Reading Review and Roundup for 2007 - what have we learned?
I decided to do a roundup of the books I read last year in an attempt to see just what genres I read - partially so I can expand my repertoire and read a bit more broadly. I know I am an impatient reviewer and I suspect my reviews don’t actually make a lot of sense. Seriously, am I encouraging anyone to read with the blather I write?
I’ve grouped the books according to genre to get a general idea of what I have been reading - partly as an exercise to see where I could expand my horizons a little more and read stuff I normally wouldn’t. Feel free to quibble with my genre assignations and to suggest works, though of course I reserve the right to ignore all suggestions completely. :P
Unsure how to catagorise:
Beowulf - the actual saga.
Action/Adventure:
Casino Royale - Ian Flemming
The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle
Crime/Mystery:
The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
Regina’s Song - David and Leigh Eddings
Shades of Death - Aline Templeton
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
Drama:
The Case of Thomas N - John David Morley
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Osterman Weekend - Robert Ludlum (thriller, maybe?)
The Tenth Justice - Brad Meltzer - could go under crime, too, really. Thriller?
Fantasy and Sci-fi:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
Faerie Tale - Raymond Feist (kind of also horror)
His Dark Materials Trilogy - Philip Pullman
Historical Fiction:
The Gospel of Judas - Jeffrey Archer and Frank Moloney
The Pale Horseman - Bernard Cromwell
Ratcatcher - James McGee
Thunder God - Paul Watkins
History:
The Gospel of Judas - Rudolphe Kasser, Marvin Meyer and Gregor Wurst
Nerfertiti: unlocking the mystery behind Egypt’s most famous and beautiful queen - Joyce Tydesley
Pyramids - Joyce Tyldesley
Horror:
Banshee - Michael Scott
Carrie - Stephen King
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings - Edgar Allen Poe
The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin - more a horror/suspense?
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Ultimate Werewolf Anthology
Humour:
Everything Can Be Beaten - Scrambly and Scolex
Misreadings - Umberto Eco
Reference:
Ancient History: from the first civilisations to the renaissance - J. M Roberts
Australian Settlers Book of Household Lore - N. Pescott
A Greek Anthology
Digging Up Deep TIme - Paul Willis and Abbie Thomas
Habitus Disgustica - Ian Whitelaw
The Little Book of Volcanoes and Earthquakes - Rolf Schick
Penguin Dictionary of Norse Myths - Kevin Crossley-Holland
Spores, Plagues and History: the story of anthrax - Chris Holmes
Writing Resources:
The Cambridge Guide to English Usage - Pam Peters
How to Suppress Women’s Writing - Joanna Russ
Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory - C. E Preston
Fantasy and Sci-fi boundaries:
torasin, taleya and I had a mini-discussion about this on Christmas day - what exactly makes sci-fi as opposed to fantasy? torasin had the view that it needs to have space ships to be sci-fi and taleya made the point that apocalyptic works come under sci-fic as well. My own general understanding of sci-fi and fantasy is that both contain fantastical elements and that fantasy generally draws n elements from the past (set in middle ages sort of technology, aka Lord of the Rings) while Sci-fi is more futuristic. However, these explanations aren’t cut and dried - a fantasy can have futuristic elements and a sci-fi work can be set in the past. What then, separates the two, from each other and/or from other genres? Technology also plays a major role - sci-fi can have blasters or nanotechnology, while fantasy has swords. Take Star Wars for example - it's a cut and dried fantasy tale, but its considered sci-fi because it has future tech, aliens and is set in space. Hmm. Maybe that's another differentiation. In fantasy, the other races are seen as having come from the same world as humans, while in sci-fi they tend to be aliens.
I suspect that back in the day, sci-fi was just the catch all genre for anything that wasn’t drama, classics or romance. Horror once came under sci-fi too, but is more it’s own genre today.
dulthar would probably disagree with this view, but then, he knows more about genres than I do, being a librarian and literary thinker.
Hmmm. I seem to have a rough balance between reference, horror and crime/thrillers at the moment. I think I need some more sci-fi/fantasy. Maybe I'll even get around to reading Magician like torasin and ideaus are always badgering me to. :D
I’ve grouped the books according to genre to get a general idea of what I have been reading - partly as an exercise to see where I could expand my horizons a little more and read stuff I normally wouldn’t. Feel free to quibble with my genre assignations and to suggest works, though of course I reserve the right to ignore all suggestions completely. :P
Unsure how to catagorise:
Beowulf - the actual saga.
Action/Adventure:
Casino Royale - Ian Flemming
The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle
Crime/Mystery:
The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
Regina’s Song - David and Leigh Eddings
Shades of Death - Aline Templeton
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
Drama:
The Case of Thomas N - John David Morley
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Osterman Weekend - Robert Ludlum (thriller, maybe?)
The Tenth Justice - Brad Meltzer - could go under crime, too, really. Thriller?
Fantasy and Sci-fi:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
Faerie Tale - Raymond Feist (kind of also horror)
His Dark Materials Trilogy - Philip Pullman
Historical Fiction:
The Gospel of Judas - Jeffrey Archer and Frank Moloney
The Pale Horseman - Bernard Cromwell
Ratcatcher - James McGee
Thunder God - Paul Watkins
History:
The Gospel of Judas - Rudolphe Kasser, Marvin Meyer and Gregor Wurst
Nerfertiti: unlocking the mystery behind Egypt’s most famous and beautiful queen - Joyce Tydesley
Pyramids - Joyce Tyldesley
Horror:
Banshee - Michael Scott
Carrie - Stephen King
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings - Edgar Allen Poe
The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin - more a horror/suspense?
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Ultimate Werewolf Anthology
Humour:
Everything Can Be Beaten - Scrambly and Scolex
Misreadings - Umberto Eco
Reference:
Ancient History: from the first civilisations to the renaissance - J. M Roberts
Australian Settlers Book of Household Lore - N. Pescott
A Greek Anthology
Digging Up Deep TIme - Paul Willis and Abbie Thomas
Habitus Disgustica - Ian Whitelaw
The Little Book of Volcanoes and Earthquakes - Rolf Schick
Penguin Dictionary of Norse Myths - Kevin Crossley-Holland
Spores, Plagues and History: the story of anthrax - Chris Holmes
Writing Resources:
The Cambridge Guide to English Usage - Pam Peters
How to Suppress Women’s Writing - Joanna Russ
Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory - C. E Preston
Fantasy and Sci-fi boundaries:
torasin, taleya and I had a mini-discussion about this on Christmas day - what exactly makes sci-fi as opposed to fantasy? torasin had the view that it needs to have space ships to be sci-fi and taleya made the point that apocalyptic works come under sci-fic as well. My own general understanding of sci-fi and fantasy is that both contain fantastical elements and that fantasy generally draws n elements from the past (set in middle ages sort of technology, aka Lord of the Rings) while Sci-fi is more futuristic. However, these explanations aren’t cut and dried - a fantasy can have futuristic elements and a sci-fi work can be set in the past. What then, separates the two, from each other and/or from other genres? Technology also plays a major role - sci-fi can have blasters or nanotechnology, while fantasy has swords. Take Star Wars for example - it's a cut and dried fantasy tale, but its considered sci-fi because it has future tech, aliens and is set in space. Hmm. Maybe that's another differentiation. In fantasy, the other races are seen as having come from the same world as humans, while in sci-fi they tend to be aliens.
I suspect that back in the day, sci-fi was just the catch all genre for anything that wasn’t drama, classics or romance. Horror once came under sci-fi too, but is more it’s own genre today.
dulthar would probably disagree with this view, but then, he knows more about genres than I do, being a librarian and literary thinker.
Hmmm. I seem to have a rough balance between reference, horror and crime/thrillers at the moment. I think I need some more sci-fi/fantasy. Maybe I'll even get around to reading Magician like torasin and ideaus are always badgering me to. :D