my year in books
I may not be too brilliant at writing down all that happens in my life, but I never forget to write down my books for the year in my little book diary.
Here's my list for 2010:
+ The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
+ Don't Tell Me The Truth About Love, Dan Rhodes
+ Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
+ Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett
+ Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales, Robert Louis Stevenson
+ The White Queen, Philippa Gregory
+ Sexing the Cherry, Jeanette Winterson
+ The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
+ The Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie
+ Tea with Mr. Rochester, Frances Towers
+ Pop Co., Scarlett Thomas
+ The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien
+ The Pre-Raphaelite Tragedy, William Gaunt
+ The Laurentine Spy, Emily Gee
+ Bad Science, Ben Goldacre
+ Thomas Cromwell: The Rise and Fall of Henry VIII's Most Notorious Minister, Robert Hutchinson
+ Harlequin, Bernard Cornwell
+ Night Train to Lisbon, Pascal Mercier
+ Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman!, Richard P. Feynman
+ The Steel Remains, Richard Morgan
+ Daydream Girl, Bella Pollen
+ Alexander The Virtues of War, Steven Pressfield
+ Classic Stories I, Ray Bradbury
+ The Aesthetic Adventure, William Gaunt
+ The Fandom of the Operator, Robert Rankin
+ The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
+ Witch Child, Celia Rees
+ Victorian Olympus, William Gaunt
+ The Red Queen, Philippa Gregory
+ The Innocent, Posie Graeme-Evans
+ Oscar's Books, Thomas Wright
+ The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, ed. Richard Dawkins
+ The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
+ Complete Fairy Tales, Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
+ The Renaissance, Walter Pater
+ Heartstone, C. J. Sanson
+ England, England, Julian Barnes
+ The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Not a huge amount, I grant you, but a fairly decent smattering of various genres, fiction and non, mostly leaning toward historical fiction around the Wars of the Roses, and popular science.
Highlights:
All the science books, but particularly 'Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman', written by the late and wonderful Richard Feynman. Brilliant, funny, touching. Nominative Determinism in action.
'Oscar's Books' Absolutely fascinating and slightly obsessive look at Oscar Wilde through his library. Not only will it make you want to read more of him and his favourite titles, you'll reliase just how astoundingly brilliant a man he truly was.
Disappointments:
'Pop Co'. Don't get me wrong, it's well written with interesting concepts, but the author is clearly obsessed with homeopathy bunk. It wears thin.
'Complete Grimm Fairy Tales' - Oh God. Don't ever read this all at once. It consisted of about 1000 pages, and seven different plots spread over three hundred stories. One for dipping in to.
'Fandom of the Operator', Mostly funny, but it just got too damn dark and a bit too sick for my tastes. and I usually like that kind of stuff.
Here's my list for 2010:
+ The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle
+ Don't Tell Me The Truth About Love, Dan Rhodes
+ Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon
+ Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett
+ Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Other Tales, Robert Louis Stevenson
+ The White Queen, Philippa Gregory
+ Sexing the Cherry, Jeanette Winterson
+ The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
+ The Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie
+ Tea with Mr. Rochester, Frances Towers
+ Pop Co., Scarlett Thomas
+ The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien
+ The Pre-Raphaelite Tragedy, William Gaunt
+ The Laurentine Spy, Emily Gee
+ Bad Science, Ben Goldacre
+ Thomas Cromwell: The Rise and Fall of Henry VIII's Most Notorious Minister, Robert Hutchinson
+ Harlequin, Bernard Cornwell
+ Night Train to Lisbon, Pascal Mercier
+ Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman!, Richard P. Feynman
+ The Steel Remains, Richard Morgan
+ Daydream Girl, Bella Pollen
+ Alexander The Virtues of War, Steven Pressfield
+ Classic Stories I, Ray Bradbury
+ The Aesthetic Adventure, William Gaunt
+ The Fandom of the Operator, Robert Rankin
+ The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
+ Witch Child, Celia Rees
+ Victorian Olympus, William Gaunt
+ The Red Queen, Philippa Gregory
+ The Innocent, Posie Graeme-Evans
+ Oscar's Books, Thomas Wright
+ The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, ed. Richard Dawkins
+ The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
+ Complete Fairy Tales, Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
+ The Renaissance, Walter Pater
+ Heartstone, C. J. Sanson
+ England, England, Julian Barnes
+ The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Not a huge amount, I grant you, but a fairly decent smattering of various genres, fiction and non, mostly leaning toward historical fiction around the Wars of the Roses, and popular science.
Highlights:
All the science books, but particularly 'Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman', written by the late and wonderful Richard Feynman. Brilliant, funny, touching. Nominative Determinism in action.
'Oscar's Books' Absolutely fascinating and slightly obsessive look at Oscar Wilde through his library. Not only will it make you want to read more of him and his favourite titles, you'll reliase just how astoundingly brilliant a man he truly was.
Disappointments:
'Pop Co'. Don't get me wrong, it's well written with interesting concepts, but the author is clearly obsessed with homeopathy bunk. It wears thin.
'Complete Grimm Fairy Tales' - Oh God. Don't ever read this all at once. It consisted of about 1000 pages, and seven different plots spread over three hundred stories. One for dipping in to.
'Fandom of the Operator', Mostly funny, but it just got too damn dark and a bit too sick for my tastes. and I usually like that kind of stuff.