My Year in Books
Last year a number of folks on my friends list posted what books they'd read over the year. Well, it led me to vow to try and read more this year, and keep track.
Most folks on my friends list read, like, 50 books or more. I read 24, and that includes a quick gobbling up of C. S. Lewis' short little "Screwtape Letters". G'damn, people! How are you reading so much???
At first I tried to alternate non-fiction and fiction, since I do have a lot of non-fiction I've bought and not read, but after the exceedingly dense "Medieval Queenship" I opted for fiction, fiction, fiction.
Muriel Spark: Mendelbaum Gate - enjoyable, but not as good as her "Loitering With Intent".
Kelly DeVries: Joan of Arc: A Military Leader - really good. Not as much info on 15th century military tactics as its cover text promised, but I think it did a great job of creating a narrative of the military career of Joan.
James Blish: Cities in Flight - Silly, overblown SF of the classic persuasion. Still, quite original.
Sarah Roche-mahdi (trans.): Silence: A Thirteenth-Century French Romance - liked the translation and the story was interesting for more, even, than just being a girl-knight tale.
The complete works of H.P. Lovecraft (Online) - Learned that he's a racist bastard, hopelessly in love with the nineteenth century, full of himself, and way, way over-rated. Things based on Lovecraft are so much better than Lovecraft!
The Stories of Alice Adams - thick anthology but well worth it. Enjoyed every story.
Johan Huizinga: The Autumn of the Middle Ages DENSE. Classic academian.
Simon Whitechapel: Flesh Inferno: Atrocities of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition Avoid this book at all costs! Bought it because, hey, sounds like it's a cool topic? Nope. Just some freak's personal rant against the Catholic Church framed as maybe sorta history.
Jeffery Deaver: The Twelfth Card (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel) Got it from a friend at work because it mentions FES. Fluff. Modern detective novels. Eh? Had its moments.
The Chronicles of Frossart (Kessinger Publishing reprint - not a whole lot of info on who did the translation or when but it feels victorian.) - feel like I have to find another print/ translation and forget this one.
The Treasure of the City of Ladies (The Book of Three Virtues) by Christine de Pisan (Translated by Sarah Lawson) A break-down of female society as Christine saw it, and moral advice for each and every estate. Kinda cool, recommend for medievalist or female studies folks.
Tales Before Tolkien (anthology of victorian fantasy stories) - would be better titled "Tales Tolkien Might've read" since the anthology explained their motivations were just that - stories Tolkien might have been influenced by shortly before writing. Some stories are very good.
Lynne Truss: Eats, Shoots, and Leaves - OMG so funny read it in a day buy it buy it!!!
The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry by Christine de Pizan (translated by Sumner Willard) Really cool all around. She peppers Vegitas sections with frank advice on how many pickles to lay in for a seige!
J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye - angry young boy book, really. Most memorable to me for teaching me some defunct 50s slang.
Jules Verne: From Earth to the Moon - actually enjoyed this, and not just because I was laughing at its physics. Hard SF object lesson!
Jules Verne: All Around the Moon - there's a reason the sequel isn't as popular! Starkly realistic moon is, quite frankly, boring.
Jacqueline Carey: Kushiel's Dart - fun, fluffy, but exposition heavy and not as much sex as I was promised.
Christine de Pizan: The Book of the City of Ladies (Translated by Earl Jeffrey Richards) - the book "Treasure of City of Ladies" was a sequel to. Eh, liked the sequel better, but still readable for those who want an answer to all those anti-female diatribes from the middle ages.
Jacqueline Carey: Kushiel's Chosen Read in hopes of getting all the sex promised in first book, assuming exposition now done with. Assumed too much!
John Camri Parsons (Ed): Medieval Queenship - this is a proceedings volume - all dense academic papers on topics ranging from dynamic succession to dynamic succession. Really. Well, what else do you expect Queenship to center on? The bit on Charlemagne's daughters was my favorite.
Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina - single-handedly destroyed my book count due to length. Worth it? Not sure. Definitely had its moments. Would not hesitate to recommend a condensed version.
C.S. Lewis: The Screwtape Letters - only a moralist could make a book written from the point of view of a demon unfunny. I wanna write a rebuttal. "The Wormwood Letters"? It could happen.
Oh, I should also mention the things I read which aren't on this list - quick, see if you can catch a theme:
Graphic novels: Spike, Spike Vs. Dracula, Spike: Asylum (OMG recommend recommend recommend!!!!), Spike: Shadow Puppets, Angel: Auld Lang Syne (It features Spike), Buffy, the Vampire Slayer: Long Journey Home (no Spike. Grr.) BtVS: Blackout (All Spike all the time!)
A truly embarrassing amount of BtVS fanfic.
Also: Order of the Stick, Paladin Blues, OotS Start of Darkness.
Didn't write them down on my main list because, well, maybe I was entertaining the idea of not owning up to my less-than-high-brow reading. Maybe my husband told me they didn't count. Maybe. Anyway, I knew I wouldn't forget them. :)
Most folks on my friends list read, like, 50 books or more. I read 24, and that includes a quick gobbling up of C. S. Lewis' short little "Screwtape Letters". G'damn, people! How are you reading so much???
At first I tried to alternate non-fiction and fiction, since I do have a lot of non-fiction I've bought and not read, but after the exceedingly dense "Medieval Queenship" I opted for fiction, fiction, fiction.
Muriel Spark: Mendelbaum Gate - enjoyable, but not as good as her "Loitering With Intent".
Kelly DeVries: Joan of Arc: A Military Leader - really good. Not as much info on 15th century military tactics as its cover text promised, but I think it did a great job of creating a narrative of the military career of Joan.
James Blish: Cities in Flight - Silly, overblown SF of the classic persuasion. Still, quite original.
Sarah Roche-mahdi (trans.): Silence: A Thirteenth-Century French Romance - liked the translation and the story was interesting for more, even, than just being a girl-knight tale.
The complete works of H.P. Lovecraft (Online) - Learned that he's a racist bastard, hopelessly in love with the nineteenth century, full of himself, and way, way over-rated. Things based on Lovecraft are so much better than Lovecraft!
The Stories of Alice Adams - thick anthology but well worth it. Enjoyed every story.
Johan Huizinga: The Autumn of the Middle Ages DENSE. Classic academian.
Simon Whitechapel: Flesh Inferno: Atrocities of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition Avoid this book at all costs! Bought it because, hey, sounds like it's a cool topic? Nope. Just some freak's personal rant against the Catholic Church framed as maybe sorta history.
Jeffery Deaver: The Twelfth Card (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel) Got it from a friend at work because it mentions FES. Fluff. Modern detective novels. Eh? Had its moments.
The Chronicles of Frossart (Kessinger Publishing reprint - not a whole lot of info on who did the translation or when but it feels victorian.) - feel like I have to find another print/ translation and forget this one.
The Treasure of the City of Ladies (The Book of Three Virtues) by Christine de Pisan (Translated by Sarah Lawson) A break-down of female society as Christine saw it, and moral advice for each and every estate. Kinda cool, recommend for medievalist or female studies folks.
Tales Before Tolkien (anthology of victorian fantasy stories) - would be better titled "Tales Tolkien Might've read" since the anthology explained their motivations were just that - stories Tolkien might have been influenced by shortly before writing. Some stories are very good.
Lynne Truss: Eats, Shoots, and Leaves - OMG so funny read it in a day buy it buy it!!!
The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry by Christine de Pizan (translated by Sumner Willard) Really cool all around. She peppers Vegitas sections with frank advice on how many pickles to lay in for a seige!
J. D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye - angry young boy book, really. Most memorable to me for teaching me some defunct 50s slang.
Jules Verne: From Earth to the Moon - actually enjoyed this, and not just because I was laughing at its physics. Hard SF object lesson!
Jules Verne: All Around the Moon - there's a reason the sequel isn't as popular! Starkly realistic moon is, quite frankly, boring.
Jacqueline Carey: Kushiel's Dart - fun, fluffy, but exposition heavy and not as much sex as I was promised.
Christine de Pizan: The Book of the City of Ladies (Translated by Earl Jeffrey Richards) - the book "Treasure of City of Ladies" was a sequel to. Eh, liked the sequel better, but still readable for those who want an answer to all those anti-female diatribes from the middle ages.
Jacqueline Carey: Kushiel's Chosen Read in hopes of getting all the sex promised in first book, assuming exposition now done with. Assumed too much!
John Camri Parsons (Ed): Medieval Queenship - this is a proceedings volume - all dense academic papers on topics ranging from dynamic succession to dynamic succession. Really. Well, what else do you expect Queenship to center on? The bit on Charlemagne's daughters was my favorite.
Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina - single-handedly destroyed my book count due to length. Worth it? Not sure. Definitely had its moments. Would not hesitate to recommend a condensed version.
C.S. Lewis: The Screwtape Letters - only a moralist could make a book written from the point of view of a demon unfunny. I wanna write a rebuttal. "The Wormwood Letters"? It could happen.
Oh, I should also mention the things I read which aren't on this list - quick, see if you can catch a theme:
Graphic novels: Spike, Spike Vs. Dracula, Spike: Asylum (OMG recommend recommend recommend!!!!), Spike: Shadow Puppets, Angel: Auld Lang Syne (It features Spike), Buffy, the Vampire Slayer: Long Journey Home (no Spike. Grr.) BtVS: Blackout (All Spike all the time!)
A truly embarrassing amount of BtVS fanfic.
Also: Order of the Stick, Paladin Blues, OotS Start of Darkness.
Didn't write them down on my main list because, well, maybe I was entertaining the idea of not owning up to my less-than-high-brow reading. Maybe my husband told me they didn't count. Maybe. Anyway, I knew I wouldn't forget them. :)