Change & Decay In All Around I See

Thursday 7 January 2010, 11:30PM

Favourite reads of 2009

About this time last year I wrote about my favourite books of 2008. In response to public clamour here’s the list for 2009, this time limited to five books rather than 10 reflecting the fact that I haven’t read too much this year (see my previous post):

1. Beauty by Roger Scruton
   I think I’ve learned more from Roger Scruton than any other contemporary philosopher. His books cover a quite remarkable range of subjects, and written from an integrated conservative perspective that I find challenging and in some respects compelling. Particularly in regard to aesthetics: this is a lucid and searching study of the reasoning we follow when we judge something to be ‘beautiful’. Scruton’s conclusion, with which I am deep sympathy, is that there are rational and moral grounds for considering some things more beautiful than others: aesthetic judgements are essentially objective rather than subjective. I have always felt that to be so; Scruton’s book has helped me disentangle some of the reasons why.
2. The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
   I’ve been picking up this in bookshops for at least ten years now, reading the back cover and putting it down again, thinking I’d read it another day. I finally purchased and read it last month. It’s a quite wonderful novel. Very little happens: an ageing Sicilian aristocrat looks back on his life, ruminates on mortality. The word ‘elegiac’ was invented for it. The last two chapters in particular will rip your eyes out unless you’ve a heart of stone (I pretty much do, and it still got me).
3. Rowan’s Rule by Rupert Shortt
   I resisted reading this for quite a while as I remember reading another (shorter) book on the same subject a few years ago when Rowan Williams become Archbishop of Canterbury. I didn’t think this would have much that was new. Wrong. It’s an extremely accessible intellectual biography of the great man, explaining clearly, so far as is possible, the Archbishop’s theological journey and how that has informed his career, including of course his years at Lambeth. I thought the book did a particularly good job of making clear that Rowan’s commitment to holding the Anglican Communion together is grounded in deep theological and philosophical reflection upon the notion that there never comes a point where there is no value in continued conversation between two seemingly irreconciliable points of view.
4. Byron: Life and Legend by Fiona MacCarthy
   I knew very little about Byron before taking on this monster (about 800 pages set in tiny type with very few pictures). By the end I have to say I rather liked him: a sceptical, rather shy man caught up in a storm of attention from people rather less sane than him. A poser, certainly, but with the genius to back it up.
5. The Classical Language of Architecture by John Summerson
   Dear oh dear Justin how very dull. Maybe, but I liked it. A clear and concise guide to the vernacular of classical architecture, this book has helped me understand the buildings and streets I have always loved best: Edinburgh’s New Town, for example, or the facades of central London. This book will help you get your Doric, Ionian and Corinthian columns sorted out, and to navigate with confidence the potential social pitfalls of mixing up pilasters, architraves and friezes.