Books read in 2005.
Even though I didn't consciously commit to reading 50 books a year, it looks like I just managed to squeak by this year. Though I've tried to record every book that I read for the past, oh, five or six years, anyhow, this is the first time that I've actually tallied up the number of books I've read throughout the year.
Mind you, 50 books a year is pretty pathetic by my mother's standards, since she would typically read between two and three hundred books a year while she was working full time (and no, she didn't read books for her job). Now that she's retired, I suspect that her total is closer to five hundred books a year.
I've never read as fast as my mother. On the other hand, I've also tended to read, at least since I graduated from university, a lot more non-fictional books than she does; far and away the (literary?) lion's share of what she reads is popular fiction: she has little patience for "literary" fiction (Philip Roth, John Updike, John Barth, Umberto Eco, Roddy Doyle, Zadie Smith, Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, etc., etc.) or most non-fictional books, be they history, political, economic, sociology, or whatever, no matter how interested she might be in a novelized treatment of the subject. (A notable non-fictional exception to the rule is James Bradley and Ron Powers' Flags of Our Fathers.) I also like to think that I tend to retain more that I've read than she does: it's not uncommon for her to read between a third and a half of a book before remembering that she's read it before. (Needless to say, she's not anal retentive enough to keep track of the books she's read; although, given the volume of what she reads, she probably should: it might cut down on the number of unintentional re-reads that she does.)
Anyway, without further ado, herewith is the list of books that I've read in Anno Domini 2005, more or less in the order that I read them (as I tend to read two or sometimes three books at a time, the chronology is somewhat difficult to tweeze out); where I've reviewed, excerpted, or given a reasonably pithy mention of a book in my LJ, I've provided a link to the appropriate entry, so that anybody who tires of playing one variation of solitaire or another while waiting out the bouts of nausea resulting from tonight's festivities has another relatively painless -- and meaningless -- non-telly activity that they may perform.
Sharon Kay Penman -- The Sunne in Splendour (started on 17 December 2004; finished on 5 January 2005)
Norman Spinrad -- The Iron Dream
B. Traven -- The Carreta (translator unknown)
Amos Oz -- A Tale of Love and Darkness (translated by Nicholas de Lange)
Marjane Satrapi -- Persepolis (various translators) [GRAPHIC NOVEL]
Marjane Satrapi -- Persepolis 2 (various translators) [GRAPHIC NOVEL]
Peter Blauner -- Slow Motion Riot
Barbara Hambly -- Star Wars: Planet of Twilight
Akhil Sharma -- An Obedient Father
William Dalrymple -- The Age of Kali: Indian Travels and Encounters
Francis Davis -- Afterglow: A Last Conversation With Pauline Kael
J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Lin Carter -- Under the Green Star
Karl Edward Wagner -- Bloodstone
Allen Edwardes -- The Jewel in the Lotus: A Historical Survey of the Sexual Culture of the East
Pinki Virani -- Bitter Chocolate: Child Sexual Abuse in India
Lin Carter -- When the Green Star Calls
Lin Carter -- By the Light of the Green Star
Alan Furst -- Dark Star
Itzhak (Isaac) Babel -- Red Cavalry (translated by Peter Constantine)
Lin Carter -- As the Green Star Rises
Alan Furst -- The Polish Officer
W. Bruce Lincoln -- Red Victory: A History of the Russian Civil War, 1918 - 1921
Will Eisner -- The Name of the Game [GRAPHIC NOVEL]
B. Traven -- March to the Montería (translator unknown)
S.M. Stirling -- The Peshawar Lancers
Paul Buck -- Lisbon: A Cultural and Literary Companion
Robert Littell -- The Company: A Novel of the CIA
Richard Henry Tawney -- Religion and the Rise of Capitalism: A Historical Study
Anthony Trollope -- He Knew He Was Right
James M. Cain -- Mildred Pierce [RE-READ]
Frederick Lewis Allen -- Since Yesterday
J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Lee Child -- Killing Floor
Stephen King -- The Colorado Kid
K. Patrick Conner -- Kingdom Road
Ed McBain -- Hark!
Frederick Lewis Allen -- Only Yesterday
Donald Hamilton -- Assassins Have Starry Eyes (a.k.a.: Assignment: Murder)
Donald Hamilton -- The Retaliators [RE-READ]
Donald Hamilton -- The Terrorizers [RE-READ]
Donald Hamilton -- The Revengers
Charles Willeford -- The Woman Chaser (a.k.a. The Director)
Charles Willeford -- Miami Blues
Andrew Barr -- Drink: A Social History of America
J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
B. Traven -- Trozas (translator unknown)
Eric Ambler -- A Coffin for Dimitrios (a.k.a.: The Mask of Dimitrios)
Owen Wister -- The Virginian
Alan Furst -- The World At Night
Suetonius -- The Twelve Caesars (translated by Robert Graves; translation "cleaned up" by Michael Grant)
Ed McBain -- The Gutter and the Grave (a.k.a.: I'm Cannon -- For Hire)
Lin Carter -- In the Green Star's Glow
Lawrence Block -- The Specialists
Adam Hochschild -- The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin
Marion Zimmer Bradley & Mercedes Lackey -- Rediscovery: A Novel of Darkover
======================================================
Total as of 31 December 2005: 56
Total excluding graphic novels: 53
Total excluding graphic novels AND books that I re-read: 50
Mind you, 50 books a year is pretty pathetic by my mother's standards, since she would typically read between two and three hundred books a year while she was working full time (and no, she didn't read books for her job). Now that she's retired, I suspect that her total is closer to five hundred books a year.
I've never read as fast as my mother. On the other hand, I've also tended to read, at least since I graduated from university, a lot more non-fictional books than she does; far and away the (literary?) lion's share of what she reads is popular fiction: she has little patience for "literary" fiction (Philip Roth, John Updike, John Barth, Umberto Eco, Roddy Doyle, Zadie Smith, Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, etc., etc.) or most non-fictional books, be they history, political, economic, sociology, or whatever, no matter how interested she might be in a novelized treatment of the subject. (A notable non-fictional exception to the rule is James Bradley and Ron Powers' Flags of Our Fathers.) I also like to think that I tend to retain more that I've read than she does: it's not uncommon for her to read between a third and a half of a book before remembering that she's read it before. (Needless to say, she's not anal retentive enough to keep track of the books she's read; although, given the volume of what she reads, she probably should: it might cut down on the number of unintentional re-reads that she does.)
Anyway, without further ado, herewith is the list of books that I've read in Anno Domini 2005, more or less in the order that I read them (as I tend to read two or sometimes three books at a time, the chronology is somewhat difficult to tweeze out); where I've reviewed, excerpted, or given a reasonably pithy mention of a book in my LJ, I've provided a link to the appropriate entry, so that anybody who tires of playing one variation of solitaire or another while waiting out the bouts of nausea resulting from tonight's festivities has another relatively painless -- and meaningless -- non-telly activity that they may perform.
Sharon Kay Penman -- The Sunne in Splendour (started on 17 December 2004; finished on 5 January 2005)
Norman Spinrad -- The Iron Dream
B. Traven -- The Carreta (translator unknown)
Amos Oz -- A Tale of Love and Darkness (translated by Nicholas de Lange)
Marjane Satrapi -- Persepolis (various translators) [GRAPHIC NOVEL]
Marjane Satrapi -- Persepolis 2 (various translators) [GRAPHIC NOVEL]
Peter Blauner -- Slow Motion Riot
Barbara Hambly -- Star Wars: Planet of Twilight
Akhil Sharma -- An Obedient Father
William Dalrymple -- The Age of Kali: Indian Travels and Encounters
Francis Davis -- Afterglow: A Last Conversation With Pauline Kael
J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Lin Carter -- Under the Green Star
Karl Edward Wagner -- Bloodstone
Allen Edwardes -- The Jewel in the Lotus: A Historical Survey of the Sexual Culture of the East
Pinki Virani -- Bitter Chocolate: Child Sexual Abuse in India
Lin Carter -- When the Green Star Calls
Lin Carter -- By the Light of the Green Star
Alan Furst -- Dark Star
Itzhak (Isaac) Babel -- Red Cavalry (translated by Peter Constantine)
Lin Carter -- As the Green Star Rises
Alan Furst -- The Polish Officer
W. Bruce Lincoln -- Red Victory: A History of the Russian Civil War, 1918 - 1921
Will Eisner -- The Name of the Game [GRAPHIC NOVEL]
B. Traven -- March to the Montería (translator unknown)
S.M. Stirling -- The Peshawar Lancers
Paul Buck -- Lisbon: A Cultural and Literary Companion
Robert Littell -- The Company: A Novel of the CIA
Richard Henry Tawney -- Religion and the Rise of Capitalism: A Historical Study
Anthony Trollope -- He Knew He Was Right
James M. Cain -- Mildred Pierce [RE-READ]
Frederick Lewis Allen -- Since Yesterday
J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Lee Child -- Killing Floor
Stephen King -- The Colorado Kid
K. Patrick Conner -- Kingdom Road
Ed McBain -- Hark!
Frederick Lewis Allen -- Only Yesterday
Donald Hamilton -- Assassins Have Starry Eyes (a.k.a.: Assignment: Murder)
Donald Hamilton -- The Retaliators [RE-READ]
Donald Hamilton -- The Terrorizers [RE-READ]
Donald Hamilton -- The Revengers
Charles Willeford -- The Woman Chaser (a.k.a. The Director)
Charles Willeford -- Miami Blues
Andrew Barr -- Drink: A Social History of America
J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
B. Traven -- Trozas (translator unknown)
Eric Ambler -- A Coffin for Dimitrios (a.k.a.: The Mask of Dimitrios)
Owen Wister -- The Virginian
Alan Furst -- The World At Night
Suetonius -- The Twelve Caesars (translated by Robert Graves; translation "cleaned up" by Michael Grant)
Ed McBain -- The Gutter and the Grave (a.k.a.: I'm Cannon -- For Hire)
Lin Carter -- In the Green Star's Glow
Lawrence Block -- The Specialists
Adam Hochschild -- The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin
Marion Zimmer Bradley & Mercedes Lackey -- Rediscovery: A Novel of Darkover
======================================================
Total as of 31 December 2005: 56
Total excluding graphic novels: 53
Total excluding graphic novels AND books that I re-read: 50