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Favorite Books of 1999

21:10 Fri 24 Nov 2006. Updated: 06:17 23 Aug 2009
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Closer, closer to this millennium…

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami, trans. Jay Rubin (29/01/1999)

One of my favorite books of all time. Top ten, certainly. I don’t think I can really do it any justice with a description. Japanese magical realism with science fiction and historical fiction touches? Just read it. Really.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson (again) (02/02/1999)

An all-time classic, with one of the best opening lines ever. Another must-read.

The Elephant Vanishes, Haruki Murakami, trans. Alfred Birnbaum and Jay Rubin (08/03/1999)

Murakami writes short stories rather well, and this collection holds quite a few gems. Again, my attempting description here seems pointless.

If on a winter’s night a traveller, Italo Calvino, trans. William Weaver (again) (11/03/1999)

Calvino’s wonderfully whimsical, insightful, thought-provoking—and also really annoying—classic fit in well with the hypertext theme of my year in 1999 (M.SC. in Multimedia Studies, plus plenty of web development work), and covering it in class prompted me to write this essay.

City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, Mike Davis (21/03/1999)

Sadly, I don’t remember this too well, apart from liking it and thinking that Davis did uncover quite a lot of important facets of modern city life. Clearly I need to re-read it—but I remember enough to know I recommend it.

The Art of War, Sun-Tzu (21/06/1999)

I foolishly didn’t note who translated this edition. Like The Prince, in my opinion this text has more or less mandatory status for everyone.

Neuromancer, William Gibson (again) (04/10/1999)

I actually re-read the whole trilogy (in reverse order for some reason), and enjoyed them again. It matters not at all that Gibson was off with his vision of "virtual reality", the plots, themes, and writing remain compelling and relevant.

Endymion, Dan Simmons (22/10/1999)

This and The Rise of Endymion, which I read immediately afterwards, finish the Hyperion series in worthy fashion, although the quality dips slightly from the first two.

The Dispossessed, Ursula K. LeGuin (09/11/1999)

Another gift from Emilie, who (if I recall correctly) got it from Moe’s in Berkeley, one of my favorite bookstores anywhere. The Dispossessed appealed to me quite a lot—unsurprisingly, given my political views and interest in political themes generally. Apparently I need to read a Le Guin story called ""The Day Before the Revolution", which reveals some background for Anarres’s political situation and philosophy.

The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck (27/11/1999)

Powerful, evocative, compelling, The Grapes of Wrath deserves its reputation as a masterwork of 20th Century American fiction.

Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson (05/12/1999)

Stephenson hit virtuoso heights with this almost-cyberpunk tale of modern hackery and adventure. Definitely worth reading. But it didn’t overcome his much-remarked-upon difficulty with endings.

The full list of what I read in 1999:

  1. Waiting for the dark, Waiting for the Light, Ivan Klima 09/01/1999
  2. The Neutronium Alchemist, Peter F Hamilton 16/01/1999
  3. Winter: A Berlin Family, 1899-1945, Len Deighton 20/01/1999
  4. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami, trans. Jay Rubin 29/01/1999
  5. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson (again) 02/02/1999
  6. Fear and Loathing: on the Campaign Trail ’72, Hunter S. Thompson (again) 07/02/1999
  7. The Image of the Beast (An Exorcism: Ritual One), Philip José Farmer (again) 02/03/1999
  8. Blown (An Exorcism: Ritual Two), Philip José Farmer 03/03/1999
  9. Shards of a Broken Crown, Raymond E. Feist 06/03/1999
  10. Flesh, Philip José Farmer 07/03/1999
  11. The Elephant Vanishes, Haruki Murakami, trans. Alfred Birnbaum and Jay Rubin 08/03/1999
  12. If on a winter’s night a traveller, Italo Calvino, trans. William Weaver (again) 11/03/1999
  13. Ecology of Fear, Mike Davis 17/03/1999
  14. Bombardiers, Po Bronson 18/03/1999
  15. City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, Mike Davis 21/03/1999
  16. Dead Lagoon, Michael Dibdin 21/03/1999
  17. Inversions, Iain M. Banks 22/03/1999
  18. Of Love & Other Demons, Gabriel Garcia Marquez 26/03/1999
  19. Between Silk and Cyanide, Leo Marks 30/03/1999
  20. Otherland: City of Golden Shadow, Tad Williams 05/04/1999
  21. Otherland: River of Blue Fire, Tad Williams 15/04/1999
  22. The Dragonbone Chair, Tad Williams (again) 16/04/1999
  23. Stone of Farewell, Tad Williams (again) 17/04/1999
  24. To Green Angel Tower, Tad Williams 18/04/1999
  25. A Surfeit of Guns, Patricia Finney (writing as P. F. Chisholm) 26/04/1999
  26. A Plague of Angels, Patricia Finney (writing as P. F. Chisholm) 26/04/1999
  27. Dark Spectre, Michael Dibdin 04/05/1999
  28. Microserfs, Douglas Coupland 05/05/1999
  29. Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby (early-mid May)
  30. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (early-mid May)
  31. The First $20 Million is the Hardest, Po Bronson 14/06/1999
  32. The Art of War, Sun-Tzu 21/06/1999
  33. A White Merc with Fins, James Hawes 04/07/1999
  34. The God of Impertinence, Sten Nadolny, trans. Breon Mitchell 11/07/1999
  35. Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl-Gang, Joyce Carol Oates 04/08/1999
  36. Rabbit, Run, John Updike 15/08/1999
  37. Out of Sight, Elmore Leonard 16/08/1999
  38. Hyperspace: a Scientific Odyssey through the 10th Dimension, Michio Kaku 23/08/1999
  39. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny 24/08/1999
  40. The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Early Detective Stories, ed. Hugh Green 04/09/1999
  41. The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac 15/09/1999
  42. Mona Lisa Overdrive, William Gibson (again) 19/09/1999
  43. Count Zero, William Gibson (again) 20/09/1999
  44. Neuromancer, William Gibson (again) 04/10/1999
  45. Tourist Season, Carl Hiaasen (in The Carl Hiaasen Omnibus) 14/10/1999
  46. Double Whammy, Carl Hiaasen (in The Carl Hiaasen Omnibus) 17/10/1999
  47. Skin Tight, Carl Hiaasen (in The Carl Hiaasen Omnibus) 18/10/1999
  48. Ripley Bogle, Robert McLiam Wilson (again) 21/10/1999
  49. Endymion, Dan Simmons 22/10/1999
  50. The Rise of Endymion, Dan Simmons 24/10/1999
  51. Eureka Street, Robert McLiam Wilson 26/10/1999
  52. Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin 27/10/1999
  53. The Secret Agent, Joseph Conrad 30/10/1999
  54. Idoru, William Gibson 01/11/1999
  55. Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson 03/11/1999
  56. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller Jr. 04/11/1999
  57. The Dispossessed, Ursula K. LeGuin 09/11/1999
  58. A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams 10/11/1999
  59. The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams 16/11/1999
  60. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck 27/11/1999
  61. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson 05/12/1999
  62. Chaos and Beyond: The Best of Trajectories, Robert Anton Wilson, Arlen Wilson, et. al 07/12/1999
  63. Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda, Noam Chomsky 11/12/1999
  64. Illywhacker, Peter Carey 16/12/1999
  65. The Great Shark Hunt, Hunter S. Thompson (again) 27/12/1999
  66. Wild Dreams of a New Beginning, Lawrence Ferlinghetti (sometime between November and December)
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