200 Books: The List

As promised, here’s the list of the most recently read hundred books, this time broken down into ten book bite-sized pieces. For each tenner of books, I’ve provided brief notes on one representative volume. To repeat, I’ve only counted non-comic books towards my number of books read, so the ‘#’ field in the below table only has values (from 101–200) for those books.

The last hundred books began with this slim volume by Dorothy Sayers, Whose Body? Published 95 years ago, the first Lord Peter Wimsey mystery still remains a classic of the British detective story, with an emphasis on ‘British’ and posh affectation. The cover of this Dover reprint tells you everything you want to know, with the essential pince-nez and the puzzling bathtub. Worth a read, though the subsequent Lord Peter books are even moreso.

#	Read	Author	Title	Genre
101	10/13/16	Dorothy Sayers	Whose Body?	Mystery
102	10/16/16	Tony Hillerman	Coyote Waits	Mystery
103	10/24/16	Frank Waters	Book of the Hopi	Indians
104	10/27/16	Tony Hillerman	Sacred Clowns	Mystery
105	10/29/16	Margaret Coel	The Ghost Walker	Mystery
106	11/3/16	Douglas Adams	The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul	SF/Fantasy
107	11/6/16	Ellis Peters	A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs	Mystery
108	11/22/16	Theodore Isaac Rubin	Compassion & Self Hate	Psychology
109	11/29/16	Arthur William Upfield	The Bone is Pointed	Mystery
110	12/16/16	Raymond T. Bond, ed.	Handbook for Poisoners: A Collection of Great Poison Stories	Mystery

The Invasion Of Canada is the first volume of a two-volume exploration of the War of 1812 — hence the subtitle 1812–1813. It is, as is often the case with histories of war, a condemnation of war in general and this inept conflict in particular. The book points out especially just how ludicrously the ‘militia’ system performed in actual practice. Written by a Canadian, so there’s that (and something to remember when one sees “National Bestseller” on the cover). I keep meaning to pick up the second volume, though the title sounds like softcore gay political porn (Flames across the Border: The Canadian-American Tragedy).

#	Read	Author	Title	Genre
111	12/18/16	William Shakespeare	Coriolanus	Literature
112	12/31/16	Pierre Berton	The Invasion of Canada, 1812–1813	History
113	1/9/17	Erik Larson	The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America	History
114	1/17/17	Hugh Greene, ed.	The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Early Detective Stories	Mystery
115	1/21/17	Steven Saylor	Roman Blood	Mystery
116	1/26/17	Vic Ghidalia, ed.	Eight Strange Tales	SF/Fantasy
117	2/1/17	Steven Saylor	Arms Of Nemesis	Mystery
118	2/6/17	Alistair Maclean	Circus	Mystery
119	2/11/17	Arthur William Upfield	The Bachelors of Broken Hill	Mystery
120	2/21/17	Clive Cussler	Dragon	Mystery

Origin Of Life is a garbage book. I read this sort of stuff to remind myself that just because it’s in print doesn’t make it true, or even worthy of attention, were it not for the fact that this sort of thing is attaching itself to our cultural body like carbon monoxide attaching itself to a lung. I was given this ‘textbook’ for creation science* by a high school teacher who’d been given this sample copy by a hopeful publisher seeking to introduce this receptacle of bad science into high school science classes. It’s the usual mishmash of broken watch springs and questions about dino bones, in the depressingly cheery ’80s style of crappy textbook art.

*No actual science content present

#	Read	Author	Title	Genre
121	2/26/17	Poul Anderson	Three Hearts and Three Lions	SF/Fantasy
122	3/2/17	Lin Yutang, ed.	The Wisdom of Laotse	Spiritual
123	3/6/17	Dashiell Hammett	The Thin Man	Mystery
124	3/16/17	John Allegro	Lost Gods	Spiritual
125	3/26/17	Michael Les Benedict	The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson	History
126	4/2/17	John Grisham	Sycamore Row	Mystery
127	4/17/17	Stephen Jay Gould	An Urchin in the Storm: Essays About Books and Ideas	Science/Math
128	4/18/17	Richard B. Bliss	Origin of Life	Bad Science
129	4/24/17	Betty M. Owen, ed.	Nine Strange Stories	Literature
130	4/30/17	George Bennett, ed.	Great Tales of Action and Adventure	Literature

“The names of these fearless men, martyred in the cause, will live forevermore in the hearts of the Soviet people.”

The Soviet-era history book The Intervention in Siberia 1918–1922 (from the Workers Library Publishers, natch) contains the expected party-line description of events almost forgotten outside of the former You-Know-What. The line drawings are not quite good or bad enough to be interesting. The history itself, however, is new (to us) and at times quite compelling, and we meet briefly some fascinating characters lost to us moderns, such as the vicious and Buddhist Baron Ungern, an adventurer and would-be warlord who fought against the Reds and for his own idea of a new empire. The underlying analysis, even with the plague of Marxist language, is often bracing, as when Parfenov points out that the U.S. had very little desire for the Japanese to create new strongholds in the Russian east out of the collapse of the Romanovs.

#	Read	Author	Title	Genre
131	5/3/17	Mary E. MacEwen, ed.	Stories of Suspense	Literature
132	5/8/17	V. Parfenov	The Intervention in Siberia 1918–1922	History
133	5/20/17	C.C. Benison	Death at Buckingham Palace: Her Majesty Investigates	Mystery
134	5/22/17	Randall Garrett	Lord Darcy [3-in-1 volume]	SF/Fantasy
	5/24/17	Walt Kelly	Pogo: We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us	Comics
135	6/12/17	W.G. Forrest	A History of Sparta, 950–192 B. C.	History
136	6/13/17	Clive Cussler	Flood Tide	Mystery
137	6/17/17	Heinrich Hoffmann	Struwwelpeter in English Translation	Children’s
138	6/22/17	Baljit Singh & Mei Ko-Wang	Theory and Practice of Modern Guerrilla Warfare	Militaria
139	7/6/17	Rudyard Kipling	Life’s Handicap – Being Stories of Mine Own People	Literature
140	7/8/17	Isaac Asimov	Earth Is Room Enough	SF/Fantasy

The Long Goodbye is the best book by one of the five best authors of detective novels.

#	Read	Author	Title	Genre
141	7/11/17	Vic Ziegel	The Non-Runner’s Book	Humor
142	7/19/17	Kenneth Robeson	The Fantastic Island	SF/Fantasy
	7/30/17	Jules Feiffer	Great Comic Book Heroes	Comics
143	8/3/17	Tu Fu & Li Po	Poems	Literature
144	8/7/17	Camden Benares	Zen Without Zen Masters	Spiritual
145	8/8/17	Fung Yu-Lan	A Short History of Chinese Philosophy	Spiritual
146	8/12/17	Raymond Chandler	The Long Goodbye	Mystery
147	8/15/17	W. H. St. John Hope	An Introduction to Heraldry	History
148	8/26/17	Margaret Coel	The Dream Stalker	Mystery
149	9/1/17	Margaret Coel	The Story Teller	Mystery
150	9/5/17	Alistair MacLean	The Satan Bug	Mystery

Erik Routley’s beautiful prose style complements his powerful thoughts upon the place of music in the Christian church. His history is never dry, his insights never forced. The writing in this thin précis thrills with the charge of a believer who never uses his beliefs as an excuse, and never loses sight of truth nor of humanity in the pursuit of his topic.

#	Read	Author	Title	Genre
151	9/7/17	Melville Davisson Post	Uncle Abner, Master of Mysteries	Mystery
	9/9/17		The Comic Cavalcade Archives, Vol. 1	Comics
152	9/18/17	Erik Routley	Christian Hymns Observed: When in Our Music God Is Glorified	Spiritual
153	9/22/17	E. C. Bentley	Trent’s Last Case	Mystery
154	9/25/17	Richard Appignanesi	Introducing Existentialism	Philosophy
155	10/2/17	Bram Stoker	The Jewel of Seven Stars	Horror
156	10/4/17	Lloyd Alexander	The Book of Three	SF/Fantasy
157	10/9/17	Seymour M. Pitcher	The Case for Shakespeare’s Authorship of “The Famous Victories”	Drama
158	10/11/17	Lloyd Alexander	The Black Cauldron	SF/Fantasy
159	10/18/17	Cara Black	Murder In Belleville : An Aimee Leduc Investigation	Mystery
160	10/23/17	Isaac Asimov	Foundation	SF/Fantasy

Michael Crichton’s Eaters Of The Dead (known to most, as in this edition, from the movie title: The 13th Warrior) turns out to be a retelling of an ancient tale, in the fascinating frame of a traveling scholar during the height of Islam and the near nadir of the West. It is well to remember that the torch of civilization was kept alight by the various Muslim states for much of the first half millennium of their existence, but Crichton never lets up on the adventure and the inherent fascination of his story. You won’t find Antonio Banderas in this novel, but the brooding observer on the strange and the familiar found there is worthy of your attention.

#	Read	Author	Title	Genre
161	10/27/17	Elmore Leonard	Get Shorty	Mystery
162	11/5/17	William S. Burroughs	Exterminator!	Literature
163	11/09/17	Lewis Carroll	Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland / Through The Looking-Glass and Other Writings	Literature
164	11/10/17	Lloyd Alexander	The Castle of Llyr	SF/Fantasy
165	11/15/17	Erik Routley	Conversion	Spiritual
166	1/2/18	S. Morris Engel	Fallacies and Pitfalls of Language: The Language Trap	Language
167	1/13/18	Jane Austen	Persuasion	Literature
	1/14/18	Mike Baron	Badger #42	Comics
	1/15/18	Sergio Aragonés	Groo the Wanderer vol. 2 #73 (Marvel)	Comics
	1/16/18	Sergio Aragonés	Groo the Wanderer vol. 2 #74 (Marvel)	Comics
	1/17/18	Sergio Aragonés	Groo the Wanderer vol. 2 #75 (Marvel)	Comics
168	1/18/18	Margaret Coel	The Lost Bird	Mystery
169	2/14/18	Marian Calabro	The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party	History
170	2/21/18	Michael Crichton	The 13th Warrior (Eaters of the Dead)	Literature

Read the Brigadier Gerard stories of Arthur Conan Doyle, if you possibly can. The brave and stupid Napoleonic hussar would have made a wonderful junior executive in the Internet age.

#	Read	Author	Title	Genre
171	2/26/18	Ellis Peters	Rainbow’s End	Mystery
172	3/2/18	Georges Simenon	Maigret and the Wine Merchant	Mystery
173	3/9/18	N.K. Sandars	The Epic of Gilgamesh	Myth/Folklore
174	3/15/18	Epicurus	Letters, Principal Doctrines, and Vatican Sayings	Philosophy
175	3/20/18	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle	The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard	Literature
176	4/8/18	James Strachan	Pictures From A Medieval Bible	Spiritual
177	4/8/18	Gustave Flaubert	Bibliomania	Literature
178	4/12/18	W.M. Thackeray	The English Humourists / The Four Georges	Literature
179	4/16/18	Clive Cussler	Raise The Titanic!	Mystery
180	4/19/18	Philip K. Dick & Ray Nelson	The Ganymede Takeover	SF/Fantasy

As is often the case, the movie Starship Troopers alludes to the social commentary of the source material, while making it sexy and exciting with boobies and explosions. Read the book, and you’ll find that Heinlein is quite serious with his idea that only soldiers should have the right to vote; so serious, in fact, that his novel veers off into 5-, 6-, even 8-page disquisitions upon the flaws of the failed democratic ideal and the wonderful promise of military-only suffrage. Heinlein’s writing skill is so profound, however, that the action never drags and the story remains compelling in spite of the weird political basecoat. Which is why I try to judge the art, not the artist.

#	Read	Author	Title	Genre
181	4/20/18	Bernard Fischman	The Man Who Rode His 10-Speed Bicycle To The Moon	Literature
182	4/25/18	Julian Havil	Impossible?: Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums	Science/Math
183	4/28/18	R.M. Grant	Gnosticism and Early Christianity	Spiritual
184	5/7/18	Ernest Hemingway	A Farewell to Arms	Literature
185	5/10/18	Colin McEvedy	The Penguin Atlas of African History	History
186	5/12/18	Robert A. Heinlein	Starship Troopers	SF/Fantasy
187	5/16/18	Aesop	Fables of Aesop	Myth/Folklore
188	5/19/18	John Le Carré	The Looking Glass War	Mystery
189	5/26/18	Thomas Doherty	Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930–1934 (Film and Culture Series)	Film
190	5/29/18	Alan Axelrod	The Complete Idiot’s Guide To The Civil War	History

Strangely enough, Pierre Boulle actually lived the story he wrote in The Bridge Over The River Kwai, as he was both a commando operator in the CBI theatre and then a prisoner in the brutal work gangs described in this novel. The novel was transmuted into a major motion picture with little destruction of the source material, though the ending may surprise you. Strangely enough, during his long career as a novelist M. Boulle also wrote another work which became a Hollywood blockbuster, La planète des singes, better known to most under the film’s title, Planet Of The Apes (which is both truer to the original French, as well as better than the title of the first English novelization, Monkey Planet).

#	Read	Author	Title	Genre
191	5/29/18	J.A. McMurtrey	Letters To Lucinda 1862–1864	History
192	5/31/18	Art Linkletter	I Wish I’d Said That! (My Favorite Ad-Libs of All Time)	Humor
193	6/1/18	Pierre Boulle	The Bridge Over the River Kwai	Literature
194	6/4/18	Andrew Dickson White	Fiat Money Inflation in France	History
195	6/6/18	Ron Goulart	Broke Down Engine and Other Troubles with Machines	SF/Fantasy
196	6/10/18	Tony Hoagland	Donkey Gospel: Poems	Poetry
197	6/10/18	Harry Medved & Michael Medved	Hollywood Hall of Shame: The Most Expensive Flops in Movie History	Film
198	6/11/18	C. M. Kornbluth	The Syndic	SF/Fantasy
199	6/14/18	Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth	Gladiator-at-Law	SF/Fantasy
200	6/21/18	Martin Gardner	The 2nd Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions	Science/Math

The listing of the first hundred books read may be found here.

Read More Books!