Sustained summer reading and listening

We asked 13 loyal readers of the sustainability channel to put forward their cultural favourites for the holiday season. You can find the full list of the favourite books on the LibraryThing.com website

Mark Brinkley, Housebuilder’s Bible author and blogger.

Without Hot Air by David Mackay is available as a free PDF download. I think it’s the clearest exposition yet on our pending energy crisis. I’m listening to Surf, by [former Aztec Camera songwriter] Roddy Frame. I’ve played it though about 50 times and I’m still enjoying it. It’s a summer special, if ever there was one.

Paul Scott, Head of Fire and Risk, Faber Maunsell

I recommend Winter in Madrid by C J Sansom. A gripping and haunting novel set in the aftermath of the Spanish civil war, which takes you right into the heart of Madrid as the characters try to come to terms with their new lives. For music, I’m going through Glenn Gould, The Complete Original Jacket Collection. This is a set of 80 CDs featuring the work of one of the best classical pianists of the 20th Century.

John Alker, head of public affair, UK Green Building Council

What I intend to read: Hot Topic, Sir David King, ex-chief scientist's climate change tome. Been burning a whole on my bookshelf for a few months. Also, 'Nudge' by Prof Richard Thaler, current behaviour change guru to Obama and Cameron. Of course I'll probably flick through and think 'hmm too much like work' and those books will return in pristine condition.

What I'll actually read: I only recently discovered Iain Banks and am ploughing through the back catalogue. Sort of dark-ish dramatic page turners with just enough thought provoking to justify it to yourself.

What I'll listen to: any attempt to play it cool and get 'down with the kids' will be abandoned in favour of catching up with the last album (or two) of people like Beck, the Charlatans and Ian Brown. Staple indie basically.

Sophy Twohig, Director, Hopkins

David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas is a historical pastiche, a political thriller and a science fiction novel combine to knit together connections across time and space and speculate on the ultimate consequences of human actions; all movingly told with beautiful imagery, romance, humour and wit. For music, I love The Lark Ascending, Vaughan Williams. Classical music for the masses maybe, but this is time travel of a different kind back to a pre First World War utopian English summer.

John Goodbun, Architect, WAG

Reading wise, I recently spent a week in Italy reading The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein - an important critique of 'crisis capitalism' and neo-con criminality. I also read Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind by Graham Hancock a fantastic speculation on hallucinogenic drugs, cave paintings, aliens, fairies and DNA. Musically I am listening to Paul Weller's 22 Dreams at the moment, which is a great album from the Modfather. I am also still addicted to John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, a record which I haven't stopped listening to for the last 20 years, and which is the greatest album ever made. I have also been captivated recently by a great cover version of the Cockney music hall classic 'Wotcha - knock 'em down the Old Kent Road', which can be found here This cover is by Fozzie Bear, and is possibly the greatest performance by any bear ever.

Surf, by [former Aztec Camera songwriter] Roddy Frame. I’ve played it though about 50 times and I’m still enjoying it. It’s a summer special, if ever there was one

Mark Brinkley

More recently, I have enjoyed combining listening and reading, by downloading the videos and mp3's of David Harvey's reading course on Marx's Capital. I cannot recommend this enough, and you would not believe how enjoyable it is! It is moreover, critical mental preparation for the struggles ahead. David Harvey has been the preeminent urban geographer of recent decades, and his reading courses on Marx fairly legendary. Remarkably, he is putting the currently underway course online each week to download, at http://davidharvey.org/ If you think that you can solve the environmental question, of global warming and all that kind of stuff, without actually confronting the whole question of who determines the value structure, and how it is determined, then you have got to be kidding yourself.

Mel Starrs, principal consultant, Inbuilt, and blogger

I'm still catching up on a years worth of music and currently loving Elbow's Seldom Seen Kid and The Fleet Foxes eponymous album (are they still called albums these days?). As it's silly season I'm also greatly enjoying Collings and Herrin's podcasts very funny, often puerile. The Andrew Collins theme continues with the 3rd installment of his memoirs. That's Me in the Corner. As an avid reader of the NME in the late 80's/early 90's, there's plenty to amuse me here. He's very apologetic about such an ordinary bloke ending up meeting lots of famous peeps.

And I have just finished Earth Inc. by Michael Bollen. I won the book as part of the Early Reviewer scheme over at LibraryThing.com http://www.librarything.com/er_list.php. I'd like to say it was a funny, charming and inventive comic novel (Stephen Merchant's blurb on the cover) but I found it over obvious, mildly amusing and trying far too hard. The premise is that big corporations (irritatingly given non-de-plumes such as O'Connells, a fast food chain - geddit?) have taken over the world and life revolves around electronic wrist gadgets doling out virtual cash. Bah. I would instead recommend you read classics Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake or William Gibson's Neuromancer. Next on the pile is Danny Wallace's Friends like These which I suspect won't live up to the hilarious Join me or Yes Man, but I have high hopes.

Rob Annable, Axis Design Architects

Books: 100 Houses 100 Architects, ed. Gennaro Postiglione. Refreshingly critical coffee table picture book that even has some floor plans. Worth it for Till/Wigglesworth house alone. Euro-centric cast list means it misses Charles Moore though. Bay Area Houses: Ed. Sally Woodbridge (Galaxy) Making up for lack of Charles Moore in previous with this one. Perfect case studies in beautiful suburban housing. Effortless English Arts and Crafts sensibilities jump the turn of the last century Atlantic and learn to loosen up in the Californian sunshine. Expect to see timber shingles in my next project. If this is a Man / Truce: Primo Levi. There's a generation of Italian writers who cannot be surpassed. Well, two at least - Levi and Calvino. Levi tells the story of his time in Auschwitz and in doing so defines the furthest corners of every human soul in history. Nothing can prepare you for the visceral contents.

Music: The Red Album, Weezer. Flawless grunge is an oxymoron. If that's so this the best damn oxymoron I ever heard. Another perfect album from the guys who started with little more than a poorly knitted jumper. Includes an ideal soundtrack for architects: I Am The Greatest Man That Ever Lived. That was a joke. Maybe. Seldom Seen Kid, Elbow. I'm praying with all my atheist might that Elbow don't get struck by the Mercury Music Prize curse. If they win we all have to promise not to make a fuss and let them carry on crafting such heart stopping moments of metaphysical revelation. Not to mention the moments of (less-than-meta) physical revelation that you can scream along with them perfectly; as long as you're in the car on your own with the windows up. Piazza, New York Catcher: Belle & Sebastian. A novel in one track. I think I finally 'get' Belle & Sebastian. Took me bloody long enough.

John Alker, Public Affairs Manager, UKGBC

What I intend to read: Hot Topic by Sir David King, ex-chief scientist's climate change tome. It's been burning a whole on my bookshelf for a few months. Also, Nudge by Prof. Richard Thaler, current behaviour change guru to Obama and Cameron. Of course I'll probably flick through and think 'hmm too much like work' and those books will return in pristine condition. What I'll actually read: I only recently discovered Iain Banks and am ploughing through the back catalogue. Sort of dark-ish dramatic page turners with just enough thought provoking to justify it to yourself.

What I'll listen to: any attempt to play it cool and get 'down with the kids' will be abandoned in favour of catching up with the last album (or two) of people like Beck, the Charlatans and Ian Brown. Staple indie basically.

Brian Scannell, NES

I’ve enjoyed Terry Pratchett’s latest, Making Money, the latest fun read from a comic genius and social observer. Also, William Gibson, Pattern Recognition. It’s not by the cyper-punk we know and love, but a thoughtful current-day thriller writer. On a factual note, Robert Kunzig & Wallace Broecker, Fixing Climate: The Story of Climate Science is an accessible guide to the science and the struggle for real understanding. On the iPod is Emily Maguire, Keep Walking and Stranger Place. She’s an excellent singer/song-writer. For a great, fresh jazz voice try Melody Gardot, Worrisome Heart.” I love anything Eric Bibb has done, such as Natural Light. Mellow but moody is Iron & Wine, Our Endless Numbered Days.

I have also been captivated recently by a great cover version of the Cockney music hall classic 'Wotcha - knock 'em down the Old Kent Road'. This cover is by Fozzie Bear, and is possibly the greatest performance by any bear ever.

Jon Goodbun, founder, WAG

Colin Rees, Performance Analysis Consultant, IES

Collapse by Jared Diamond is about the study of societies and why they have failed or succeeded. It’s got a strong environmental contribution which is directly related to the experiences of climate change people are in the middle of today. So it’s really about learning from past mistakes which can be avoided on a global level. The environmental message I feel mixes nicely with the direction of my work.
Los Angeles by Flying Lotus has got a good ambient feel so it fits in nicely with having a beer……even if it’s raining in Scotland.

Julian Crawford, Sustainable Committee lead at Gensler Architects

Talk about a perfect beach book! William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things is printed on waterproof, recyclable, synthetic paper. I’m currently listening to Radiohead’s last album, In Rainbow’s. Their last tour was completely carbon neutral.

Martin Brown, Fairsnape and blogger, isite

On the page: Yvon Chouinard, Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman. Patagonia, Black Diamond and Chouinard equipment have long been quality, even desirable brands within the world of mountaineering. Yvon Chouinard, the driving force behind these names has set out his philosophy in this light and entertaining to read outdoor, come business, come ecology come biography. It should be a must read for all in business. Understand how building connects with ecology, why Chouinard sees sustainable construction as an oxymoron, and why this guy is so influential. Every time I do the right thing for the planet I make a profit, says Yvon. Tony Hawkes: A Piano in the Pyrenees, I try to read books related to the place I am (geo-lit?). I read this earlier in the year while skiing there and really enjoyed. Highly amusing, Hawkes makes even the most mundane detail of her move from England to the Pyrenees entertaining. It’s reminiscent of his better-known Round Ireland with a Fridge.

My iPod is eclectically stocked, and whilst The Band and Van Morrison dominate, including Astral Weeks, (now 40 years old) it has also great English Folk such as Show of Hands and Kate Rusby. However two recommendations for this summer are Raising Sand and the Fleet Foxes. Alison Krauss and Robert Plant are an incredibly odd coupling that works so well. Plant's haunting vocals on Please Read the Letter for example take you back to Knebworth in the 70s, whereas Kraus’ brilliant bluegrass vocal and stunning fiddle playing may make you take up the instrument as I did some years back. I came to Fleet Foxes, through Laura Barton's brilliant Guardian column, Hail Hail Rock and Roll, as I did the Decemberists and Bon Iver's Forever Emma. I also picked up the habit of listening to one track or CD over and over again, immersing in the subtleties. The Fleet Foxes is one to do just that, to immerse in the forests conjured up and try to unravel the lyrics of the last track Oliver James

I will want to re-read Evelyn Waugh's Scoop which is the funniest book about absurd journalistic values I know [to whom is he referring? ed.]

Andrew Warrenn, director, Association for the Conservation of Energy

Andrew Warren, Director, Association for the Conservation of Energy

I shall finish reading the excellent book Heat on how we can all take practical steps to combat climate change. It is written by that great polemicist George Monbiot, with whom I made TV programmes last year. I will want to re-read Evelyn Waugh's Scoop which is the funniest book about absurd journalistic values I know [to whom is he referring? ed.]. And of course where would I be without the 2008 Wisden? For music, I shall be in Aldeburgh in Suffolk where the Snape Proms take place every night in August, I shall have music from the 16th to the 21st Century to sustain me.

Paul Wilkinson, BIW Technologies

I’ve been reading Breakout, Flashfire, Firebreak, Comeback, Ask the Parrot all recent new works by American crime writer Richard Stark. Stark wrote several works of fast-paced pulp fiction featuring the anti-hero known simply as Parker in the 1980s and 1990s, then stopped, but these latest novels show that Parker is as amoral and hard-hitting as ever. Perfect quick reads for a day at the beach. I’m nearly done with Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks a stark but compelling reminder of the bloodshed of the First World War, 80 summers ago. Also, Riding Through The Storm: My Fight Back to Fitness on the Tour de France, by Geoff Thomas. It’s the early summer holidays, I’ve just watched the Tour de France and I’m looking forward to watching Crewe Alexandra open their latest First Division campaign. What better book than one describing how former Alex favourite Geoff Thomas used the route of the Tour de France on a sponsored bike ride to raise money for Leukaemia Research, having himself beaten the condition into remission? Chapeau, Geoff!

On the bedside table are Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape: The Remarkable Life of Jacques Anquetil the First Five-times Winner of the Tour De France by Paul Howard. Paul (a freelance journalist who also writes about construction) wrote his own account of following the route of the Tour de France (Riding High) a few years ago, but this is an expose of the life and times of one of the greatest French cyclists. There’s Bones to Ashes, by Kathy Reichs. It’s the latest paperback about forensic anthropologist Dr Temperance Brennan discovering the sinister hidden story behind some mysterious human bones.

On the business front, I’m looking forward to Why buy the cow? by Subrah Iyar. The co-founder and general manager of WebEx sets out to explain the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) movement and Web 2.0. The title refers to an analogy used to describe the new generation of software vendors who, in effect, sell milk instead of forcing customers to buy cows to milk themselves. Probably the kind of book you’d expect someone geeky from BIW to be reading!

Music? my MP3 player is full of jazz, blues and soul, mainly from the 50s, 60s and 70s, plus a few bands from the 1990s London jazz scene. Some fantastic soul jazz from Roland Kirk, lots of classic Motown cuts, every track from Otis Redding’s classic album Otis Blue, some Aretha Franklin, Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson and Miles Davies, and then people like Tommy Chase and the James Taylor Quartet.

Paul Crossley, sustainability manager, RLF

Go for Waterlog by Roger Deakin, which is an apparently simple but strange idea; a swimming tour of the UK’s watery spots, including the Scilly Isles, London canals, Suffolk moats, and the crystal waters of the Outer Hebrides - provides the foundation for an enticingly meandering and beautifully eloquent account of a man’s (largely naked) travels throughout the UK and the people he encounters as a result. Although the concept may at first seem overly eager, Deakin’s unique passion for wild swimming and slightly eccentric exploration, aided by his superb skill as a writer and storyteller, becomes increasingly addictive. During my recent travels around Croatia, I found myself jumping into any stretch of water I could find. Inspiring stuff.

Jim Webster, director, 3d Reid Architects

This summer I will be on a beach in Cuba, a country that wastes nothing, and which we could all learn from if we are to achieve a more sustainable world, reading For the Islands I Sing: An Autobiography by George Mackay Brown and listening to Teenage Fanclub and I was a Cub Scout. I might take another book, Passing Time in the Loo Volume 1, by Steven Anderson, just in case.

Phil Clark, editorial director, Sustainability

I’m reading The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages by Norman Cohn. Surprisingly given the title this is a dense scholarly work. However it’s starting to repay my efforts, offering an excellent run through of nutters centuries ago running around claiming the world was about to end. Sound familiar? I’ve yet to read: The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer, largely because the author said he liked my shirt while at a book signing.

Predictably, I’m also listening to Fleet Foxes. And for some reason synth-based pop from the 1980s appears to be infecting my head of late. A friend played me Love Song by Howard Jones (remember him? Very big hair) at the weekend and I’ve now been downloading work by Yazoo, OMD, Madonna, Depeche Mode, Simple Minds etc I think I will draw the line at Nik Kershaw.

Michael Willoughby, reporter, Sustainability

I’m finishing the penultimate book of Marcel Proust’s 1.5m word, In Search of Lost Time, which has taken me at least two year’s to this point. Impossible to describe conventionally, the narrator, Marcel, grieves, dines, and discusses contemporary international politics, art, memory, desire, ‘inversion’ and telephones. Everyone is gay and Jewish apart from him, whereas the opposite was true in reality. But Proust had an incredible artistic sensibility and name checks almost every composer, artist and writer in the canon. 500 pages to go. It’s meant I haven’t read much other fiction, though I heartily recommend Tove Janson’s Summer Book a miniscule, child’s-eye-view description of a life on a remote island by the creator of the Moomins. And I also think Paul Kingsnorth’s Real England, an angry, necessarily confused examination of the creep of sameness over all corners of English social and commercial life is an important book. A libertarian by nature, I was at first resistant to its concerned doctrine. But I haven’t been able to shake the pessimistic conclusions he’s drawn and my eyes are more open than before.

Music-wise, I’m listening to songs by the great Argentinian singer, Mercedes Sosa (Mercedes Sosa in Argentina), whom I just saw perform an extraordinary concert at the mini-O2. I’m digging the latest Hold Steady album, Stay Positive, and amazed they can produce quality albums in such quick succession. Classically, I recommend Englishman Paul Lewis’ ongoing Beethoven sonata cycle. I think his Waldstein (Vol. 2) is absolutely cracking. I’ve two volumes to buy, but boy are they pricey! Cheaper is the Prom I went to on Saturday night (£5). The late German fruitloop, Karlheinz Stockhausen, had a whole day devoted to him. His Cosmic Pulses, half an hour of extraordinary electronic, quadrophenic rumblings was one of the few pieces I’ve ever heard fill the Albert Hall. Listeners either succumbed, eyes closed, meditatively to the roar, surfing the discomfort, or – like one of my friends – they had to leave the hall through nausea. I’ll wager it would be hard to beat that for a reaction-provoking concert.