Reading List of 2011 (So Far)
Dec. 9th, 2011 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dewlineSomeone seemed to be asking for a recommended reading list. Best I can do is take a list from elsewhere that's been accumulating over the year to date and repost it here. So...
1. The Fast Fiction Challenge Volume Two by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
budgie_uk
May as well start with something done by a friend, right?
2. The Elements of Typographic Style version 3.0 by Robert Bringhurst
3. An A-Z of Type Designers by Neil Macmillan
Yeah, more on my typeface design hobby. Some day, I'm going to get back to work on my two main font projects.
4. Sketching Your Favorite Subjects in Pen & Ink by Claudia Nice
5. Drawing People by Barbara Bradley
Further re-readings of old favourites on the illustration self-(re)training front. I expected to keep returning to these two several times over the course of the year, and did so at a couple of points.
6. Speaking Out Louder by Jack Layton
Layton was the leader of the New Democratic Party until his death earlier this year, who are the closest we've got in Canada to "social democrats" at the moment. At least, if I understand the concept as understood by our European members correctly. This book outlines a number of prescriptive ideas that he wanted to see put into practice by federal, provincial and municipal govts. here in Canada. Not the first time I've seen several of them proposed or expanded upon, but the book as a whole is worthy having an informed debate about.
Sadly, Layton was going to need a new home for it; The publisher, Key Porter Books, was shut down by its parent firm H. B. Fenn back in January.
7. The Art of Batman Begins by Mark Cotta Vaz
8. Star Trek: The Empty Chair bydduane
9. Mission of Honor by David Weber
10. Historical Atlas of Toronto by Derek Hayes
Where uTOpia delved into what Toronto might yet become, this one uses archived maps from across two centuries to show from whence that city came.
11. City of Words: Toronto Through Her Writers' Eyes - editor Sarah Elton
A collection of essays, poems, excerpts from novels and so on centred upon Toronto.
12. Bastards and Boneheads by Will Ferguson
In need of an update, seeing as Stephen Harper replaced Jean Chretien as our Prime Minister five or six years ago, but as an entertaining primer on Canadian history, this book is one I keep coming back to at least once a year.
13. Ringworld by Larry Niven.
Thanks to a friend looking to clean up/out his apartment. Not quite a third of the way in yet, but it reads well enough so far. The references to Beirut...surprised me somewhat. Not sure if that means I'm old or the book is.
14. Good Night, and Good Luck.
Yes, it's the book with the shooting script from the movie as written by Clooney and Heslov. Also, a bunch of background material on the history and the movie-making process. Sidebar: it's been five years since that movie hit the theatres. It was worth the money to see it on the screen. It was worth the price tag of the DVD, too.
15. The Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven.
Is it me, or does the tone of those books go from "documentary" to "you are in (character's) brain" and back again?
16. The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture by Terry O'Reilly and Mike Tennant.
Decided to give this one a re-read whilst home on a sick day in February.
17. The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt.
I think this was the one novel featuring Priscilla Hutchins that I was missing.
18. Designed Maps by Cynthia A. Brewer.
Yeah, my geography and design interests joined forces to hook me for this purchase. Went to a store specializing in maps and travel guides and suchlike to get it, too.
19. The Hindenburg Murders by Max Allan Collins.
20. Crawling from the Wreckage by Gwynne Dyer.
21. Wanted Words, edited by Jane Farrow.
Taken from the submissions of the old CBC Radio One feature of the same name that used to air back when the work of Q and The Current were done by This Morning as hosted by Shelagh Rogers. Farrow - now the boss of the Jane's Walk operation out of Toronto - used to host the "Wanted Words" segments when they originally aired.
22. The Historical Atlas of Vancouver by Derek Hayes.
A nice companion volume to...
23. Dream City by Lance Berelowitz.
24. Star Trek: Typhon Pact - Paths of Disharmony bydaytonward.
25. Star Trek: Dept. of Temporal Investigations - Watching the Clock by Christopher L. Bennett.
26. Star Trek: TNG - Indistinguishable From Magic bylonemagpie.
27. Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont by Joseph Boyden
28. Marshall McLuhan by Douglas Coupland
These two are part of the "Extraordinary Canadians" series published by Penguin Canada. Riel and Dumont were the chimeric central players in the first two armed rebellions in Canadian history. McLuhan should be familiar to anyone studying media theory.
29. Player One: What is to Become of Us? by Douglas Coupland
Part of the Massey Lectures series organized by CBC. Coupland broke with tradition by working up his lectures as a serialized fictional tale of what might happen if Hubbert's Peak is breached and civilization believes itself doomed as a result...however briefly.
30. Star Trek: Cast No Shadow byjmswallow.
Consider this a "whatever happened to Valeris(from The Undiscovered Country)?" tale. Recommended
31. Body Work by Sara Paretsky
I'd been meaning to catch up with V.I. Warshawsky for a couple of years now. Interesting tale of where art, ethics, warfare, social justice and human dignity meet and either collaborate or clash. A couple of murders get solved along the way.
32. The Canadian City - St. John's to Victoria - A Critical Commentary by Roger Kemble.
More studies of urban history, urban development and so forth re: my spacingottawa.ca work. Heavily illustrated by the author himself to clarify a number of his points and his urban artwork isn't shabby at all.
33. Serenity: the Official Visual Companion by Joss Whedon
34. Firefly: the Official Companion, Volume One - scripts, photos and art by various.
35. Firefly: the Official Companion, Volume Two - same credits as Volume One
36. Star Trek: Vanguard - What Judgments Come - Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore
37. Writing in an Age of Silence by Sara Paretsky.
A collection of her non-fiction essays, detailing her life before writing, her discovery of the value of feminism, and her sense of politics and justice in general. Seemed like a good time for re-reading this one. Bush II is gone, but his backers still feel backed into various corners by the very existence of dissent against their worldview, after all.
38. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.
All about human-essential infrastructure for long-term "road trips" into the wild black yonder. How should we build a spacecraft to take us to Mars and bring us back again?
39. Ottawa's Britannia by Eva Taylor.
A book published in 1983 about a village that eventually became a summer resort town before being swallowed up by urban sprawl about 60 years back. Research for one of my spacingottawa.ca projects.
40. Signs: Lettering in the Environment by Phil Baines and Catherine Dixon.
41. The City Beyond: a History of Nepean, Birthplace of Canada's Capital 1792-1990 by Bruce S. Elliott
The latter was more research for my spacingottawa.ca projects. Nepean Township as was...well, it was the jurisdiction that much of what became Ottawa got carved out of back in 1826.
42. River, Road and Rail: Woodroffe Memories by Katherine Day, Philip Goldring, Bob Grainger, Wayne Jackson and Peter Jenkins.
A historical profile of the Woodroffe section of Ottawa going all the way back to about the time when everything from what's now Ottawa to Ville de Québec was on the bottom of what historians call "Lake Champlain". Impressive work. I hope to do a more thorough review elsewhere.
43. The Works: Anatomy of a City by Kate Ascher
44. Railway Maps of the World by Mark Ovenden.
45. Unbuilt Toronto 2 by Mark Osbaldeston
"More of the city that might have been" is the subtitle, and it's a fine addition to the tales of the Toronto buildings that might have been raised up, but for money, politics, and Heaven knows what all else. Anyone working with Grant Morrison as his artist on a book set in any comic-book version of Toronto? Get this book. I remember what he said about the depiction of architecture in DCU-edition New York City in Final Crisis.
Now if I could just find Unbuilt Toronto's original volume. I know I bought it. Perfect Books knows I bought it. From them.
46. A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada by John Ralston Saul
As a political prescriptive, it's one of several that make sense to me. As a history volume, this is a good companion volume to...
47. Bastards and Boneheads by Will Ferguson
Guaranteed to convince any Canadian that their own nation's history is NOT boring!
And that's as far as I got by November. There's more to come, so expect this entry to be revised to add in the newer material between now and New Year's Eve 2011.
1. The Fast Fiction Challenge Volume Two by
budgie_ukMay as well start with something done by a friend, right?
2. The Elements of Typographic Style version 3.0 by Robert Bringhurst
3. An A-Z of Type Designers by Neil Macmillan
Yeah, more on my typeface design hobby. Some day, I'm going to get back to work on my two main font projects.
4. Sketching Your Favorite Subjects in Pen & Ink by Claudia Nice
5. Drawing People by Barbara Bradley
Further re-readings of old favourites on the illustration self-(re)training front. I expected to keep returning to these two several times over the course of the year, and did so at a couple of points.
6. Speaking Out Louder by Jack Layton
Layton was the leader of the New Democratic Party until his death earlier this year, who are the closest we've got in Canada to "social democrats" at the moment. At least, if I understand the concept as understood by our European members correctly. This book outlines a number of prescriptive ideas that he wanted to see put into practice by federal, provincial and municipal govts. here in Canada. Not the first time I've seen several of them proposed or expanded upon, but the book as a whole is worthy having an informed debate about.
Sadly, Layton was going to need a new home for it; The publisher, Key Porter Books, was shut down by its parent firm H. B. Fenn back in January.
7. The Art of Batman Begins by Mark Cotta Vaz
8. Star Trek: The Empty Chair by
dduane9. Mission of Honor by David Weber
10. Historical Atlas of Toronto by Derek Hayes
Where uTOpia delved into what Toronto might yet become, this one uses archived maps from across two centuries to show from whence that city came.
11. City of Words: Toronto Through Her Writers' Eyes - editor Sarah Elton
A collection of essays, poems, excerpts from novels and so on centred upon Toronto.
12. Bastards and Boneheads by Will Ferguson
In need of an update, seeing as Stephen Harper replaced Jean Chretien as our Prime Minister five or six years ago, but as an entertaining primer on Canadian history, this book is one I keep coming back to at least once a year.
13. Ringworld by Larry Niven.
Thanks to a friend looking to clean up/out his apartment. Not quite a third of the way in yet, but it reads well enough so far. The references to Beirut...surprised me somewhat. Not sure if that means I'm old or the book is.
14. Good Night, and Good Luck.
Yes, it's the book with the shooting script from the movie as written by Clooney and Heslov. Also, a bunch of background material on the history and the movie-making process. Sidebar: it's been five years since that movie hit the theatres. It was worth the money to see it on the screen. It was worth the price tag of the DVD, too.
15. The Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven.
Is it me, or does the tone of those books go from "documentary" to "you are in (character's) brain" and back again?
16. The Age of Persuasion: How Marketing Ate Our Culture by Terry O'Reilly and Mike Tennant.
Decided to give this one a re-read whilst home on a sick day in February.
17. The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt.
I think this was the one novel featuring Priscilla Hutchins that I was missing.
18. Designed Maps by Cynthia A. Brewer.
Yeah, my geography and design interests joined forces to hook me for this purchase. Went to a store specializing in maps and travel guides and suchlike to get it, too.
19. The Hindenburg Murders by Max Allan Collins.
20. Crawling from the Wreckage by Gwynne Dyer.
21. Wanted Words, edited by Jane Farrow.
Taken from the submissions of the old CBC Radio One feature of the same name that used to air back when the work of Q and The Current were done by This Morning as hosted by Shelagh Rogers. Farrow - now the boss of the Jane's Walk operation out of Toronto - used to host the "Wanted Words" segments when they originally aired.
22. The Historical Atlas of Vancouver by Derek Hayes.
A nice companion volume to...
23. Dream City by Lance Berelowitz.
24. Star Trek: Typhon Pact - Paths of Disharmony by
daytonward.25. Star Trek: Dept. of Temporal Investigations - Watching the Clock by Christopher L. Bennett.
26. Star Trek: TNG - Indistinguishable From Magic by
lonemagpie. 27. Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont by Joseph Boyden
28. Marshall McLuhan by Douglas Coupland
These two are part of the "Extraordinary Canadians" series published by Penguin Canada. Riel and Dumont were the chimeric central players in the first two armed rebellions in Canadian history. McLuhan should be familiar to anyone studying media theory.
29. Player One: What is to Become of Us? by Douglas Coupland
Part of the Massey Lectures series organized by CBC. Coupland broke with tradition by working up his lectures as a serialized fictional tale of what might happen if Hubbert's Peak is breached and civilization believes itself doomed as a result...however briefly.
30. Star Trek: Cast No Shadow by
jmswallow.Consider this a "whatever happened to Valeris(from The Undiscovered Country)?" tale. Recommended
31. Body Work by Sara Paretsky
I'd been meaning to catch up with V.I. Warshawsky for a couple of years now. Interesting tale of where art, ethics, warfare, social justice and human dignity meet and either collaborate or clash. A couple of murders get solved along the way.
32. The Canadian City - St. John's to Victoria - A Critical Commentary by Roger Kemble.
More studies of urban history, urban development and so forth re: my spacingottawa.ca work. Heavily illustrated by the author himself to clarify a number of his points and his urban artwork isn't shabby at all.
33. Serenity: the Official Visual Companion by Joss Whedon
34. Firefly: the Official Companion, Volume One - scripts, photos and art by various.
35. Firefly: the Official Companion, Volume Two - same credits as Volume One
36. Star Trek: Vanguard - What Judgments Come - Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore
37. Writing in an Age of Silence by Sara Paretsky.
A collection of her non-fiction essays, detailing her life before writing, her discovery of the value of feminism, and her sense of politics and justice in general. Seemed like a good time for re-reading this one. Bush II is gone, but his backers still feel backed into various corners by the very existence of dissent against their worldview, after all.
38. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.
All about human-essential infrastructure for long-term "road trips" into the wild black yonder. How should we build a spacecraft to take us to Mars and bring us back again?
39. Ottawa's Britannia by Eva Taylor.
A book published in 1983 about a village that eventually became a summer resort town before being swallowed up by urban sprawl about 60 years back. Research for one of my spacingottawa.ca projects.
40. Signs: Lettering in the Environment by Phil Baines and Catherine Dixon.
41. The City Beyond: a History of Nepean, Birthplace of Canada's Capital 1792-1990 by Bruce S. Elliott
The latter was more research for my spacingottawa.ca projects. Nepean Township as was...well, it was the jurisdiction that much of what became Ottawa got carved out of back in 1826.
42. River, Road and Rail: Woodroffe Memories by Katherine Day, Philip Goldring, Bob Grainger, Wayne Jackson and Peter Jenkins.
A historical profile of the Woodroffe section of Ottawa going all the way back to about the time when everything from what's now Ottawa to Ville de Québec was on the bottom of what historians call "Lake Champlain". Impressive work. I hope to do a more thorough review elsewhere.
43. The Works: Anatomy of a City by Kate Ascher
44. Railway Maps of the World by Mark Ovenden.
45. Unbuilt Toronto 2 by Mark Osbaldeston
"More of the city that might have been" is the subtitle, and it's a fine addition to the tales of the Toronto buildings that might have been raised up, but for money, politics, and Heaven knows what all else. Anyone working with Grant Morrison as his artist on a book set in any comic-book version of Toronto? Get this book. I remember what he said about the depiction of architecture in DCU-edition New York City in Final Crisis.
Now if I could just find Unbuilt Toronto's original volume. I know I bought it. Perfect Books knows I bought it. From them.
46. A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada by John Ralston Saul
As a political prescriptive, it's one of several that make sense to me. As a history volume, this is a good companion volume to...
47. Bastards and Boneheads by Will Ferguson
Guaranteed to convince any Canadian that their own nation's history is NOT boring!
And that's as far as I got by November. There's more to come, so expect this entry to be revised to add in the newer material between now and New Year's Eve 2011.
