Books 2012

A list of the books read by me during 2012.

The Wild Places
by Robert Macfarlane
Author seeks the remaining wild places of Britain and Ireland.
The War Against Cliché
by Martin Amis
Lit-Crit as it ought to be writ.
How to be a Bad Birdwatcher
by Simon Barnes
Birdwatcher, not Birder.
Granta 117: Horror
by John Freeman (ed.).
Rather ho-hum.
Wild Hares and Hummingbirds
by Stephen Moss.
The Natural History of an English Village.
Granta 118: Exit Strategies
by John Freeman (ed.).
Too much fiction (yet again).
On the Natural History of Destruction
by W.G. Sebald.
An extended essay on the ‘scandalous deficiency’ of texts about the Allied bombing of Germany.
The English Village
by Martin Wainwright.
An enjoyable short history of what made England England.
The Elizabethans
by A.N. Wilson.
Tales from the reign of Good Queen Bess.
Aftermath
by Ronald Blythe.
Selected writings from the veteran author.
The Trial
by Franz Kafka.
Don’t bother.
Austerlitz
by W.G. Sebald.
Re-reading the indescribable.
Wildwood
by Roger Deakin.
Just as good the second time round.
Granta 119: Britain
by John Freeman (ed.).
Standard stuff for Granta.
Saturn’s Moons: WG Sebald—a Handbook
by Jo Catling & Richard Hibbitt (eds).
One for the Sebald nerds.
Cider with Rosie
by Laurie Lee.
Countryside classic.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
by Stephen King.
Death to slovenly adverbs!
The Old Ways
by Robert Macfarlane
Third book in a magnificent trilogy about landscape.
Deep Country
by Neil Ansell
Chopping, gathering, watching.
Fighting For Birds
by Mark Avery
An experienced pragmatist describes the minefield that is nature conservation.
Granta 120: Medicine
by John Freeman (ed.)
An anthology of illness and its treatment.
Speak, Memory
by Vladimir Nabokov
Otherworldy memoir.
Walking Home
by Simon Armitage
Travels with a Troubadour on the Pennine Way.
Findings
by Kathleen Jamie
Superb nature and landscape essays.
Sightlines
by Kathleen Jamie
A second volume of superb nature and landscape essays.
Strands
by Jean Sprackland
A Year of Discoveries on the Beach.
Working the Room
by Geoff Dyer
Essays.
Reality Hunger
by David Shields
A manifesto.
Darwin and Lady Hope: the untold story
by L.R. Croft
Perpetuating a Darwinian myth.
London Orbital
by Iain Sinclair
Walking around the M25.
The Origin of Darwinism: Charles Darwin and The Origin of Species
by James Randerson (ed.)
Guardian ebook anthology.
Two Degrees West
by Nicholas Crane
Walking the length of England, top to bottom.
The Hobbit
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Children’s classic, with silly bits!
Granta 121: The Best of Young Brazilian Novelists
by John Freeman (ed.)
An opportunity missed.
Instead of a Book
by Diana Athill
Entertaining letters to a friend.

The Rings of Saturn
by W.G. Sebald
A re-re-reading of Sebald’s enigmatic masterpiece.

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