“I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten.” Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “Even so, they have made me.”
The books we read this year have made us all kinds of things. Happier, sadder, hungrier, more confused – but we wouldn’t be the same without them.
We thought it would be fun to share some of our favourite books that we read in 2019. Finding a consensus was never going to be possible, so we decided to do this democratically, letting everyone share their individual recommendations.
We hope you enjoy them as much as we did.
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Jack S’s picks:
NORMAL PEOPLE
Sally Rooney
I was a bit slow to the party and only got round to reading both Conversations With Friends and Normal People this year. I loved them both but we gave CWF as a gift last year. Normal People is an on-off love story, told over several years. It’s brilliantly, unpretentiously written (which I’m ashamed to admit I was surprised by) and absolutely nails the weird school/uni years when you make all sorts of odd decisions with seemingly no clear rationale. Or was that just me?
MEND THE LIVING
Maylis De Kerangel
Well this is a cheery little number. I nearly didn’t include it, as it’s a tragic story about a young man who is killed in a car crash on the way back from an early morning surf. It’s a book about grief, but it’s also a forensic examination into the processes and procedures that take place when a family agrees to organ donation. Sad and fascinating.
IN YOUR DEFENCE
Sarah Langford
I’m fascinated by the criminal justice system, so I loved this book, written by a barrister about her experiences in the criminal and family courts. The book takes us through 11 cases in turn, each one demonstrating something unique about our laws and what it takes to defend cases in our legal system.
THE FARM
Joanne Ramos
This is an entertaining debut novel set in the very near future where surrogacy has been taken to capitalist extremes. It’s an all-too plausible scenario, where pregnant “hosts” are held in semi-captive luxury while they produce offspring for the super rich.
BEYOND THE SEA
Paul Lynch
I love a sea yarn and this book covers one of my favourite scenarios: two people cast adrift with no food or water. However, it’s less about the practical steps for survival and more about the psychological toll the isolation, starvation and guilt take on the men. The writing brilliantly depicts the men’s descent into hallucinatory despair. Another cheery one, then…
52 TIMES BRITAIN WAS A BELLEND
James Felton
I like James Felton on Twitter, and he’s just as cuttingly funny here. Britain really has done some bad things over the years, and they’re explained in full atrocious detail here, with accompanying cartoons.
Joseph’s picks:
THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE
Philip K. Dick
My interest in WWII and dystopia marry in this book. Did I read it after watching the series? No. It’s 1962. The Axis won WWII. You follow a number of characters in San Francisco - now in the Japanese Pacific States - who are more solitary and downtrodden than their on-screen versions. My favourite imagining is the English Channel set aflame with underwater gas pipes in a futile effort to prevent the Battle of London.
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?
Philip K. Dick
A Dick classic. I was enthralled after finishing The Man in the High Castle and needed more ‘What if?’, amphetamine-fuelled dystopian goodness from the source. It’s another of his works that has been ‘translated’ into moving image, this time being 1982’s Blade Runner. The silver screen version is very different to the book, but I can really see the sense behind the changes made in the famous adaptation. Read the book to discover ‘chicken heads’, World War Terminus, and the genius behind mood organs.
THE METAMORPHOSIS
Franz Kafka
The famous novella published in 1915. Gregor Samsa – a travelling salesman and cloth merchant – wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect (ungeheures Ungeziefer - "monstrous vermin"). His family’s reaction to his hardship is unforgiving as they selfishly worry about their finances with him unable to work. I took the book to be a view on how, blinkered, skewed and maligned society can be when it comes to upkeeping work and commitments.
INSTITUTION FOR THE FUTURE
Various (Incl. Yoko Ono)
I’ll be honest. I judged a book by its cover.
A beautiful thing to hold in your hands; this book begins with black paper and white text and ends with white paper and black text with the colour slowly changing as you make your way through. As for the contents, it’s an exploration into what institutions could look like in the future through the eyes of a number of world-famous artists. Yoko Ono herself believes there should be a lot more plants and flowers involved. +10 cool points if you’re seen with this in your grip.
WHAT IF? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Randall Munroe
Could you fly on a jetpack made out of downwards-firing machine guns? I don’t know, I’ve literally never thought about it. But Randall Munroe has, and he’s written this book about it. The questions he answers are not useful, exactly. But they’re interesting, and that’s enough.
Jack W’s picks:
A POETRY HANDBOOK
Mary Oliver
I very much like the idea of poetry. In reality, writing poems is harder than you might think, and getting anything out of reading them can be a drag, too. So, I tend to go for this somewhat niche subgenre: books by poets about poetry, that are – crucially – not poetry itself.
Mary Oliver is one poet whose work I really like. This book is a very readable intro to the basic poetic structures, patterns and ambitions. It would be very handy if you were to actually read or write poetry. (I’m assuming.)
But even if you weren’t, it’s an interesting read with some important lessons about communication and life in general.
CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN
Sayaka Murata
I told my local bookshop that I wanted to read something like Haruki Murakami or Franz Kafka but funny, and probably modern, and maybe by a female writer. They hit the brief perfectly with this recommendation.
This is an offbeat story about a Japanese woman who, unable to conform to the expectations of mainstream society, finds salvation in working in a convenience store. It’s got things to say about capitalism, individuality, conformity – and it’s funny.
MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION
Ottessa Moshfegh
Something about the title of this one tickled me. It’s about a young woman in New York City in the year 2000, who, with the help of a truckload of pharmaceuticals, takes a year out of her life to sleep as much as possible. It’s funny but also appalling, with characters who are compelling but also despicable.
LYRICS
Leonard Cohen
I’ve enjoyed dipping into this edition of Leonard Cohen lyrics. He’s probably one of my favourite writers of anything. Lots of people say it, but my favourite lyric of his is probably the Anthem:
Ring the bells that still can ring,
forget your perfect offering,
there is a crack, a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.
THE DIVING BELL AND BUTTERFLY
Jean-Dominique Bauby
I re-read this book at some point pretty much every year. Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor of French Elle magazine, but he had a massive stroke that left him completely paralysed apart from the use of one eyelid.
He dictated this book by having an assistant repeatedly recite the whole alphabet, flicking his eyelid on the right letter. That’s reason enough to read it. But you should also read it because it’s beautiful, life-affirming writing that could change the way you think about everything.
THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY
GK Chesterton
I’m not usually one for twisty-turny spy novels, but this was a lot of fun. It’s about a spy who infiltrates an undercover group of anarchists in the early 20th Century and that’s probably about as much plot as I can give away without ruining it.
THE KITCHEN DISCO
Clare Foges and Al Murphy
The vast majority of books I’ve read this year have been written for under-3s, but I’m leaving most of them off my list because I want you to think I’m clever. The Kitchen Disco is a regular favourite in our house. It’s a catchy little rap about the secret life of your fruit and veg that you’ll find yourself singing long after bedtime.
WE FOUND A HAT
Jon Klassen
This is another bedtime favourite. Jon Klassen’s beautifully-illustrated story tells the tale of two passive-aggressive turtles who find a hat that they both like. I love the deadpan, terse little sentences it’s written in. A lot of tension for a kid’s book.
THE CHOICE FACTORY
Richard Shotton
Richard Shotton is an adman and a behavioural science expert. This book takes you through 25 behavioural biases that shape the decisions that we all make, with case-studies and experiments that explain them. Whether you work in marketing or not, it’s a super interesting insight into the human brain that can teach anyone a lot about effective communication.
WHY I AM NOT GOING TO BUY A COMPUTER
Wendell Berry
In the eighties, lots of Wendell Berry’s friends were recommending that he should get himself a word processor to speed up his writing. He refused, sticking steadfastly to a system of writing everything with a pencil, then having manuscripts typed up on a typewriter by his wife. This essay explains why – and raises a lot of interesting points for our computer-saturated times.
THE STORY OF THE STREETS
Mike Skinner
The Streets are still one of my most-listened on Spotify, which shows you that a. I’m stuck in 2007, and b. they really made some great music. This book tells you the story behind it.
MID-CENTURY MODERN GRAPHIC DESIGN
I’m not the only one who’s really feeling mid-century graphic styles at the moment. This delicious book has a great collection of record covers, posters, typography and advertisements, that will have you longing to rip your house apart and carefully rebuild it with the stuff your Grandparents had.
Tamara’s picks:
10 MINUTES, 38 SECONDS IN THIS STRANGE WORLD
Elif Shafak
Is reading a holiday read set in the country you’re holidaying in an act of extreme bookishness? Father, I have sinned. Turkish-British force of nature Elif Shafak writes words that are as beautiful and devastating as the country they’re set in. Reading ’10 mins…’ felt like opening a book of mirrors, each page reflecting the mystical twists of Istanbul. Worth it even if Turkey’s the last place on your mind.
MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION
Ottessa Moshfegh
Think your life’s a mess? Read this! The New Yorker called it “deeply insane” and they’re not wrong. 10/10 for enjoyment, 10/10 for lunacy.
MR SALARY
Sally Rooney
Apparently Sally Rooney evokes very peculiar feelings when people read her books. I’d never thought it until Mr Salary made reading on the tube feel like sitting in a bath filled with ice.
HOW TO USE GRAPHIC DESIGN TO SELL THINGS, EXPLAIN THINGS, MAKE THINGS LOOK BETTER, MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH, MAKE PEOPLE CRY, AND (EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE) CHANGE THE WORLD
Michael Beirut
A great design manifesto from a legendary designer: Michael Beirut, of Pentagram. Graphic Design really can do an awful lot. (Copywriting can make your book titles shorter).
Ed’s picks:
THE SPY AND THE TRAITOR
Ben Macintyre
If you like your wars cold, your spies busy putting microfilm under rocks, and everyone trying to get to Finland, this is absolutely the book for you. Someone called this ‘The best true spy story I’ve ever read’ and that someone was John Le Carré. Annoyingly, this book has an end.
THE BOY, THE MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSE
Charlie Mackesy
Prepare to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with a mole. This is a heart-warming book combining Charlie Mackesy’s delicious illustrations, edible words and just enough animal-delivered wisdom to get you thinking without feeling you’re being taught a lesson. It’s a wonderful world to lose yourself in over Christmas.
LOOK BIG: AND OTHER TIPS FOR SURVIVING ANIMAL ENCOUNTERS OF ALL KINDS
Rachel Levin
You just need to know this stuff. This book prepares you for real life, facing 50 of our most feared wild animals, including survival techniques, wildlife etiquette, and other essential advice.
BROAD BAND: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made The Internet
Claire L. Evans
The history of technology that always gets told is of sweaty blokes in garages and male maths geniuses. This book shines a light on the women who bought us the internet, from Ada Lovelace the Victorian programmer, to the cyberpunk Web designers of the 1990s.