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Books of 2018

A rundown of my 5 favourite books from 2018, plus a few honourable mentions for good measure.

Mark Douthwaite

13 Jan 2020 — 3 min read

Here are my top five favourite books from 2018 in no particular order:

Pale Fire V. Nabokov, 1962
A novel split between a 999 line poem accompanied by a long literary commentary, this book probably doesn’t sound like a particularly gripping read. However, these two primary elements combine to produce one of the most unconventional and compelling novels I’ve ever read. If you’re a fan of meta-fiction, you should definitely give this a go. This is a literary equivalent to the films that demand to be re-watched to discover new details and cross-references.
Waterstones (UK), Amazon
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings E. A. Poe, 1839
Prior to reading this collection of Poe’s writings, I’d never been directly exposed to Poe’s work. I’d come across links elsewhere (in Lovecraft’s work, for example), and these links had intrigued me, but I never quite got around to actually reading any of his work. This collection of stories is good, though the quality and clarity of some pieces does vary here and there. The titular short-story was a standout. The imagery and atmosphere created by Poe was for me almost crystalline, and I still have lingering images of some of the events over six months later. This is true of a couple of the other stories in this collection too (The Pendulum and The Masque of the Red Death being particular favourites).
Waterstones (UK), Amazon
The Iliad Homer, circa 800BCE
The Iliad is one of those books that you essentially know the core themes and narrative without realising it, simply because so many later works draw very heavily from it. For it’s historical significance alone it is worth a read – but it’s a great bit of storytelling too. There’s also an interesting link to Guy Deutscher’s Through the Language Glass. That book is also worth a look if you’re interested in language and cognition.
Waterstones (UK), Amazon
Bhagavad Gita Anonymous, 300BCE-100CE
This book is actually a 700 verse Sanskrit scripture that is a subset of one of the great Hindu epics: The Mahabharata. It describes the discussions of the ancient Hindu prince Arjuna and Krishna, his charioteer (who is also an avatar of Lord Vishnu). The narrative revolves around a number of philosophical points related ostensibly to the rationale for Arjuna to go to war, but also links closely to more generic insights into other human struggles too. The climax of the narrative introduces some fascinating imagery around Time and Divinity that will stay with me for a while.
Waterstones (UK), Amazon
Neuromancer W. Gibson, 1984
I was torn on whether to include this book in my top 5. In many ways Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness is a more polished book that explores some still quite unconventional ideas in a very interesting way, and it may be better deserving of the spot. However, I am a big fan of cyberpunk, and somehow this book simply resonated with me more at the time. Plus, alongside Blade Runner, this book kickstarted the cyberpunk aesthetic, so it’s a must read for me for that reason alone.
Waterstones (UK), Amazon