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A list of my favorite readings of 2010. A lot of thesis-related books, but I guess the fact I enjoyed them it’s a good sign. According to aNobii, I’ve read 54 books this year. Here is my top 9:
Milan Kundera - Ignorance
Kundera has this knack of writing about complex themes in the simplest form. Very quotable, too.
J. D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye
A re-read, in English this time. Very quotable as well.
Roland Barthes - Empire of Signs
In my all-time top 3 books. Language, Japan, eroticism, art, sociology, literature, culture: all I could dream of - at least right now - in just 100 pages. Thesis-related.
Max Picard - The World of Silence
Another thesis-related book, and possibly one of its major inspirations. This guy loves silence almost as much as me.
Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood
First approach to Murakami, it’s a simple masterpiece, just like every Beatles’ song.
Italo Calvino - Six Memos For the Next Millennium
Great lectures about literature. It’s like reading 150 authors in one little book.
Tom Rob Smith - Child 44
A little fiction here. An exciting thriller novel set in Stalinist Russia, as good as Thomas Harris’ “Archangel”.
Nick Hornby - About a Boy
Another re-read in English. Funny and smart as always.
Roger Davies & Osamu Ikeno - The Japanese Mind
A great book to better understand Japan, its culture, society and people. Again, thesis-related.
