pete)
Desolation Island – Patrick O’Brien (Pete)
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte (Pete)
In Cold Blood – Truman Capote (Pete)
Delivering Happiness – Tony Hsieh (Rob & Rob)
Anti Fragile – Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Rob & Rob)
Vida y muerte de Federico García Lorca – Ian Gibson
The Courage to be disliked – Kishimi & Koga (Bev)
Open – Andre Agassi (Rob & Rob)
Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari (Jake)
21 lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari (Jake)
This is not a drill – Extinction Rebellion (Jake)
Doctor in the house – Rajan Chatergee (Jake)
Naga Path – Ursula Graham Bower (Ants)

Brading Sweet Grass – Robin Wall Kimmerer (Ali)
Rage Becomes Her – Soraya Chemaly (Polly)
Our man in Havana – Graham Green (Mila)
A million miles in a thousand years – Donald Miller (Rob & Rob)
The One Thing – Gary Keller and Jay Papasan (Rob & Rob)