Best Reading in 2007
In the last year I started writing one paragraph pieces about the books I've been reading. These are the best half a dozen books I've read this year (in no particular order). They weren't all necessarily published this year, but this is the year in which I read them. Feel free to read them yourselves - I recommend all of them.
Alan
The Fantasy Art of Oliver Frey by Roger Kean. Thalamus Books
Ollie Frey set the direction for computer games art in the era of the 8-bit machines. The cover art of games, and games magazines is his creation. Fabulous pictures and the story of Newsfield Magazines. A true blast from the past.
Fantasy Island by Larry Elliot and Dan Atkinson. Constable Books
Superb analysis of the debt ridden legacy of of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's New Labour governments of the last ten years.
Rome, Inc. by Stanley Bing. Atlas Books-WW Norton
Very witty history of the Roman Empire looked at as a corporation. Not only history with the boring bits left out, but lessons for the budding middle manager in todays modern business environment.
The Money Changers by Robert G Williams. Zed Books
I wish I'd had this book when I was designing Federation 2. The international foreign exchange markets handle a staggering $2 trillion a day, and Robert Williams explains how they do it. The book is a series of interviews with and explanations from the people who run the markets, and it's totally fascinating and readable.
Night Haunts by Sukhdev Sandhu. Artangel/Verso
A curious set of vingettes featuring people who work at night in contemporary London. Very poetic, and some of the best malapropisms I've seen for a long time. At times it almost feels like it's almost trying too hard to live up to its illustrious forbearers such as Mayhew, but it's still worth giving this slim volume a read.
The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor. Phoenix
Having read the author's 'Stalingrad' a few years ago, I was hoping for something of a tour de force with this book, and I wasn't disappointed. The Spanish Civil War is an incredibly convoluted subject to deal with, but Antony Beevor succeeds admirably in fusing the historical, political and military elements into a seamless whole. Of all the books I have read on this subject, this one is by far and away the best.
And there was one book which stood out as a badly written and thought out attempt to cash in on the growing interest in massively multi player games...
Exploiting Online Games by Greg Hoglund and Gary McGraw. Addison Wesley.
A very pedestrian trudge through the bowels of the sleazy side of World of Warcraft. The book contains little that has not been common knowledge in the MUD community for decades, and it's do it yourself farming bot - pages and page of C++ code - is only of any use to those who are already capable of writing one themselves.
Excellent cure for insomnia.
Return to the reviews page
Back to the
Phlogiston Blue top page
|