Books read during 2013

I’ve read 12 books in 2013 – all of them on my Kindle. I started the year with a plain, ordinary Kindle; then upgraded to a Kindle Fire (which my wife Margaret liked so much that I gave it to her) and I upgraded again to a Kindle Fire HD. This is such a good-value tablet and you can also use it to watch TV and Skype (as it has a forward-facing camera).

Kindle is a really good way to read books, but now that I have retired and my reading time will not be on a commuter train, I’ll have a bit more space and won’t have to carry the book around London with me, so I’ll be able to read some of those heavier, bigger books that have been sitting on my shelf for some time, but I’ll still read more on my Kindle.

Osman’s Dream by Caroline Finkel

I was reading this as we entered 2013 and I’d been trawling away at it for weeks. It was hard going. I like my history and a lot of the books I’ve read recently have been academic, but easy reading. I found Finkel a real struggle, but the subject was interesting (although it would have been more interesting if Tom Holland had written it).

I’ve read a few books concerning wars with the Ottomans and my view of them has been pretty much the same as Christian Europe – they were the enemy at the gate, the destroyer of Byzantium, invader, enslaver and alien. After looking at the Ottomans from the opposite trenches of history, I thought I should cross no-man’s land and spend some time revising my perspective.

The book taught me a great deal, although I really needed to view some maps to understand the geography better and here’s a case where the Kindle’s inability to render maps in a good format has meant that I found it much more difficult to follow what’s happening or understand the scale of achievements. The book is long and it’s rather heavy going, not helped by names being unfamiliar and difficult to pronounce, so the temptation is to bleep over them. I would have liked more summary and analysis of periods and themes, but the book plods on chronologically, leaving you to summarise yourself.

It’s fascinating how the Ottomans were quick to harness the cutting-edge technology of warfare - particularly cannon and crack troops (the janissaries), but failed to maintain that technological advantage. In particular, they failed to build a dominant naval force, preferring to franchise that role to a bunch of able, but violent pirates. They came unstuck at Lepanto when floating Venetian gun platforms devastated their rowed galleys, but didn’t learn the lesson.

Their land advantage lasted longer than it should have done mainly due to the divisions and rivalries among their enemies, with Christian kings happy to use the Ottomans to defeat their Christian rivals. When the tide did turn and Ottoman rulers tried to reform the military, they were blocked by vested interests. It didn’t take much to prompt a janissary revolt and as the corps developed from a force comprising Christians converted to Islam to a force where converts were not allowed, which allowed the janissaries to use religious excuses for opposing reform.

The empire’s economic structure meant it was almost always bankrupt, especially when they ran out of rich neighbours to conquer. What is interesting is that many Christians (especially those at the bottom of the heap) were often happier to live under an Islamic absolute ruler than they were as virtual serfs under a Christian regime.

The British have fought wars with most countries in the world, but we rarely came into conflict with the Ottomans; indeed – they were seen as a useful power to block the rise of the Russian empire. Finkel is clearly pro-Ottoman, which isn’t a bad thing, but I did find it uncomfortable that she didn’t seem to address the issues of slavery or acts which could be viewed as war crimes. The Ottoman empire traded in slaves for too long after western European countries – led by Britain – had outlawed the practice, but no judgment is made on this.

I would have liked to have read some analysis and conclusion on the cruelty of the Ottoman wars, especially in Greece and the Balkans, where a legacy of intense hatred remains to this day. The creation of modern Turkey also saw ethnic cleansing on a massive scale. Who knows, maybe millions were killed, but Finkel virtually dismisses this as unproven in scale. It seemed to me as if, being resident in Turkey, she had chosen not to enter this no-go area. If that’s the case, she was the wrong person to write the book.

Justin Marozzi

South from Barbary – Justin Marozzi

I’ve read Justin Marozzi on Heroditus (The Man Who Invented History) and on Tamurlaine (Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World) and he combines two of my favourite genres – history and travel writing. Marozzi's USP is that he walks the land that his historical figures walked and looks at what remains of their legacy. It's a neat trick.

In this book, Marozzi attempts to recreate journeys of camel trains from the interior to the north African coast and he attempts it by camel, even though he has never ridden or led a camel before.

The journey is across Gadaffi's Libya, which is a pretty tricky journey, but he passes deep into the interior and visits cities, towns and oases that are ancient, but much changed in modern Libya. Gadaffi's attempts to modernise have destroyed much and, though a process of dogma and corruption, have left people considerably worse off. Much of it is a sad commentary on political failure and makes you think that we'd be better off without government and rulers.

Marozzi gets his camels and the difficulties he has with them and worries about their welfare, also his developing love for them, is a key part of the book. He also meets some amazing guides and honest, open people who restore your faith in humanity and perhaps give hope that this country will one day be a happy and safe place to live in.

Of course, being an Englishman, he also befriends and feeds a dog, which is called Tuna, and this accompanies him on part of his journey before mysteriously disappearing in one of the larger towns. We'd like to think the dog found a good home, but more likely it was shot.

This is more of a travel book than a history lesson, but Marozzi does cover the history of this part of the world through Carthaginian, Roman, Arab and European colonization. The caravan routes he was attempting to travel were principally used to bring captured slaves from the interior of Africa to the Mediterranean ports to be traded in the Ottoman empire. Their journey would have been on foot, not riding camels, and it would have been incredibly harsh and cruel.

I really enjoyed the book, looking forward to his next one.

House of Earth – Woody Guthrie

I’ve listened to many Woody Guthrie songs, he’s a great writer – but not of novels.

This book, about poor farmers trying to make it against the power and vested interest of banks and the landowners, goes nowhere very slowly. It has one of the more embarrassing and badly written sex scenes that I’ve ever read, which is also right at the beginning of the book and kind of colours your view of the whole work.

Poor man against the big machine: Guthrie is on the side of the poor man, but he’s dogged by his own dogma and we’re used to a more balanced and structured argument these days. If you want downtrodden farmers struggling to survive read Steinbeck, who is a better writer by far.

This is an awful book and if it hadn’t been written by Woody Guthrie it would never have seen the light of day.

23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism – Ha-Joon Chang

Is capitalism the best way to run the world? Ha-Joon thinks it is, but he has some reservations about it as well, which are aired in this book. He writes very engagingly (unexpected for an economist) and this list-type format, although perhaps laboured at times, does a good job in keeping the subject interesting to non-experts and also adds a conspiratorial tone. Why he has chosen 23 and not a nice round number like 25 is beyond me – couldn’t he have found another two?

For someone who doesn’t think about capitalism a great deal (I just get on with it), there was plenty to start thinking about. His views on protectionism in trade had some interesting historical perspectives – would the US have gained the industrial strength it has if it had not been able to protect its infant industries in a way that’s denied to many developing countries today?

Are shareholders the best people to say how a company is run? There was an interesting perspective on the short-term approach to investments demanded by many shareholders and the difficulties this presents to companies trying to take a more strategic long-term view.

Some of this was serious economics, some more popularist, such as his challenge of the importance of the internet (often feted as the most important invention of the 20th Century). Ha-Joon suggests the washing machine has had more impact (and labour-saving kitchen devices in general) because it has freed women from domestic drudgery and allowed them to take their economic place in the workforce and economy. The telegraph was a more substantial leap as it shaved weeks off communication, while the internet bettered it only by half an hour or so.

This book won’t foment a revolution, but it will give you pause for thought on some subjects where you may think your opinions are already formed and others where you just haven’t considered the issues.

Winter is coming - Sean Bean in Game of Thrones

A Game of Thrones – George RR Martin

A Clash of Kings – George RR Martin

A Storm of Swords – George RR Martin

A Feast for Crows– George RR Martin

A Dance with Dragons – George RR Martin

You’ll see that I’ve had a bit of a blitz on the works of George RR Martin, in particular his seven-part series (still two unwritten) called A Song of Ice and Fire.

Max recommended this to me some time ago and Lucy has also read all the books. I decided to read them after watching some of the televised series at Sam’s and recording the third series from Sky. Some of these books are in two parts, so I’ve invested a lot of time in George RR Martin this year, much to the scorn of Tom, who feels that I could have better spent that time reading a ‘decent’ writer.

I don’t think that Martin is a bad writer, but I know what Tom means. These books have the echoes of many other writers’ ideas, from Anne McCaffrey’s Drangonsong books, through Tolkien and even Bernard Cornwell.

If not wholly original in some of the themes, the story is original in its scale; and even if the writing is popularist (lots of sex and violence), you have to admire Martin’s narrative skills.

I liked the idea of telling the story in stitched sequences experienced by the various characters, so each chapter heading is a character’s name and covers a section of the story as it affects them.

I also liked the fact that Martin is not at all afraid to kill off characters – even his principal characters. He does it consistently; even to those people who you have started to believe will be the ultimate hero/saviour. Sometimes I’m annoyed that he’s killed people who are my favourites, but I have to admire his bravery.

I particularly like two of his characters – the dwarf Tyrion Lannister and also Ayra Stark. Both of these have developed into fascinating subjects, especially Ayra. So I enjoyed my Martin books, but the problem is that there are still two to go and the story has been left hanging in several areas. I suspect that Martin has taken a big fat cheque from HBO for the TV rights and he’s not going to release any more books until the TV series has caught up. That’s likely to be a couple of years; also, I wonder how much editorial control Martin now has (or wants). Has the ending he envisaged been influenced by television money? Certainly some of the events in the TV series are quite different (or a degree different) from the book.

I wanted Jon Snow to be the hero, I thought Brandon might gain powers over the Others, I’ve warmed towards Jamie Lannister, but it’s not looking good for any of them right now and (frankly) anyone knows dragons are not to be trusted.

The Uses of Literacy – Richard Hoggart

Hard for me to know what to make of this uniformly lauded work by Hoggart, an academic from a working class background.

He spends the first half of the book defining and describing the working class. We all recognise the term today, but no-one would recognise the people he classifies as ‘working’.

Nowadays, lots of people say “I’m working class” because they don’t consider themselves rich and they also work for a living. In the 21st century, class is a bit more complicated than that. I recognise people Hoggart defines as working class from my childhood and I know people like that don’t exist any longer.

I found myself increasingly annoyed at the author for the detached and (I felt) patronising way he looked at the working class – almost as if he was studying a lower life form. He managed to do that, but also add a dollop of nostalgia, which made his attitude much worse. He was also focused entirely on the industrial north of England as if the south or the countryside didn’t have a working class at all. Maybe it didn’t for all Hoggart knew, but as an academic talking about Britain, he ought to have ventured to do a little research outside his own sphere of knowledge (anecdotal) and understanding.

The second half of his book looks at popular culture and here the academic Hoggart is damning and belittling. If I want to read George RR Martin (and watch Game of Thrones on TV), I bloody well will! There was no Game of Thrones when Hoggart wrote this, but he zeroes in on popular culture - songs and literature - and damns its qualities.

Personally, I think it’s better that people read trash than read nothing. I can’t start to think what Hoggart would have made of 500 TV channels showing Come Dine With Me, I’m a Celebrity and Made in Essex; or people immersed in video games stealing cars, killing people and having sex (all virtually, of course).

Hoggart thought it would be bad, but he didn’t realise the half of it. And, at the end of the day, who is Hoggart to tell people what they should read or judge what they consume? This book has been overtaken by events and today, it is as outdated as a 1950s atlas of the world.

Cricket – a Modern Anthology – Jonathan Agnew

Cricket is a unique game. Tactically, it's as complex as chess and it's also a team game which depends upon a linked series of individual skills. Also, it stands out among sports as having a requirement of fair play, of playing the game not only to the rules but also in the right spirit. That's not always interpreted properly these days - especially in the professional game - which is a great shame, but it remains a key tenet of cricket.

If you've watched cricket and other sports over a period of time, you understand that cricket produces more drama and great stories than any other sport (with the possible exception of motorcycle racing), so it's no surprise that it also attracts some great writing and reporting.

This book, compiled by BBC Test Match Special commentator (and former England and Leicestershire fast bowler) Jonathan Agnew (Aggers), contains some of the best writing and some of the most dramatic moments in the game worldwide.

Unless you're a cricket fan, this book will be pretty grim reading, but if you do enjoy the game or have more than a passing interest, then it's full of great memories, moments and anecdotes.

Fat Chance, The Bitter Truth About Sugar – Dr Robert Lustig

This book is changing, or at least I hope it's changing my life. It has certainly given me a fresh perspective on what I am eating.

I bought the book after reading a New York Times article about the health dangers of sugar, which quoted heavily from works by Lustig.

The book is about obesity and its causes and Lustig has little doubt that sugar (excess sugar consumption) is to blame.

As I was reading the book, I started to look more closely at the amount of sugar in foods. It was staggering. The pro-biotic health yogurt drink I had each morning actually contained 11g of sugar, the same as you'd find in a Twirl chocolate bar. I was stunned, I don't take sugar in my tea, why would I want it in my yogurt?

The food industry adds sugar to everything, it's impossible to avoid and it's in the most unlikely foods (even savoury foods). I'm trying to limit my sugar intake to 30g per day (half of what the government recommended allowance is for men) and the only way to achieve that is to prepare your own food.

So my retirement diet now includes a limit on sugar as well as a calorie count and also a target of 25g of fibre per day. I also aim to have four alcohol-free days per week, but that's proving rather more difficult than the sugar and the fibre!