Books: The Updated 2008 Book List

Well, since I actually went through almost ninety books last year, perhaps I can set the bar a little higher this year.

Here's the updated list. Some items have been moved to 2009. I figure it's more important to track and enjoy and read with purpose than to worry about how many of these damn books I can move out of boxes and piles on the floor. It's looking encouraging! By 2020, I might just be able to walk around the house again!

So here's the list (and stop lending me books, goddammit, you KNOW I can't say No).

1. A Cloistered War - Maisie Duncan
   
2. A History of Malaysia - Barbara Watson Andaya & Leonard Andaya
   
3. A History of Modern Indonesia - M.C. Ricklefs
   
4. A History of Selangor - J. M. Gullick
   
5. A House in Gross Disorder - Herrup
   
6. A Point of Light - Zhou Mei
   
7. A Spy's Revenge - Richard V. Hall
   
8. A Will For Freedom - Romen Bose
   
9. Abraham's Promise - Philip Jeyaretnam
   
10. Agnes Smedley - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
    
11. Asian Labour In The Japanese Wartime Empire - Kratosha, Ed.
    
12. Baba Nonnie Goes To War - Ron Mitchell
    
13. Bang Bang in Ampang - Norman Cleaveland
    
14. Beating the Blues - Thase & Lang
    
15. Believer Book of Writers Talking To Writers - Vendela Vida
    
16. Between Two Oceans - Murkett, Miskic, Farrell, & Chiang
    
17. Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
    
18. Captains of Consciousness - Stuart Ewen
    
19. Captives of Shanghai - David H. & Gretchen G. Grover
    
20. Chandranath - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
21. Chinese Blue & White - Ann Frank
    
22. Chinese Customs - Henri Dore
    
23. Clay Walls - Kim Ronyoung
    
24. Colonial Masculinity - Mrinalini Sinha
    
25. Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
    
26. Dena-Paona - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
27. Devdas - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
28. Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Mackay
    
29. Folklore of Tamil Nadu - S.M.L. Lakshman Chettiar
    
30. Force 136:Story of A Resistance Fighter in WWII - Tan Chong Tee
    
31. From Pacific War to Merdeka -
    
32. Gaijin - James Clavell
    
33. Glory - Vladimir Nabokov
    
34. Heart Politics - Fran Peavey
    
35. How I Adore You - Mark Pritchard
    
36. How To Write A Damn Good Novel - James N. Frey
    
37. In Pursuit of Mountain Rats - Anthony Short
    
38. In The Grip of a Crisis - Rudy Mosbergen
    
39. Kempeitai - Raymond Lamont Brown
    
40. Krait:The Fishing Boat That Went To War - Lynette Ramsay Silver
    
41. Kranji - Romen Bose
    
42. Labour Unrest in Malaya - Tai Yuen
    
43. Lest We Forget - Alice M. Coleman & Joyce E. Williams
    
44. Life As The River Flows - Agnes Khoo
    
45. Living Hell -
    
46. Modern Japan -
    
47. Niskriti - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
48. Nonsense - Robert J. Gula
    
49. Operation Matador - Ong Chit Chung
    
50. Palli Samaj (The Homecoming) - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
51. Pandit Moshai - Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay
    
52. Power Politics - Arundhati Roy
    
53. Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
    
54. Reading Lolita In Teheran - Azar Nafisi
    
55. Rehearsal for War -
    
56. Robert van Gulik - van de Wetering
    
57. Rosie - Anne Lamott
    
58. Singapore & The Many-Headed Monster - Joe Conceicao
    
59. Singapore The Pregnable Fortress -
    
60. Soldiers Alive -
    
61. That Fellow Kanda - AUPE
    
62. The Age of Diminished Expectations - Krugman
    
63. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
    
64. The Book of Tea -
    
65. The Devil Finds Work - James Baldwin
    
66. The Double Tenth Trial - C. Sleeman, S.C. Sillein, Eds.
    
67. The End of the War - Romen Bose
    
68. The Family:They Fuck You Up - Granta
    
69. The Jungle is Neutral -
    
70. The Literature & The Story - Vivian Gornick
    
71. The Marquis - A Tale of Syonan-To - S.J.H. Conner
    
72. The Mind's I - Hofstadter & Dennett
    
73. The Pacific War -
    
74. The Physics of Star Trek - Lawrence Krauss
    
75. The Plague - Albert Camus
    
76. The Rise & Fall of the Knights Templar - Gordon Napier
    
77. The Ugly Chinaman - Bo Yang
    
78. The Sabahan - P.J. Granville-Edge, Rajen Devadason
    
79. The Singapore Grip - J.G. Farrell
    
80. The Unabomber Manifesto - Ted Kaczynski
    
81. Travels in Siam - Henri Mouhot
    
82. Virtual Reality - Howard Rheingold
    
83. War & Memory in Malaysia & Singapore -
    
84. Women, Outcastes, Peasants & Rebels - Bardhan
    
85. Writing Past Dark - Bonnie Friedman
    
86. You'll Die in Singapore - Charles McCormac
    
87. Your Memory:A User's Guide - Alan Baddeley
I wish this were all I had to read, but I'm looking for work, and in the interest of making myself somewhat more marketable, I have a boatload of books to read on managing and writing software requirements, C, C++, Java, programming in general, various tools and applications, database management systems, Oracle in particular, XML, HTML, website creation and maintenance, Web 2.0 (love those buzzwords), interviewing, systems management, Linux, UNIX, performance tuning, and how to deal with assholes you hate. That's work, I guess.

So, who's taking my bet that I will finish reading the lot, or an equivalent amount, at least? And what's in it for me when I do?

I'm working on three books right now - Bonnie Friedman's book, "Writing after Dark," Vendela Vida's "Writers Talking To Writers," and J.G. Farrell's "The Singapore Grip."

I think I need to read more fiction. Yargh.