Reading in 2011

Here's the roundup of books I read in 2011. First the books that I would strongly recommend. "Brief Interviews..." has the most number of laugh-out-loud moments of any book I've read in recent memory. Cat's Cradle, even making allowance for the fact that I'm a Vonnegut groupie, is a must-read. Sirens of Titan, I thought, is among his most under-rated works. If you are a fan of Douglas Adams you'll enjoy the obvious inspirations for HHGG. If you are remotely interested in healthcare or medicine, you'll enjoy both the non-fiction recommendations at the bottom of this list.

• Brief Interviews With Hideous Men - David Foster Wallace
• The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
• Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
• Bad Science - Ben Goldacre
• The Emperor of All Maladies - Siddhartha Mukherjee

Here are the second tier of recommendations 

• Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
• The Price of Civilization - Jeffrey Sachs
• The Great Stagnation - Tyler Cowen
• A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
• The Woman who Walked into Doors - Roddy Doyle
• How Much Should a Person Consume? - Ramachandra Guha
• Gandhi the Man - Eknath Easwaran

While last year I deliberately went out of my normal picks to try some science fiction, this year I read my first graphic novel.

• Batman - The Long Halloween

Then there were books that make too much of an impression

• The Bad Girl - Mario Vargas Llosa
• From Yeravda Mandir - M.K. Gandhi

And finally, the books that I, for various reasons, just couldn't finish

• The Innovator's Prescription - Clayton M. Christensen
• The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker
• The First and Last Freedom - J.Krishnamurti
• The Squeeze: Oil, Money and Greed in the 21st Century - Tom Bower