Books

I love books. I love their smell, density, feel. And I like reading them. There was a time when I couldn't resist the temptation of buying books, including books that I then never read. Now I only buy books that I am pretty confident I am going to read.

If you click on the button list that you see on the top-left corner of this page, you will see the list of books I currently have. I actually keep a list of all the books I read, but you will not see it here. I started keeping a log in 1991. Although there have been variations over the years, it has emerged that I read predominantly in English (~91.9% of the pages I read). If I find something interesting written in Italian (~7.5%), or German (~0.4%), I try to read it in its original language, although I haven't been completely consistent. I can also read French, but I have only read 344 pages since I started keeping a record. I suppose, it is not just a matter of language, but more in general of culture. What interests me comes most of the times from the USA. I have mixed feelings about it, but that's how it is.

In any case, between January 1st 1991 and December 31st, 2008, I read (or started but not completed reading [yet]) 784 books, for a total of more than 230,000 pages. In 2008, I read 57 books, for a total of 19,594 pages. 5,583 pages (22 books) were of non-fiction, 7,619 pages (17 books) of general fiction, and the remaining 6,392 pages (19 books) of science fiction. Here is the list of the 22 non-fiction books. The books listed with a white background are those I borrowed from a library and don't actually own. Click on the list button for a description of the categories.

1	The Anatomy of Judgement	M.L.J.Abercrombie	Mind
2	Vicious Circles and Infinity	Patrick Huges, George Brecht	Sci
3	The New Penguin History of the World	J.M.Roberts	Hist
4	Inside the Mind of Gene Roddenberry	Yvonne Fern	ST
5	Giant Leap - Mankind heads for the Stars	Adrian Berry	Fut
6	Fact or Fission?	Richard Broinowski	Arm
7	Poincaré's Prize	George G.Szpiro	Sci
8	A Decent Proposal	Rhonda Whitton, S.Hollingworth	Wri
9	Chew on This	Eric Schlosser, Charles Wilson	Soc
10	Physics of the Impossible	Michio Kaku	Sci
11	The Long Tail	Chris Anderson	Soc
12	Heroes of Tobruk	David Mulligan	Hist
13	The Elements of Style	W.Strunk, E.B.White	Wri
14	In Search of Schrödinger's Cat	John Gribbin	Sci
15	Brotherhood of the Bomb	Gregg Herken	Arm
16	I am not Spock	Leonard Nimoy	ST
17	Neither here Nor there	Bill Bryson	Soc
18	I am Spock	Leonard Nimoy	ST
19	Linked - The new Science of Networks	Albert-László Barabási	Sci
20	L'Italia invasa	Gianni Rocca	Hist
21	From Computer to Brain	William W.Lytton	Sci
22	The Atheist Manifesto	Michael Onfray	Soc