Oh look… Books!

As there are no burning issues bubbling in the back of my brain presently requiring putting finger (singular) to keyboard I thought I’d say something about upcoming reads. Presently I’ve got a stack of 12 books in my ‘read next’ pile. I’m not going to list them (ruining the later surprises) but they do indicate some of the upcoming themes and ‘series’ of books I’m planning to read during the last quarter of 2018 and into 2019 and beyond.

I recently finished a history of Russia (yes, finally) and that will be followed by two more books based around the Revolution of 1917. There will be more on Russia to follow later. The Russian books will be followed by 3 on the RAF and 3 on European interactions with China (history again). I’m just about to finish a rather chunky book on the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and this will be followed by – presently – 9 more books on various elements of Economics which I’m finding both fascinating and all rather enlightening. Then we’re back into fiction again continuing my 10 20th century classics. I’m about half way through and will be following that with 10 Historical crime novels. Then we’re onto Politics (history/philosophy) and – presently – this theme has around 10 more (generally from the Left naturally) in another pile ready to go.

As my reading is slacking off these days (180 hours of No Man’s Sky definitely not helping here) part of my remedy is to read shorter books (less than 250 pages) more often. There are 2 in my pile of 12 and around 25+ in another associated pile ready to go. Subject wise they’re all over the place and the only common factor is brevity. Next up is my (kind of) focus category these days: R4 (Revolt, Rebellion, Resistance and Revolution). There’s 3 – I think – in the pile of 12 with another 15+ so far in the pile behind them. Again, with R4 being a very wide subject they’ll be covering a great deal of territory from politics, history, biography and much else. Another theme I’m following presently is mankind’s relationship with technology. There’s one in the read next pile with another half dozen or so in the wings covering on-line life, AI, cyber security and, of course, gaming.

Following up on my recent WW1 reading I have a ‘series’ of books relating to the end of the war and the consequences of the peace. It will cover one of the periods I’m most interested in – 1919-1939. Again, as you might imagine, the subject matter is huge so expect a scattergun approach to the Jazz Age. Finally, from the 12 books sitting on my couch, is another book on Human biology. There’s more coming after that plus anthropology, microbiology and, just because I can, a few books about birds.

Then we move ‘off-piste’ to future reading plans. I’ve already mentioned my plan to start reading about Winston Churchill’s rise to power starting over my long Christmas break (need to start taking more time off work before I either fall asleep at my desk or they send me home). I’ll be starting with an overview of Britain in the 1930’s before moving on to Chamberlain’s failed appeasement, Winston becoming PM, the fall of France, Dunkirk and so on. I presently have around 25 books in that theme group. Other longer term plans include World War to Cold War – the Post 1945 world, Historical Women (again around 25 books) trying to address the silly idea that there are no female role models out there. There are actually lots of them if you look hard enough. Then there’s Espionage (around 10-12 books) mostly focusing on the World Wars but also into the Cold War too. In somewhat smaller groups (although I’m working on that!) I’m trying to accumulate quality books looking at the present bizarre situation we find ourselves in. It’s the knowledgeable analysis I’m really desperate for rather than waking up each morning thinking WTF even before I drag myself out of bed.

No doubt I’ve forgotten quite a bit of what I intend to read in the near future. It’s one of the downsides of having a butterfly mind with too many interests. But at least my reading will never bore me and I hope it’ll interest you from time to time too. Let me know what you think on Thursdays.