2009 in review--Books

Books read in 2009... (reverse chronological order of books on completion of reading)

The First Emperor of China (Frances Wood)

Treason by the Book (Jonathan D. Spence)

Principia Ethica (G.E. Moore)

The Rights of Man (Thomas Paine)

Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods (Jean Bottéro, translated by Zainab Bahrani and Marc Van de Mieroop)

Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images (David Morgan)

The Historical Buddha: The Times, Life, and Teachings of the Founder of Buddhism (H.W. Schumann, translated by M. O'C. Walshe)

Barbarians and Mandarins: Thirteen Centuries of Western Travellers in China (Nigel Cameron)

A Panorama of Ancient Chinese Architecture in Shanxi (Wang Senhao)

The Bomb: A Life (Gerard DeGroot)

Worlds Within: The Japanese Home (MK Shankar)

Adorning the Empress (May Holdsworth)

Bamboo (Trea Wiltshire)

The Long March Back (Peter Moss)

Art Nouveau (Mario Amaya)

Very Bad Deaths (Spider Robinson)

Satan: The Early Christian Tradition (Jeffrey Burton Russell)

Mathematics in Art (Michael Holt)

Japanese Stencils (Rupert Faulkner)

Democracy: Past and Furture (Pierre Rosanvallon, edited and translated by Samuel Moyn)

Last Days of the Buddha [The Maha Parinibbana Sutta] (translated by Sister Vajira & Francis Story)

Neuruppiner Bilderboggen (Lisa Riedel)

Ludwigsburg: Geschter einer Stadt (Alke Hollwedel)

Otto Dix (Dietrich Schubert)

Die vier Ludwigsburger Literaten (Andrea Fix)

Ueberbrueckt: Aesthetische Moderne und Nationalsozialimus Kunsthistoriker un Kuenstler 1925-1937 (Eugen Blume, Dieter Scholz)

Cathedral of our Lady Strasbourg (Dr. Hugo Schnell, Dr. Johannes Steiner)

A Collection of Works by David Gerrold: The Involuntary Human (David Gerrold)

Tides of War (Steven Pressfield)

Stained-Glass Windows: Strasbourg Cathedral (Simon Schultz, Jean-Baptiste Ritt)

Otto Dix: Zwischer Paradies und Unterfanf (Dieter Buchhart, Hartwig Knack)

Neuruppin: In alten Alben geblaettert (Hansjoerg Albrecht)

The Pregnant King (Devdutt Pattanaik)

Gorgias (Plato, translated by Walter Hamilton)

The Peloponnesian War (Thucydides, translated by Rex Warner)

The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia (Frances Wood)

The Essence of Tao (Pamela Ball)

Hieronymus Bosch (Walter S. Gibson)

Shuang Lin Si Cai Su ()

Pingyao China (Zhang Guo Tian)

The Ancient City of Pingyao (Shao Heng, translated by Ren Ying)

Longmen Grotto (Liu Jing Long)

Jacquard's Web: How a hand loom led to the birth of the information age (James Essinger)

The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe (Valerie Flint)

Power and Charity: A Chinese Merchant Elite in Colonial Hong Kong (Elizabeth Sinn)

Buddhism in China (Ling Haicheng, translated by Jin Shaoqing)

Islam in China (Mi Shoujiang & You Jia, translated by Min Chang)

History of Tibetan Religion -- A Study in the Field (Li An-Che)

Thangka Paintings: An Illustrated Manual of the Tibetan Epic Gesar (Jambian Gyamco, translated by Zhou Aiming)

Principles and Elements of Medieval Church Architecture in Western Europe (Michel Henry-Claude, Laurence Stefanon, Yannick Zaballos: translated by Beryl Degans)

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures (Ann Fadiman)

Towards the Light: The Story of the the Struggles for Liberty & Rights that made the Modern West (A.C. Grayling)

Spinoza Selections (Baruch Spinzoa, edited by John Wild)

The Rise of Confucian Ritualism in Late Imperial China: Ethics, Classics, and Lineage Discourse (Kai-wing Chow)

The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History (Jeffrey Burton Russell)

The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity (Jeffrey Burton Russell)

The Lure of China: Writers from Marco Polo to J.G. Ballard (Frances Wood)

Anglo-China: Chinese People and British Rule in Hong Kong, 1841-1880 (Christopher Munn)

Through the Looking Glass: China's Foreign Journalists from Opium Wars to Mao (Paul French)

Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy (Chandradhar Sharma)

Notes of a Dirty Old Man (Charles Bukowski)

Perspectives on the Yi of Southwest China (Stevan Harrell, editor)

Folk Customs at Traditional Chinese Festivals (Foreign Languages Press)

Paper Joss: Deity Worship Through Folk Prints (Wang Shucun)

China's Living Houses: Folk Beliefs, Symbols, and Household Ornamentation (Ronald G. Knapp)

Mountain Folks in Yunnan: Selected Photographs of Wu Jialin (Wang Zhiping, Deng Qizao, and Xiao Jingzhi)

A Pictorial Journey on the Old Mekong: Cambodia, Laos, and Yunnan (Louis Delaporte and Francis Garnier, translated by Walter E.J. Tips)

Will the boat sink the water? The Life of China's Peasants (Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao, translated by Zhu Hong)

The Baisha Frescoes in Lijiang County (Li Xi)

Hunting and Rituals: Treasures from the Ancient Dian Kingdom of Yunnan (Various Writers, Hong Kong Museum of History and Cultural Department of Yunnan Province)

Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang (Zhao Ziyang, tranlstated by Bao Pu, Renee Chang, and Adi Ignatius)

Cassell's World History of Warfare (Holger Herwig, Christon Archer, Timothy Travers, and John Ferris)

The Penguin Book of Great Military Writing (John Keegan)

The Dictionary of Battles (David Chandler)

Chinese Chess for Beginners (Alex Liu)

The Master of Go (Yasunari Kawabata, translated by Edward G. Seidensticker)

On War (General Carl von Clausewitz, translated by Colonel J.J. Graham)

The Arthashastra (Kautiliya, translated and rearranged by L.N. Rangarajan)

The Art of War (Sun Tzu, translated by Ralpgh D. Sawyer)

Go Rin No Sho [The Book of Five Rings] (Miyamoto Mushashi, translated by Victor Harris)

Icônes (Jean Marcadé, Christophe Walter)

The Origins of Christian Art (Michael Gough)

Impressionism (Phoebe Pool)

The Six Day War of 1899: Hong Kong in the Age of Imperialism (Patrick H. Hase)

Buddhist Symbols in Tibetan Culture (Dagyab Rinpoche)

Earth, Air, Fire and Custard (Tom Holt)

Paint Your Dragon (Tom Holt)

Chinese Junks and Other Native Craft (Ivon A. Donnelly)

Fleet of Worlds (Larry Niven, Edward M. Lerner)

Breakfast at Tiffany's (Truman Capote)

Geometric Concepts in Islamic Art (Issam El-Said, Ayse Parman)

Public Success, Private Sorrow: The Life and Times of Charles Henry Brewitt-Taylor (1857-1938), China Customs Commissioner and Pioneer Translator (Isidore Cyril Cannon)

After the Galleons: Foreign Trade, Economic Change and Entrepreneurship in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines (Benito J. Legarda, Jr.)

Hong Kong Internment, 1942-1945: Life in the Japanese Civilian Camp at Stanley (Geoffrey Charles Emerson)

At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances (from the 2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom Von Igelfeld Trilogy) (Alexander McCall Smith)

The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs (from the 2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom Von Igelfeld Trilogy) (Alexander McCall Smith)

Portugese Irregular Verbs (from the 2 1/2 Pillars of Wisdom Von Igelfeld Trilogy) (Alexander McCall Smith)

The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbolism and Motifs (Robert Beer)

Ballads of a Cheechako (Robert W. Service)

Watching over Hong Kong: Private Policing 1841-1941 (Sheilah E. Hamilton)

A Path of Hope: An Autobiography (Lech Walesa)

Kunst und Geschichte: Altertum (H. Luckenbach)

Taj Mahal (Heera Nand Aswani)

Wordsworth & Coleridge: Lyrical Ballads (edited by R.L. Brett and A.R. Jones)

Guide to the Summer Palace (Administration Office of the Summer Palace)

Kenopanisad (anonymous, one of the Upanishads, the body of Vedic liturgical and moral literature)

The Print in the North, The Age of Albrecht Dürer and Lucas van Leyden)

Ravenne, Un Guide Artistique (Antonio Paolucci)

Gai Institutiones (Institutes of Roman Law by Gaius) (Gaius, translated by Edward Poste)

Corpus Iurus Civilis: Institutiones (The Institutes of Justinian from the Body of Civil Law) (Tribonian, translated by John Baron Moyle)

The Law of the Sea (R.R. Churchill, A.V. Lowe)

Contemporary Issues in the Law of Treaties (Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Olufemi Elias)

Modern Treaty Law and Practice (Anthony Aust)

Wings of Fire, an autobiography (Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, Arun Tiwari)

Treasures of Indian Art: Germany's Tribute to India's Cultural Heritage (Raffael Dedo Gadebusch, Regina Hickmann, Heino Kottkamp, & Marianne Yaldiz))

The Journey of a Moment in Time... Rhagu Rhai, A Retrospective (Michael E. Hoffman, François Hébel, Norman Hall, & Raghu Rai)

Symbolism and Geometry in Indian Art (Rupika Chawla)

Treasury of Indian Tales (Shankar)

Tales from Indian Classics (Savitri)

Petit Guide de Rome pour les Pèlerins du Vingt-cinquième Jubilé (Edité par le Bureau de Presse du Comité Central de l'Année Sainte)

Elephanta (George Michell)

The Story of India (Michael Wood)

An Autobiography or The Story of my experiments with truth (Mohandas Karamchad Gandhi translated by Mahadev Desai)

Rediscovering Gandhi (Yogesh Chadha)

Environmental Health Policy (David Ball)

Environmental Epidemiology (edited by Paul Wilkinson)

Medical Anthropology (Robert Pool and Wenzel Geissler)

Global Change and Health (edited by Kelly Lee and Jeff Collin)

Controlling Communicable Disease (Norman Noah)

Issues in Public Health (edited by Joceline Pomerleau and Martin McKee)

Andrew Marvell: Selected Poems (Edited by G.D.H. & M.I. Cole)

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969

L'Europe del diritto commune (The Common Legal Past of Europe: 1000-1800) (Manlio Bellomo translated by Lydia G. Cochrane)

European Legal History (O.F. Robinson, T.D. Fergus, and W.M. Gordon)

The Chinese: Lu Yuanmin Photographs (Editors Li Mei and Yuan Yi-zhong)

The Chinese: Liu Zheng Photographs (Editors: Li Mei and Yuan Yi-zhong)

Forbidden City (Frances Wood)

The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes: The True Story of a Forgotten Hero in Wellington's Army (Mark Urban)

Chinese Calligraphy: An Introduction to Its Aesthetic and Technique (Chiang Yee)

The Aeneid of Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro "Virgil" verse translation by Allen Mandelbaum)

Beijing Hutong 101 Photos: The vanished or vanishing Beijing (Xu Yong)

Old Hong Kong: 1860 - 30 June 1997 (Trea Wiltshire)

Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China (Paul Theroux)

Passing Shadows: Hong Kong (Peter Moss)

A Sense of Place: Hong Kong West of Pottinger Street (Edited by Veronica Pearson and Ko Tim-keung)

City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City (Greg Girard, Ian Lambot)

The Manchu Dragon: Costumes of the Ch'ing Dynasty 1644-1912 (Jean Mailey)

Clonmacnois (Kenneth MacGowan)

Gamla Uppsala from ancient to modern time (Tore Littmarck)

Heliga Birgitta (Saint Birgitta) (Bengt Z Norström translated by Tord Harlin)

Medeltidsmalningarna i Gamla Uppsala kyrka (The mediaeval paintings in the church of Old Uppsala) (Bengt Z Norström translated by Tord Harlin)

Along the Royal Roads to Angkor (Yoshiaki Ishizawa)

Angkor: An Introduction to the Temples (Dawn Rooney)

Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides (Aeschylus translated and with an introduction by Richard Lattimore)

Power Sharing and International Mediation in Ethnic Conflicts (Timothy D. Sisk)

The Hidden War: A Russian Journalist's Account of the Soviet War in Afghanistan (Artyom Borovik)

The Penguin Book of the Middle Ages (Morris Bishop)

Utas és holdvilág (Journey by Moonlight) (Antal Szerb translated by Len Rix) (Utterly fantastic novel)

Tehanu (Ursula LeGuin) (Read aloud! The experiment continues... eventually she'll agree to listen to Pardise Lost...)

Einhard and Notker the Stammerer: Two Lives of Charlemagne (Einhard and Notker the Stammerer, translated (and an introduction) by Lewis Thorpe)

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (unknown author, translated (and an introduction) by C.W.R.D. Moseley)

The Nasty Bits (Anthony Bourdain)

Second Foundation (Isaac Asimov)

Foundation and Empire (Isaac Asimov)

Foundation (Isaac Asimov)

Xi'an, Shaanxi and the Terracotta Army (Paul Mooney, Catherine Maudsley, Gerald Hatherly)

The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History (Colin McEvedy)

China Baoji (Zhao Yaping)

The Farthest Shore (Ursula LeGuin) (Read aloud! The experiment continues... eventually she'll agree to listen to Pardise Lost...)

The Penguin Atlas of Ancient History (Colin McEvedy)

The Silent Landscape: In the wake of HMS Challenger 1872-1876 (Richard Corfield)

Thomas Telford (L.T.C. Rolt)

The Chi Lin Nunnery: A Tang Dynasty Timber Monastery (Chi Lin Nunnery)

In Your Dreams (Tom Holt)

Faust Among Equals (Tom Holt)

Flying Dutch (Tom Holt)

The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols (Robert Beer)

Tropic of Cancer (Henry Miller)

Buying a Fishing Rod for my Grandfather (Gao Xingjian translated by Mabel Lee)

Shadrach (Meindert De Jong)

Women Empowered: Inspiring Change in the Emerging World (Phil Borges)

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Roald Dahl)

The Law of the Sea: United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea from the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea)

Articles of Agreement: International Monetary Fund (International Monetary Fund)

being caribou (Karsten Heuer)

The Dragon and the Crown: Hong Kong Memoirs (Stanley S.K. Kwan with Nicole Kwan) (Yes, Stanley is the gentleman who created the Hang Seng Index...)

Manual on International Courts and Tribunals (Philippe Sands, Ruth Mackenzie, Yuval Shany)

International Dispute Settlement (4th Ed.) (J.G. Merrills)

Exploring Traditional Chinese Festivals in China (Gai Guoliang)

hardboiled / hard luck (Banana Yoshimoto, translated by Michael Emmerich)

Down all the days (Christy Brown)

Giovanni Boccaccio (British Library Reference Division)

A Chinese Garden Court: The Astor Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Alfreda Murck, Wen Fong))

Stained Glass (Michael Archer)

Cheung Chau Dog Fancier's Society (Alan B. Pierce)

Indigenous Peoples in International Law (S. James Anaya)

Chinese Fairy Tales (Jeanyee Wong)

The Ascent of Nanda Devi (Harold William Tilman)

Robert Service Under the Spell of the Yukon (Enid Mallory)

Colour in Early Russian Icon Painting (Mikhail Alpatov)

Architecture for Islamic Societies Today (James Steele, editor)

Trésor de l'Egypte par Samivel (Samivel)

Across the Tibetan Plateau: Ecosystems, Wildlife, and Conservation (Robert L. Fleming, Jr., Dorje Tsering, and Liu Wulin)

Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past (Paul Cartledge)

Saint Mark: The Life and the Mosaics (Antonio Niero)

L'art ornamental: Mosaïques de Saint-Marc a Venise (Sergio Bettini)

The Potala (Tibetan Administrative Office of the Potala)

Protectionism (Jagdish Bhagwati)

Losing Control? Sovereignty in an Age of Globalisation (Saskia Sassen)

Le Foie gras (Elvira Masson)

Jonathon Strange & Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke)

To End A War (Richard Holbrooke)

The Great Wall (John Man)

Blink (Malcolm Gladwell)

The Tombs of Atuan (Ursula LeGuin) (Read aloud, an experiment in progress...)

Art and Architecture Venice (Marion Kaminski)

The Gift of Rain (Tan Twan Eng)

Experimental Travel (Rachael Antony & Joël Henry)

The Emperor of Scent (Chandler Burr)

Roman Law in European History (Peter Stein)