Here is a non-exhaustive list of books I read in 2018. Almost all books I read electronically, the odd one I listen to as an audio book. I’d rather read the real thing, wouldn’t we all, but I consume so much material that it is just cheaper and easier to use my Kindle app. I’ve given away hundreds if not thousands of books over the years and every time it breaks my heart a little. These days I am judicious in the books I purchase in hard copy and keep on my tiny book shelf, if I really love one I read on Kindle I will buy it and add it to the collection.
January
The Bushman’s Bible – Dave Baldwin
Operational test: Honing the edge – David Gledhill
How to win friends and influence people in the digital age – Dale Carnegie (audio)
F-4 Phantom: A pilot’s story – Robert Prest
A modern classic of aviation, highly recommended? Prest writes beautifully.
Anti-natalism, rejectionist philosophy. From Buddhism to Benatar – Kenneth Coates
The miracle of Dunkirk – Walter Lord
How the mind works – Steven Pinker (audio and digital)
February
The selfish gene – Richard Dawkins
Thinking fast and slow – Daniel Kahneman
The Falklands War – Martin Middlebrook
RAF Harrier – ground attack Falklands – Jerry Pook
Forgotten voices of the Falklands War – Hugh McManners (audio)
March
To few too far – George Thomsen, Malcom Angel
Falklands Commando – Hugh McManners
April
This is a must read for anyone interested in the existential threat of nuclear war.
Raven Rock – Garret M. Graff (audio and print)
May
Crime and punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Gulag Archipelago – Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn (print)
The Big Picture: On the origins of life, meaning and the universe itself – Sean Carroll
June
438 Days: An extraordinary true story of survival at sea – Jonathan Franklin
Bringing Columbia home: The untold story of a lost Space Shuttle and her crew – Michael D. Leinbach
The happiness curve: Why life gets better after 50 – Jonathan Rauch
July
High desert reflections – Kevin Miller
Declared hostile – Kevin Miller
August
The limit: Ejection over the desert – Robert Prest
The man who mistook his wife for a hat – Oliver Sacks
Wider than the sky: The phenomenal gift of consciousness – Gerald Edelman
Second nature: Brain science and human knowledge – Gerald Edelman
Brilliant air brilliant fire: On the matter of the mind – Gerald Edelman
The last punisher: A SEAL team three sniper’s true account of the Battle of Ramadi – Kevin Lacz
September
The regiment: 15 years in the SAS – Rusty Firmin
Kisses from nimbus: From SAS to MI6 an autobiography – P. J. Riley
There is so much about this book I am sceptical of but it was an enjoyable read.
October
Guadalcanal diary – Richard Tregaskis
Tinker tailor soldier spy – John le Carré
Escape the wolf: Preemptive personal security handbook – Clinton Emerson
November
Discipline equals freedom: Field manual – Jocko Willink
Happy: Why more or less everything is absolutely fine – Derren Brown
