my reading list for 2020

This year, in terms of reading, was rather fruitful and diversified (blame Covid for that!) And also it was boring, haha! Look at my reading list, if you are curious. A good part of the list is Russian translations from English fiction, and the rest is original Russian editions which not necessarily may have an English translations.

Oh, and also let we alert you, that we have a Books community on the Hive:

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History / История

Михаил Пыляев. "Старый Петербург"
Михаил Пыляев. "Забытое прошлое окрестностей Петербурга"

These books are a very pleasant reading: sketches on the origin and life of St.Petersburg from its foundation thru the first hundred years; written in the XIX century by a historian, connoisseur and collector of antiquity. These are not "scientifically-accurate" & verified, accurate stories, refined according to today's knowledge... rather, you can call them "a collection of historical anecdotes" - but they convey the spirit and salt of that era very much, and it is a great thing about Pyliaev. Another his book, "The Greatest Freaks of St.Petersburg", I do not have on my shelf as a paper edition, and I don’t want to read it as ebook. Therefore ... there is a reserve for the future!

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Architecture / Aрхитектура

Борис Кириков. 'Памятники архитектуры С.-Петербурга. Василеостровский район'. 'Архитектура петербургского модерна. Особняки и доходные дома'

Excellent books on the architecture of St. Petersburg, in particular, the monuments of Art Nouveau style (my fave!) - an exhaustive presentation of this style history & its development in architecture (within my city). Of course, these books should be read normally, and not as scanned ebook. I am glad that we keep them in our library.

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'Doors and portals of St.Petersburg' (SPb: Russica, 2004)

I found this photoalbum in my wife's library! Nice find, as I really in love with the doors. The album covers time period from 1703 (when the city was founded) to the middle of XX century. It might be interesting to everyone who is interested in the history of Russian architecture, and of course designers. You may download ebook (PDF scan) here: http://twirpx.com/file/3094506

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Memoirs / Мемуары

Вадим Шефнер. 'Имя для птицы, или чаепитие на Желтой веранде' (1977)

Autobiographical notes of a boy whose childhood took place at St. Petersburg in the first two decades of the XX century. It provides a lot of details on everyday life of people a hundred years ago. The author is known as a science fiction writer, and his works in this genre are worth reading. Don't miss this name.

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Children's literature

James Kruss. 'Tim Taler, or the Sold laughter' (1962)
Novel by German author tells the story of a boy who trades his enchanting laughter to a wealthy mysterious Mephistopheles-like Baron in exchange for the ability to win any bet he makes. Regretting the exchange, he undertakes a four-year journey to win his laughter back. Intresting story that my babygirl had as a home reding for Summer, and I couldnt stand aside ;)

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Sci-Fi

Robert Sheckley. 'Journey of Joenes (Journey Beyond Tomorrow)' (1962). Sheckley is the classic of US Sci-Fi genre, most known for his short stories. I have read most of them in 90-es, but a few novels left untouched. When I found this one in the library, I grabbed it, and have a few pleasurable days with it at my village place. The novel is built as a collection of separate tales of the Oceania people of the 31st century, about the life and walks of Joanis from USA,-- a simple guy from the 21st century, who became a prophet of a new life after the war (3rd World War).

Robert Sheckley. 'Dimension of Miracles' (1968) - another well known classic. Recommended.

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G.R.R.Martin. 'Tuf Voyaging' (1986). You already might be in the know of this multiple award-winning, best-selling author of 'The Song of Ice and Fire' series, but believe me: his sci-fi stories are far, far better. The year of 1986... the world still had USSR on its map, it was a weird year, not much good can be remembered about it now. One of the good things about it, the birth was given to this immortal Sci-Fi classics. It has plenty of a dark humour, space adventures, cats, and eco-engineering (a darkly comic meditation on environmentalism and absolute power, as wiki puts it). Haviland Tuf was an honest space-trader - and a looser. And he became the proud owner of the last seedship of Earth's legendary Ecological Engineering Corps, the most powerful weapon in human space came into a good hands. No more spoilers will be given! Read it yourself :))
PS.
Look at the covers - most of them failed! As, trying to imagine Tuf in person and put him and his cats to the cover, wasnt a way to go - as he does not have a very pleasurable outlook, as its described in the text. My faves are on the right - they are less realistic and more schematic. What's your opinion on the faves would be, I wonder?

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Mary Stewart. 'The Crystal Cave' (1970)
Mary Stewart. 'The Hollow Hills' (1973)
Mary Stewart. 'The Last Enchantment' (1979)

An internationally best-selling trilogy of Merlin books, reimagining the Arthurian legend from a sorcerer’s point of view. Author retold the story of King Arthur as seen by Merlin, the king's adviser and house magician. The story, set in the fifth century, is amazing blend of fantasy and historical detail, and mysticism. Highly recommended reading!

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Fiction

Stieg Larsson. 'The girl who kicked the hornet's nest'
Stieg Larsson. 'The girl who played with fire'

Famouse international bestseller. One of my favorite stories that got me hooked right when I watched the book-based film. Since then I have re-watched the film series four times, and re-read the books many times - I can hardly remember how much, exactly :) I have ebook of a Russian translation, and this spring - thanks to covid - I bought a paper edition, and read it again, hehe

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Сергей Обломов. 'Mедный кувшин старика Xоттабыча' (2000)
This book is a "triple" remake of three other books: "A Thousand and One Nights Tales", "The Brass Bottle" by F.Enstey, and "Old Man Hottabych' by S.Lagin. It has the same plot, but the action takes place in Russia at the end of the XX century, and the boy who found the genie, actually is a computer hacker. A very entertaining book that conveys the true spirit of the 1990s. I dont own a paperback edition of the said book, unfortunately, had to read an e-book, and I think it is 2nd or 3rd time that I re-read it.

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Music / Музыка

D.Miller. 'Stripped: Depeche Mode true story' (2001)

DM is a great band and it was very interesting to read their decent biography. The story is told up to and including 2001 (i.e. before the Esciter album). Reading it, I could not get rid of the haunting parallels with the Radiohead case (the laws of showbiz are equally applicable to different bands). And the development of many bands proceeds in a similar direction, the problems they face are the same, as the ways to overcome them... in general, the book gave food to my mind - and once again reminded that Radiohead does not have an exclusive for many things that happened with them - all this already has happened in history before. And, by the way, for me personally the musical history of DM ended back in 1997, with the departure from the group of Alan Wilder. The Ultra LP is the last their album I can listen to, but this is already a different group. Okay, this all has a mediocre relationship to the topic of my post. What is left to add: I did not buy the certain book, and was reading not an electronic, but a paper edition, which I rented from my neighbor, after noticing it on his bookshelf.

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Simon Reynolds. 'Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past' (2011)

Its an intresting reading and quite sufficient look at the modern pop-music (in the broad sense of it), written by intelligent thinker and music journalist, who worked for NME and Melody Maker. Not necessarily you have to share his opinion, but if you're passionate about modern music, its worth reading. I havent finished it yet, just started - so, it is a bridge to my 2021 list. I got ebooks of both English original and Russian translation.