What should I read next?
Insider #105 with this year's book list and a question to you.
Dear Insider reader,
(Note: This post has been updated to the end of the year and opened to all readers.)
This year I have read new writers in new genres. This year I have read new writers in familiar genres. I am re-reading a book that I read very long ago, to see if it feels the same or something more. This year I have read at least one book that will now be in my all-time top five.
It has been a great year for reading. And there are still three months to go!
The SneakyArt (Insider) Post is written for paid subscribers and super-fans of SneakyArt. Every Sunday, I offer a behind-the-scenes look at ongoing projects, a front-row seat to all events, and a backstage pass to my journey of self-education.
In today’s post, the book-list so far, and a question for you -
What should I read next?
🔪 Black River by Nilanjana Roy, the story of a murder in fast-developing India, was my first time reading a police procedural.
👑 The Last Queen by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a fantastic tale of the last queen of the Sikh Empire before it was swallowed up by the British Raj.
🚊 If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino is impossible to describe. It sent my mind spinning with revelations and revolutions.
🗽 The Lonely City by Olivia Laing has many interesting stories about artists who depicted modern urban loneliness. It is a great accompaniment to walking around New York City.
✌🏼 Victory City by Salman Rushdie is the first novel I have read by him. It is a fantastical reimagining of the story of the Vijayanagara Empire.
❤️ The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie is the best book I have read this year. As a fan of history and magical realism, I could not have picked up a more beautiful book. I think about it constantly.
My favourite quote of the year also comes from this book:
“The self may be royal, but it hungers like a pauper. [...] And it is a king imperilled, a sovereign forever at the mercy of many insurgents, of fear, for example, and anxiety, of isolation and bewilderment, of a strange unspeakable pride and a wild, silent shame. The self is beset by secrets, secrets eat at it constantly, secrets will tear down its kingdom and leave its sceptre broken in the dust.”
👾 Stories of your Life & Others by Ted Chiang is a collection of short stories ranging in theme from near-future sci-fi to historical fiction. Ted Chiang is my favourite author to imagine the near future.
🖼️ The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin is an essay from 1936 about the impact of cinema and recorded music on the idea of art. It influenced a series of essays in which I examined my own motivations as an artist and considered the role of art in the age of virtual reproduction.
🌎 The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin shows an incredible world with complex, flawed characters under great duress.
🌈 Reality is not what it Seems by Carlo Rovelli (my favourite science writer) is an entertaining history of how we have come to see and perceive our world, and the incredible ways that this understanding is evolving.
What should I read next?
⚖️ Logicomix by Apostolos Doxiadis is a graphic novel telling the story of celebrated thinker Bertrand Russell and his search for truth in rationalism.
🐦⬛ Last Comes the Raven by Italo Calvino is a collection of short stories with no beginning or end but certainly a middle. They are slice of life, or a slice of a moment, sometimes just a slice of a feeling.
☀️ Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro is an unnerving, heartwarming story of near-future science fiction that asks us to re-think what it means to be human, and how we relate to beings in our world.
🚢 Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is quite simply one of the most beautiful books ever written. It was a joy to read it the first time, and it was a privilege to read it again now that I am older.
📲 Psychopolitics by Byung-chul Han is a book of few words, which is rare in the case of philosophy. He speaks about the tyranny of the like button and the social media prison system called the ‘panopticon’. It helped me formulate ideas around escaping the panopticon of social media as an artist and writer.
📬 Post Office by Charles Bukowski is the second book of his autobiographical Chinaski trilogy. It is ugly and full of truth like the author, like the times to which he belonged, like the life that was given to him, like the ways he managed to live it. Bukowski is a great poet so he knows the value of every word. This book is also a reread.
I love to re-read my favourite books. How about you? Which book are you most likely to re-read?
Ohhh the luxury of reading books 😍.As an adult, I had to read No one writes to the Colonel for Spanish A Level - sooo difficult. I love audio books do they count? I'm a huge fan of teen dystopia, the stories are so easy to listen to in the car. I tried to listen to Iain M Banks, got a bit lost as I often have to re-read long descriptions, so that would be a bit fiddly whilst driving. My absolute favourite is Chaos Walking (the film is rubbish), which I have listened to twice. Then I've read Hunger Games and Maze Runner. Then there's a 6 book epic by Roderick Gordon called Tunnels, I wished it would never end. I wept openly on the Tube reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. More recently, I tend to watch telly or listen to stuff, I only pick up books on vacation. I'm looking forward to a slightly slower pace of life one day, where I can sit with a good story🌅
I think the best thing I've read as an artist is the book "Drawing From Within" by Nick and Diane Meglin. I read it at least once a year and always find something new.
Otherwise, here's my list of recs from 2021... some gems in there ;)
The DaVinci biography from Walter Isaacson is unbelievably good.
https://www.jasonchatfield.com/blog/2021-book-recommendations