books i've read this year...

[txorakeriak]

1. "Denn sie betrügt man nicht" - Elizabeth George
   
2. "Gott schütze dieses Haus" - Elizabeth George
   
3. "Auf Ehre und Gewissen" - Elizabeth George
   
4. "The Fellowship of the Ring" - J.R.R. Tolkien
   
5. "The Two Towers" - J.R.R. Tolkien
   
6. "Berts Megakatastrophen" - S. Olsson & A. Jacobsson
   
7. "Berts jungfräuliche Katastrophen" - S. Olsson & A. Jacobsson
   
8. "Inspektor Jury schläft außer Haus" - Martha Grimes
   
9. "Inspektor Jury spielt Domino" - Martha Grimes
   
10. "Blinder Eifer" - Martha Grimes
    
11. "Fremde Federn" - Martha Grimes
    
12. "The Battles of Hastings II" - Agatha Christie
    
13. "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" - Agatha Christie
    
14. "Murder on the Orient Express" - Agatha Christie
    
15. "And Then There Were None" - Agatha Christie
    
16. "Sad Cypress" - Agatha Christie
    
17. "Five Little Pigs" - Agatha Christie
    
18. "The Hollow" - Agatha Christie
    
19. "Die Kleptomanin" - Agatha Christie
    
20. "Auch Pünktlichkeit kann töten" - Agatha Christie
    
21. "Auf doppelter Spur" - Agatha Christie
    
22. "Curtain" - Agatha Christie
    
23. "Hercule Poirot Short Stories" - Agatha Christie
    
24. "Murder in Mesopotamia" - Agatha Christie
    
25. "Death on the Nile" - Agatha Christie
    
26. "Evil Under The Sun" - Agatha Christie
    
27. "Wiedersehen mit Mrs. Oliver" - Agatha Christie
    
28. "Sleeping Murder" - Agatha Christie
    
29. "16 Uhr 50 ab Paddington" - Agatha Christie
    
30. "Das Geheimnis der Goldmine" - Agatha Christie
    
31. "Mord im Pfarrhaus" - Agatha Christie
    
32. "Die Tote in der Bibliothek" - Agatha Christie
    
33. "Der Dienstagabend-Club" - Agatha Christie
    
34. "Miss Marples Fälle" - Agatha Christie
    
35. "Zeugin der Anklage" - Agatha Christie
    
36. "The Mouse Trap" - Agatha Christie
    
37. "A Caribbean Mystery" - Agatha Christie
    
38. "Hercule Poirot's Christmas" - Agatha Christie
    
39. "A Murder is Announced" - Agatha Christie
    
40. "The Moving Finger" - Agatha Christie
    
41. "Third Girl" - Agatha Christie
    
42. "Taken at the Flood" - Agatha Christie
    
43. "Cards on the Table" - Agatha Christie
    
44. "The Big Four" - Agatha Christie
    
45. "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" - Agatha Christie
    
46. "Nemesis" - Agatha Christie
    
47. "The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side" - Agatha Christie
    
48. "At Bertram's Hotel" - Agatha Christie
    
49. "Mrs. McGinty's Dead" - Agatha Christie
    
50. "After the Funeral" - Agatha Christie
    
51. "Elephants Can Remember"- Agatha Christie
    
52. "Hallowe'en Party" - Agatha Christie
    
53. "Appointment With Death" - Agatha Christie
    
54. "Death in the Clouds" - Agatha Christie
    
55. "Cat Among the Pigeons" - Agatha Christie
    
56. "They Do It With Mirrors" - Agatha Christie
    
57. "The Giver" - Lois Lowry
    
58. "The Colour of Magic" - Terry Pratchett
    
59. "The Light Fantastic" - Terry Pratchett
    
60. "Good Omens" - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
    
61. "Der eingebildete Kranke" - Molière
    
62. "Le Petit Prince" - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
    
63. "Robinson Crusoe" - Daniel Defoe
    
64. "Kidnapped" - Robert Louis Stevenson
    
65. "The True Story of Horatio Hornblower" - C. Northcote Parkinson
    
66. "Funny Fanny" - Isolde Heyne
    
67. "Nelson in the Caribbean" - Joseph F. Callo
    
68. "The Mystery of the Blue Train" - Agatha Christie
    
69. "Nelson: Britannia's God of War" - Andrew Lambert
    
70. "Warum Männer nicht zuhören und Frauen schlecht einparken" - Allan & Barbara Pease
    
71. "Lucky Luke: Westwärts" - Morris

Andrew Lambert's biography of Nelson, which I bought in 2006 at the Historical Dockyard in Portsmouth, is, in my opinion, one of the best or even the best Nelson biography. It's informative, well-written, well-structured, and sound in its arguments. Especially the scene of Nelson's death couldn't have been portrayed any better. If you're looking for a good Nelson biography that tells you about the man as well as the era he lived in, this book is the one you should buy. And from what I remember, it wasn't even that expensive. I think I paid £8 for it, which makes it an awesome bargain compared to "Nelson's Navy: Ships, Men and Organization, 1793-1815" by Brian Lavery.

I bought "Warum Männer nicht zuhören und Frauen schlecht einparken" ("Why men don't listen and women are bad at parallel parking") ages ago because it was at the top of the German bestseller list for months on end. Now that I've read it, I don't think the bestseller status was deserved, but I understand why it was, just like I understand why loads of people buy yellow press. And I'm certain that the same percentage of people who read tabloids and believe every single word of it also believed every word of this book. It's entertaining in the way it portrays stereotypical male and female behaviour in little scenes, but it's not empiric, its scientific value is low, and you shouldn't take it seriously. I do appreciate the fact that the authors try to make it clear that a lot of things (such as the sexual orientation of people) are decided by genes and hormones and not a matter of upbringing, education or social life, but the research results that the authors used to back up their theories aren't properly credited, and they don't always make sense. For instance, considering the way the book argues, all transgender people in this world are biologically male, which is simply not true. Also, it gets repetitive soon because it all focuses on a handful of points. In my opinion, it's a good book for women with low self-esteem because every female bad habit is excused whereas the same doesn't happen with male bad habits. Men are portrayed as stupid and useless throughout the book and it's always them who have to change to make a relationship work, never women. Don't use it to improve your relationship. It won't work anyway because basically the book tells you that men and women are incompatible to the largest extent.

I'm currently reading "44 Years with the Same Bird - A Liverpudlian Love Affair" by Brian Reade, and a book that starts like this must be awesome:

Bill Shankly's bare manhood stood three feet away from me. OK, stood is an exaggeration. We were getting on well, but not that well.