2012 Book List
2011 Book List
Books
1) A Long, Long Sleep - Anna Sheehan
I liked this better than I thought I would. I was initially dubious with the descriptions of 'stasis sleep' and 'interplanetary empires' on the back cover, but it started promisingly enough. I stumbled a bit after that though, getting annoyed with some of the nonsensical and arbitrary slang that was chucked in to make it sound 'futuristic'. "Sky", "Noid" and "Coid" to name three, which just make no sense at all. However, past the halfway point the book really started to find its groove and I loved that it didn't go for the 'easy' ending, which a lot of fairy tale adaptations sometimes seem to. It plays with relationships and builds them up and down wonderfully, and gives a fantastically bittersweet payoff at the end. Not the most well-crafted book in the world, you can sort of see the bits that show its a first novel, but there's plenty of promise to come.
2) Alice's Adventures Under Ground (handwritten Facsimile edition) - Lewis Carroll
This is essentially the first draft of Alice in Wonderland, as was told to Carroll's young friend Alice Liddell, which he then hand wrote and illustrated for her and gave to her as a Christmas present. It's a gorgeous edition, and his handwriting is lovely and the illustrations are beautiful in their simplicity. The story itself is only 90 pages long, and it's an easy read - a much shorter and simplified version of the eventual one he released. However, the introduction was fascinating as well, tracking his relationship with the Liddell family and how this brought about the story.
3) The Spirit Thief - Rachel Aaron
Easy reading, semi-high fantasy. It was enjoyable fluff, but didn't really go that deep, and I wasn't particularly drawn to any of the characters. I'm not sure I'll bother with any of the next ones, but glad I gave it a try.
4) Superpowers - David J Schwartz
Recommended to me on the NaNo forums, and I really really enjoyed it. Lots of very personal stories in this comparatively short book. There's no traditional villains, it's just a very human story with the powers used as a catalyst to explore the lives and developments of these characters, set against the backdrop of the run up to, and short time after, 9/11. A very good book!
5) Shimmerspell - Kimberly Spencer
This was a free ebook, which is the only reason I'm not cross that I read it. It's self-published, and you can tell - the pacing is off, scenes which should be important are rushed and in some cases it feels like they are missed out entirely, whilst other scenes, such as a fascination with the main character's school nemesis at the beginning of the book take up a lot of wordage considering they're never mentioned again. The character development is non-existant, and the relationship development is patchy. Jensen goes from finding Liam creepy in one scene to "starting to adore" him in the very next. Explanations are left out - we are told her sister is a 'con artist', and just left to believe it with no backing up of it. That's a fairly large plot-bomb to drop casually into a novel and then ignore. And how does that seem to have affected the main character? Not too badly, she's just bummed she can't go to the cinema. She doesn't change as a character through the story, and whilst she nominally reacts to events, they don't seem to really bother her all that much. The dialogue is pretty clunky in places too. Why does Liam trust her after exchanging perhaps not even 500 words with her in the whole book?
It's total nonsense. I could rattle on about it for ages. It's just crap. However, in its favour, it's also very short.
6) The Unicorn Crisis - Jon Rosenberg
Another e-book, and to begin with it was such a massive leap in quality after Shimmerspell that I was fully expecting to really love this book. And it's not bad, but I certainly wouldn't have finished it so quickly if I hadn't had a three hour stint waiting to meet J the other night. That might actually be why I sort of lost interest in it a bit. I finished it more because I wanted to get it finished than because I was worried about what happened. The plot got a bit repetitive - we've found what we need! Oh something's happened to stop us! We've found the next bit! Something else has happened! And it's quite a long book for such a formulaic structure. That said, it was well written, and I did like the characters. And it's set in Birmingham and Stratford on Avon, so it gets bonus points for being local as well.
7) Timeless - Gail Carriger
This took me way too long to read. I kept getting distracted by the Big Bang Theory, my art, and cute desks on eBay. The final Parasol Protectorate book! Follows on nicely in tone, and manages to avoid the usual pitfalls that some series have when introducing a baby as a major character. I have mixed feelings on the ending, but perhaps that might be just end-of-series mopes on my part. I've never been very good at parting with well-loved characters and series I've enjoyed. I'm not inclined to do it with good grace usually either.
Another year to wait until the next series starts!
8) The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis
I wanted to dabble in Narnia again, and I have misplaced the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe after my last attempt to read it. There was a lot more humour than I remember in C.S. Lewis, but that might just be because I've seen what feels like a hundred adaptations of LWW, and it gets a bit trying after a while. I might try 'The Horse and His Boy' next, working through the ones that don't tend to get adapted.
9) How the Whale Became and Other Stories - Ted Hughes
A collection of creation stories by Ted Hughes. It's like 'Just So Stories', but messed up. The very first story in the collection has all the birds contemplating mass suicide because they've been tricked by the owl and area miserable. And then there's the bee made by a demon, and the poor old whale from the title. I read it so many times as a kid, and never linked it with Ted Hughes. Re-reading it now, suddenly it all becomes clear.
10) The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists - Gideon Defoe
The plot for this is totally different from the film, which was quite refreshing in a way because it meant that I could enjoy it completely without worrying about spoilers from having seen the film. Very wry and silly at the same time, I really quite enjoyed it. It's difficult to know who it's aimed at, because it's such a quite and silly read that I assumed it was for younger readers, but some lines and jokes really do make you wonder. I might invest in the next couple in the series at some point, because it was good fun.
Edit: Wikipedia says - "The book is not aimed at children, and much of the humour relies on an adult appreciation of cliché and irony, though children may well enjoy it."
So that answers that then.
11) Grave Peril - Jim Butcher
The 3rd Dresden Files book, this is where they're starting to introduce the ideas of a larger world and more overarcing plot. The real serious business is going to kick off in the next book, but this was a really neat way of getting it all set up. The first two could really be stand-alones. I really like how he's started to slowly expand the cast as well, and populate the world he's built more fully.
12) The Hunting of the Snark - Lewis Carroll
You can see why this isn't Lewis Carroll's most famous epic poem. It doesn't have quite the same lyrical nature as 'Jabberwocky', and it seems a bit too overcrowded with characters and conceits for what it's trying to do. It's a beautiful edition though, with all the original illustrations!
13) Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
A re-read, but it is such a good book. There is definitely more of Pratchett than Gaiman in this, I think, certainly in tone, although some of the descriptions do hold that beautiful flowing quality which characterises Gaiman's later work. And the ending is so lovely and poignant. It's sort of a Love Story to England in its own subtle way, which is great.
14) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Man I love this book. This must be my fifth re-reading at least, and I still forget how much I love it. It just ticks every possible box for me.
15) Sandman: The Dream Hunters - Neil Gaiman
This is a wonderful little novella/thing, a retelling of a Japanese folk tale for the 10th Anniversary of Sandman. The Fox and the Monk, I think the original's called? It's beautifully done and very evocative, with absolutely gorgeous watercolour artwork to accompany it.
16) Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde
Another re-read, because I've been told the second part is due out next year, this is a really great book. Set in an unspecified future after a "Something That Happened", people have lost the ability to see in full natural colour. Society is streamlined by the colours you can see - Ultraviolets and Purples at the top, down through Blues, Greens, Oranges, Yellows and Reds, to the lowly Greys who are treated as second-class citizens, live in ghettos and are used as menial labour. It's all based around a strange Public-School-esque system, with merits, Prefects and Monitors. It's a wonderful example of worldbuilding, with a great mystery and a slow reveal. I've heard the second volume got delayed because of lack of interest, which is a shame because it's amazing, and I really want to read the next bit!
17) Lorna Doone - R. D. Blackmore
This took me a few weeks to completed, which was a little counter-intuitive to my 'Reading 50 Books in a Year' challenge, but certainly up there in my 'Reading More Cerebral Books' goal. It took me a while to get into, because the start at least was written quite dialectally, but as it went on and the plot got going, the narrator stopped drifting on tangents so much and it got easier to understand. I really enjoyed it, and I'm chuffed to pieces that I finished it.
18) Summer Knight - Jim Butcher
As a bit of a palette-cleanser after Lorna Doone, it was nice to read something I could just bomb through and process really easily. I do really love these Dresden Files books. I'm trying not to read them all too quickly though or I'll find myself at a bit of a loss when I'm up-to-date. But this one was all about Fairies, and it was super. I really liked it.
19) The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Another of the 'Ones I Should Have Read'. It was a surprisingly quick read, and quite easy to understand. It was one of those ones where you can tell it Isn't Going to End Well right from the very start, which isn't something I'm used to. And it's very much just a narrative on human behaviour more than anything particularly plot-heavy.
20) One of Our Thursdays Is Missing - Jasper Fforde
After meeting Jasper Fforde and finding out how long it was until the nexts Shades of Grey book, I thought I should maybe return to the Thursday Next series to distract myself until then. This one wasn't narrated by Thursday, but her written counterpart, so it had a slightly different tone. And it was mostly set in Book World, which was actually super good fun, I love all the punning. And it referenced the Great Gatsby, which made it doubly-good to follow on from it!
21) Wither - Lauren DeStefano
Picked this up whilst in Canada, and whilst it's not my usual reading fodder, I quite enjoyed it. I wasn't... gripped, or blown away, but it was a good read, with decent characters and worldbuilding, and fairly emotive when it needed to be. I'll maybe try to check out the rest of the trilogy when I get the chance. Not a high priority though - like I said, it was enjoyable but not to the point that I NEEDED to know what happened.
22) Persuasion - Jane Austen
Only the second Austen novel I've ever completed, and I will admit I struggled a bit to begin with. I think it seems to be true of all Austen novels other than Pride and Prejudice that the opening is quite hard to get through. I struggled a little to relate to Anne Eliott, she seemed to lack a bit of the spark that Elizabeth has in P&P, and there isn't really enough interaction between her and Captain Wentworth for my liking - but it was good, a nice love story and the final reveal and them getting together was just what I was after.
23) The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde - RL Stephenson
Much easier to get through than I thought it would be, I really quite enjoyed it. Although only like the last 20 pages or so were really about Jekyll and Hyde, the rest of it was mainly about one of Jekyll's friends being confused and trying to work out what one earth is going on. But yes, definitely enjoyed it.
24) The Old Man And The Sea - Ernest Hemmingway
I found this difficult to get to grips with, the style of writing was... easy to read, but not something which really spoke to anything in me, or which grabbed me emotionally. Although, God, but the resolution was a bit traumatic. If I'd had to read it for school, and that was the ending, I would have been so cross. Not so much when I've read it off my own back.
26) The Island of Doctor Moreau - HG Wells
I really enjoyed this one - it carried you along quite nicely, and really got you involved. I'm surprised it isn't more famous, it's certainly very dark and has the sort of questioning of what makes a human a human which is usually quite popular with fans of Gothic novels, and whilst it's not strictly gothic, I think tonally it shares quite a bit with them. Quite an easy read as well.
27) Gods Behaving Badly - Marie Phillips
One I got a few years ago and enjoyed the re-read. Fast pace, nicely realised characters, some great comedy. Apparently they're making a film of it with Christopher Walken and Sharon Stone. I can only think that Christopher Walken is Zeus, and Sharon Stone is Hera, because there aren't really any other characters they could be.
28) Chobits volumes 1-8 - CLAMP
A complete manga series, so I'm counting it. I bought the first 5 volumes of this when I was in high school, but was never driven to finish it. I'd been contemplating selling them, so re-read them to give them a chance, and realised that my problem was I wasn't sold on the Human-Robot romance element. I wanted him to get with the human girl. I found the last few volumes online, and once they wrapped up things in a satisfactory manner with the human girl, I began to warm towards the idea of Chi and Hideki getting together. AND THEN THE ENDING HAPPENED. WTF was all that about? So, those got sold with no looking back.
29) Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
Austen Trifecta! I've tried to read this on many occasions and just got distracted. I'm SO GLAD I finally finished it. Elinor is way more badass in this than the adaptations would have you realise - I guess because Marianne's story is easier to portray? But I love it. And whilst the BBC version they did a couple of years ago is more accurate to the book's content, I think I still prefer the Emma Thompson/Ang Lee version, and have a real jonesing to watch it again.
30) Paint Your Dragon - Tom Holt
Another one I've tried to read several times. I struggled with this one more than some of his more recent stuff I've read, I don't know whether it was the subject matter, or just because his style has changed since he wrote this. But it was still very good! So glad I can finally tick it off.