Valet Reader

Well… It’s Friday again, and luckily for people like me who sit at a desk in front of a computer all day that means a reprieve from the monotony of work. Unfortunately for you it means I’m slacking and will once again be providing you with an update of my reading list as it currently stands. Come on, I did give you three book reviews this week! Don’t worry I have plenty more but I don’t want to spoil anyone. Where’s the fun in that?

There haven’t been a whole lot of additions since my last update but there have been some. You’ll notice that some of the books at the top will probably remain there for sometime. Either I don’t own them or they just don’t interest me as much as some of the more recent additions.

So here we go:

Maps and Legends – Michael Chabon
Cities in Civilization – Peter Hall
Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience – Yi Fu Tuan
Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception… – Yi Fu Tuan
State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America – Matt Weildand, et al.
The Concrete Dragon: China’s Urban Revolution… – Thomas Campanella
Art of Racing in the Rain – Garth Stein
The Geography of Nowhere – James Kunstler
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
Six Suspects – Vikas Swarup
Ghost Soldiers – Hampton Sides
Nobody Move – Denis Johnson
The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand
Tattoo Machine – Jeff Johnson
Uglies – Scott Westerfield
American Hotel Stories – Francisca Matteola
Little Bee – Chris Cleave
Enders Shadow – Orson Scott Card
The Sower – Kemble Scott
The Time Machine Did It – John Swartzwelder
A Thread of Grace – Mary Doria Russell
Lost City of Z – David Grann
Zeitoun – Dave Eggers
The Wild Things – Dave Eggers
Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace
This Wicked World – Richard Lange
Couch – Benjamin Parzybok
Forever – Pete Hamill
Voss – Patrick White
You Can’t Win – Jack Black (not the actor)
Generation Kill – Evan Wright
Wrestling With Moses – Anthony Flint
The Death and Life of Great American Cities – Jane Jacobs

Want to help me decide what to read next? Click here!

It’s actually pretty interesting to look back on the list and see where the suggestion or idea to add the book to the list came from. For instance, my brother, it seems, has a knack (recently) to recommend or suggest war themed books, for example Generation Kill, Ghost Soldiers, and others which I am currently reading or have read like Forever War or We Were Soldiers Once and Young. From my sister, recently, I’ve been recommended young adult books (she is YA librarian so it makes sense). As for the rest of the family, they’ll throw anything at me. You’ll also seen on the list quite a few books based on cities, “place,” and topography. Clearly these are a result of my interest in maps, cartography, topography and city planning. In the end though, in addition to all these, there are books that I see other people reading on the cable car, books that the cute girl sitting next to me recommends or books that I see at the bookstore that spark an interest and end up on my list. I’m not biased, I’ll read just about anything, so as I always say if you’ve got any other suggestions, feel free to comment and let me know!