My top 10 favourite books

(In no particular order)

• O. Wilde ("The Picture of Dorian Gray")
• D. Adams (HHGG etc.)
• M. Spark ("The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie")
• S. Nadolny ("Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit")
• J. Salinger ("The Catcher in the Rye")
• M. Twain ("The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn")
• J. Steinbeck (e.g. "The Grapes of Wrath")
• I. Denisen ("Out of Africa")
• S. Zweig (esp. "Die Schachnovelle")
• S. Clarke ("Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell")
• N. McGregor ("A History of the World in 100 Objects") - best history of the world (and art, and humans)
  

The runners up

• E. Hemingway ("For Whom the Bell Tolls" - and only that one)
• S. Maugham (e.g. "Moon and Sixpence", short stories like "The Three Fat Women of Antibes", "Louise" etc.)
• A. Huxley ("Brave New World" - much better than Orwell's 1984 !)
• S. Thomas ("The End of Mr. Y" - the only book I have read twice over - in a row)
• Philip K. Dick ("The Man in the High Castle" - fantastic utopia of the world if Japan and Germany had won the war, also wrote basis for Matrix, Blad Runner, Minority Report etc.)
  
• F. Kafka (mini: Vor Dem Gesetz/Kaiserliche Botschaft, short: Die Verwandlung ... all masterful)
• C. Dickens (any - they are all much the same)
• M. Atwood ("The Handmaid's Tale" - and no others)
  
• Th. Hardy (ditto) - but also because of poems like "Hap"
• H. Melville ("Moby Dick") - nautical, poetical, wonderful
• David Mitchell ("Cloud Atlas")
• A. Camus ("The Plague")
• P. Süskind ("Das Parfüm")
• R. L. Stevenson (e.g. "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) - everything that Poe isn't
• D. Eagleman ("Sum") - Fourty Tales of the Afterlife. Clever ideas by Neuroscientist what Bible could have evolved into
• A. Burgess ("A Clockwork Orange)
• J.-W. Goethe ("Faust" - only part I)
• I. Welsh ("Trainspotting")
• J. Boswell ("Life of Johnson")
• P. Theroux (the travel books such as "The Happy Isles of Oceania" - and only those)
• M. Forster ("Have the Men had enough ?")
• O. Goldmsith ("The Vicar of Wakefield")
• A. Isler ("The Prince of West End Avenue")
• H. Lee ("To Kill a Mockingbird")
  

The Non-Fiction Winners

• Painting as a Pasttime, W. Churchill
Why you need a Plan B - apart from work


• Big Secrets, W. Poundstone
"The uncensored truth about all sorts of stuff you are never supposed to know"


• All the Secrets of Magic revealed, H. Becker
How Houdini, David Copperfield etc. did their tricks


• Cheating at Bridge, J. Cameron
Cards, Glasses, Radios everything


• The Curious Cook, McGee
A chemist explains why soufflees collapse etc.
A good cookbook is "The Cookery Year from Reader's Digest". But this is a better one.


• Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
"Elisabeth David written by Quentin Tarantino" - The truth behind the professional cooking business


• Make your own Dinosaur out of Chicken Bones, C. McGowan
  
  
• Instant Memory, R. Harbin
How to remember long sequences of things


• Hate Mail through the Ages, D. Carroll
How to taunt creditors


• Pavlov's Heirs - Classical Psychology Experiments that Changed the Way we View ourselves, S. Schwartz
How people like electrocuting others


• Home Workshop Explosives, Uncle Fester
    How to make Nitrogylcerin - in detail
  
  
• Lexikon der populären Irrtümer, W. Krämer
Things you thought you knew (but don't)
 
• all my publications (although some may count as fiction ...)

Useful and useless Japanese books

The Land of the Rising Yen, George Mikes
- lovingly pointing our the foibles of this nation too

Zeit für Japan, Gert Anhalt
- the non-standard guide to Japan

KIE - Kateigaho International
- lovely mag for Japan's arts & culture

Tokyo Now & Then - an explorer's guide, Paul Waley
- history of all districts - not only bordellos are fascinating

Unuseless Japanese Inventions, Kenji Kawakami
- Cindogu - elaborate or unconventional solutions to non-pressing problems

Kanji Pictographix, Michael Rowley
- mnemonics for jap. characters - which are harder to remember than the character

70 Japanese Gestures
- how to say "your underwear is showing" without speaking japanese

Mokusei !, Cees Nooteboom
- love story showing insider knowledge of jap. society - but slow

Fear and Trembling, Amélie Nothomb
- beautifully written inside view of jap. corporations and role of women

Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904)
- born in Greece, illegally married a black woman in US, influenced creole cooking, translated Maupassant, quoted in James Bond film, became Japanese citizen

Hiroshige: 100 Famous Views of Edo, Melanie Trede and Lorenz Bichler
- beautiful pictures with helpful academic text by our friends Melanie and Lorenz

Oishinbo, Tetsu Kariya, Akira Hansaki
- manga about quest for perfect meal - translated but still turn pages right to left

The Makioka Sisters, J. Tanizaki
- very famous but quite turgid novel about Japanese tradition

World Food - Japan, lonely planet
- especially good on local variations and practical tips

Haiku, Reclam e.g. On a withered branch/a crow has settled.../autumn nightfall
- interesting introduction to provenance and understanding and translation of 17 syllables

Japanische Jahreszeiten, Tanka und Haiku aus 13 Jahrhunderten, Coudenhove, Manesse
- alternative translation for poems on the 5 (including New Year!) Japanese seasons

Japan, lonely planet
- ditto, well researched and masses on every area

The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
- brilliant social/political utopia of world if Japan and Germany had won the war

Japan, Dorling-Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guide
- the standard, but beautifully illustrated, guide to Japan

Japan, Bucher Verlag
- beautiful pictures of ancient and modern Japan

Ando by Masao Furuyama, Taschen
- the only architect who really knows how to do concrete

Architecture in Japan by Philip Jodidio, Taschen
- Spooky, square buildings in Omotesando, Roppongi etc. and why Japanese cities are the way they are

Araki, Stern Fotografie
- beautiful Kaori, with ropes and without

TimeOut: Tokyo
- excellent guide by insiders

Kunst aus Japan, Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Berlin/New York
- dig those Kimonos with Mickey Mouse

Japanische Farbholzschnitte, Taschen Verlag
- poor quality pictures and long boring texts on fascinating subject

Darum nerven Japaner, Christoph Neumann
- thing you wish you didn't know about the Japanese

Mobile Suit Gundam, Kazuhisa Kondo
- classic Manga comic

At Home with Japanese Cooking, Elizabeth Andoh
- excellent manual for all Japanese staples

Japans 99 irdische Paradise
- boring: grey texts, maps and pics - no paradise

Haruki Murakami e.g. A Wild Sheep Chase
- weird stories by the Japanese master

Ryokan, Gabriele Fahr-Becker
- the concepts behind the traditional inns

The Hotel Book - Great Escapes Asia, Christiane Reiter
- these look so good it makes you want to go there

Sex and the Floating World, Timon Screech
- academic treatise on woodcuts used, ahem, "in conditions of solitary pleasure"

Pons, Japanisch Powerkurs fuer Anfänger
- you're not going to learn Japanese in a hurry

Gateway to Japan, Kinoshita & Palevsky
- encyclopaedic guide to Japan

Japanese Cooking A Simple Art, Tsuji
- don't be put-off by the fact that this book is over 25 years old, has few photographs, more than 500 pages and that it "takes 20 years to acquire enough experience to make truly perfect rice"!

Tsukiji, Ted Bestor
- the world's biggest fish market (described by boring academic)

Merian Japan 2010
- more useful hints for the traveller

Merian Tokyo und Japan Dezember 1992
- "enorme Schulden ... größte Spekualtion der Wirtschaftsgeschichte ... mittels Buchwertexplosion reicher gerechnet ... nun geplatzt ... Verzerrung der Einkommensverteilung dort Gesellschaft zu destabilisieren ...gewaltiges Kunstkapital ... Geld beliebig vermehrbar ... Finanazapparat über Nach zu einer Krisenbranche ... "Casino-Kapitalismus" ... der Steuerzahler wird die Zeche zahlen"
- sounds familiar ? The above is based on events "in der zweiten Hälfte der achtziger Jahre" - so 1987, not 2008 - but twenty years before: toujours la même chose with the bankers ...

Mondtränen, Bürohelden und Küchengerüchte, Schmitt
- less useful, longwinded articles

Wrong about Japan, Peter Carey
- a father discovers Japan through travels with his son

The Xenophobe's Guide to the Japanese, Sahoko Kaji
- what is likeable and less likeable

Taishita koto nai jinsei, Helga Sentivany
- talks with aged Japanese ladies

Railway Timetable, JR Group
- indespensable for the Rail Pass user

Inemuri - wie die Japaner schlafen, Brigitte Steger
- academic treatise on the instant nap/meditation at work

see more about what I think of Japan