2008 Reading Wrap Up
Yes, this is a bit late...it IS almost the end of January. But tere you go. I only read 46 1/2 books in 2008. It is a shameful total. I already have 5 finished in January of this yar so maybe I'll be back on track in 2009.
Of the 46 1/2, only 5 were out of the fantasy category. Four were hsitorical fiction (a series, so not even individual books) and one a crappy, supposedly horror novel.
Only five books gor five stars, so I either read a lot of bad books, or was very stingy and hard to please or all of the above. The five star books were:
The Shadow Isle by Katherine Kerr
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier
The Blue Girl by Charles DeLint
The Summer King by O.R. Melling
I had very high expectations from The Shadow Isle and Sevenwaters, and thankfully was not let down. I had little hope of the DeLint, since he has had great ideas, but for me, has characters that are all the same. He gets off to a very interesting start and then his novels fizzle for me, but The Blue Girl did not. I therefore also read his 2008 release Dingo, which was not as good as The Blue Girl, but which received a solid four stars from me.
The Summer King was a very nice surprise. The thrid in a series, it is the strongest. And that brings us to The Name of the Wind. I had read so many glowing reviews, so one would think I would have picked up the book long before I did. Trouble is the reviews came from (mostly) pretentious blow hards whose taste rarely coincides with mone. Score one for the blowhards, as this was fantasy fiction the way I love it.
Two books received 4.75 from me: Jim Butcher's Small Favor and Kim Wilkins The Autumn Castle. One published in 2008, the other years before. The latest Dresden book did not disappoint, and I am looking forward to the 2009 entry to the series. Castle was a nice, fun dark faerie tale...so glad my library had it!
Other very good reads in 2008 include The Born Queen by Greg Keyes...a very satisfying end to his Kingdom of Thorn and Bone series. Tamsin by Peter Beagle, The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip and An Earthly Knight by Janet McNaughton all scored high. The McKillip book wasn't quite on a level as some of her work, but was better then 2006's Solstice Wood.
I do have to mention the Scott Westerfeld series I started in 2008 and finished in 2009...Uglies. The three books are Uglies, Pretties and Specials. A fourth book titled Extras was also added to the trilogy, but Specials really is a nice wrap up of this fun YA series. His Midnighters series is not nearly as good a story.
My biggest disappointment in 2008 was Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn and Well of Ascension. I have to get the final book of the series, but am not too hopeful of it being all that good. I do have hope that he will do justice to WoT though. I can understand why he was chosen by RJ's family to finish it off.
Si I guess that's a wrap!
Of the 46 1/2, only 5 were out of the fantasy category. Four were hsitorical fiction (a series, so not even individual books) and one a crappy, supposedly horror novel.
Only five books gor five stars, so I either read a lot of bad books, or was very stingy and hard to please or all of the above. The five star books were:
The Shadow Isle by Katherine Kerr
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier
The Blue Girl by Charles DeLint
The Summer King by O.R. Melling
I had very high expectations from The Shadow Isle and Sevenwaters, and thankfully was not let down. I had little hope of the DeLint, since he has had great ideas, but for me, has characters that are all the same. He gets off to a very interesting start and then his novels fizzle for me, but The Blue Girl did not. I therefore also read his 2008 release Dingo, which was not as good as The Blue Girl, but which received a solid four stars from me.
The Summer King was a very nice surprise. The thrid in a series, it is the strongest. And that brings us to The Name of the Wind. I had read so many glowing reviews, so one would think I would have picked up the book long before I did. Trouble is the reviews came from (mostly) pretentious blow hards whose taste rarely coincides with mone. Score one for the blowhards, as this was fantasy fiction the way I love it.
Two books received 4.75 from me: Jim Butcher's Small Favor and Kim Wilkins The Autumn Castle. One published in 2008, the other years before. The latest Dresden book did not disappoint, and I am looking forward to the 2009 entry to the series. Castle was a nice, fun dark faerie tale...so glad my library had it!
Other very good reads in 2008 include The Born Queen by Greg Keyes...a very satisfying end to his Kingdom of Thorn and Bone series. Tamsin by Peter Beagle, The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip and An Earthly Knight by Janet McNaughton all scored high. The McKillip book wasn't quite on a level as some of her work, but was better then 2006's Solstice Wood.
I do have to mention the Scott Westerfeld series I started in 2008 and finished in 2009...Uglies. The three books are Uglies, Pretties and Specials. A fourth book titled Extras was also added to the trilogy, but Specials really is a nice wrap up of this fun YA series. His Midnighters series is not nearly as good a story.
My biggest disappointment in 2008 was Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn and Well of Ascension. I have to get the final book of the series, but am not too hopeful of it being all that good. I do have hope that he will do justice to WoT though. I can understand why he was chosen by RJ's family to finish it off.
Si I guess that's a wrap!