Book Keeping 2008

I am an inveterate archivist. I like to keep lists. You might even say that I have a need to keep lists. Among the lists I keep is a record of every book I have read since 2002.

It has become an annual ritual, to be completed on the first day of the new year, for me to total the books I have read over the course of the previous year. The total for 2008 was 102 books completed. 14 of these books were works of fiction, 18 were business books, and the rest were non-fiction, mostly works of history.

The 2008 list is down over past years. It was 41 fewer books than I read in 2007, although to be fair I must point out that 2007 was a sabbatical year for me. In 2006, I read 124 books; in 2005, a mere 106; in 2004, 140. And since I have started my list, let me at 124 books read in 2003 and 116 completed in 2002.

Certainly some of the books that I read last year stand out, but these are the ones I would particularly recommend:

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole was my favourite fictional read of 2008, even though the book was several decades old. I still make references to Ignatius Reilly, the main character.

Gentlemen's Blood - A History of Duelling From Swords at Dawn to Pistols at Dusk by Barbara Holland provided more information concerning affairs of honour than I had ever thought possible. The strange attractiveness of the topic is illustrated by the fact that I loaned this book out to three people in 2008.

Hitler's Jewish Soldiers - The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military by Bryan Mark Rigg is a look at a previously neglected bit of World War II history -- Germans with Jewish parents or grandparents who served the Reich in the armed forces. If Rigg's research is correct, over 100,000 members of the Nazi armed forces had Jewish parents or grandparents, including several generals and one field marshal.

Corporate Cults - The Insidious Lure of the All-Consuming Organization by Dave Arnott was the most thought-provoking business book I read in 2008. Or perhaps I should refer to it as the "anti-business" book, given its warning cry against subordinating one's identity to that of the corporation.

And last, but not least, my Can-Con selection for 2008: Bloody Falls of the Coppermine - Madness, Murder, and the Collision of Cultures in the Arctic, 1913 by McKay Jenkies. I found the book to be a fascinating look at a sad chapter in the history of the Canadian North.