Some top reads of 2008

Estates by Lynsey Hanley (see photo)

Surprising, touching personal history of social housing in Britain. Manages to be polemic and sweet at the same time.

Fire and Steam: How the Railways Transformed Britain by Christain Wolmar

Brilliant, page-turning history of the railways. Just don’t tell anyone that it was what I was reading most at Glastonbury this year.

Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere by Jan Morris

Have wanted to read this for ages. Just the sort of meandering, part-travel, part-history, part-memoir that I love and my wife thinks is just silly. It just makes me pine for holidays…

The Discovery of France by Graham Robb

When I heard that the author researched much of his epic, monumental but very human history of France en velo, is was there in a flash. I read it in France, of course.

Utopian Dreams by Tobias Jones

Jones’ The Dark Heart of Italy is one of my very favourite books of the last few years so I was always ken to read this. It has its moments but it’s just not Jones’ thing, really, the soul-searching travel in the mind kind of thing. Was thought-provoking, though and I’m in full argreement with his dislike of excessive material comforts. Where did I put my smartphone?

Corvus: A Life with Birds by Esther Woolfson

Beguiling, utterly bewitching beautiful hymn to birds. Deserves a fuller mention on this blog, which it'll get soon.

My Revolutions by Hari Kunzru

Fiction, whaa? Yup, but of the agitprop, political sort. The other (and much less embarrassing and fitting) book that I read at Glastonbury. Fight the power.