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