My annual list of books read - over 200, especially when you consider that half a dozen of them were actually volumes combining books initially published separately. Yes, one was a Readers' Digest Condensed Books collection, but only one: the rest were proper trilogies. The fnal one didn't quite get finished before the bongs, but it was so close I' ( Read more... )

Rather later than usual, here's my 2011 list. As ever:

• (R) (in any colour) indicates a re-read;
• These books are linked to their JEs on BookCrossing;
• These books were lent to me by non-bookcrossers;
• At the time of posting I still had copies of these;

          and a new category, because I gave in at last,

• These books are on Kindle.

(R) (in any colour) indicates a re-read
These books are linked to their JEs on BookCrossing.
These books were lent to me.

1. Swimming Lessons - Rohinton Mistry
2. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
3. Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
4. A Long Long Way - Sebastian Barry
5. Science and Poetry - Mary Midgely
6. The Fatal Englishman - Sebastian Faulks 5261626
7. ( Read more... )

Total books read: 228
     Fiction: 173 (158 novels, 7 short-ish children's books, 8 collections of short stories)
     Poetry collections: 5
     Non-Fiction: 50 (Probably my highest proportion for many years - and it doesn't count textbooks, even those I've read cover to cover)

Audiobooks listened to: 5 (all fiction)

The Top Ten
This is difficult ( Read more... )

These books are linked to their Journal Entries on www.bookcrossing.com
(or will be, when I've caught up)
These books were lent to me but are not registered on Bookcrossing.
These books are mine own (or at least were on the date of this post)
Lots of them are slated for Bookcrossing and they have/will probably eventually have reviews on www. ( Read more... )

SIX!!!!
Sorry, couldn't resist coming out of silence to say I think that's very sad.
( But then I would, wouldn't I? )

Synopsis
Great Expectations opens unforgettably in a twilit and overgrown churchyard on the eerie Kent marshes. 
There the orphan Pip is disturbed to meet an escaped convict, Magwitch, but gives him food, in an encounter that is to haunt both their lives. How Pip receives riches from a mysterious benefactor, snobbishly abandons his friends for London ( Read more... )

The Back of the Book
The story is a picaresque saga about a motley band of rabbits who desert their ancient warren when the gentle Fiver predicts imminent destruction of all who remain.  Led by Fiver's intelligent brother, Hazel, the refugees set out on an epic search for a new home.

What I thought
I remember that when I read this at school I thought ( Read more... )

Part of Amazon's synopsis
On a chilly February day two old friends meet in the throng outside a crematorium to pay their last respects to Molly Lane. Both Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday had been Molly's lovers in the days before they reached their current eminence, Clive as Britain's most successful modern composer, Vernon as editor of the quality ( Read more... )

The Back of the Book 
Every bride is entitled to some pre-wedding jitters. And what girl wouldn't think twice about marriage when her fiance gets his eyebrows shaved off just in time to look horrendous for the photographs. But what if it's not the ceremony that freaks you out but the happy ever after? Heidi Savage is wondering whether she can really ( Read more... )