Books read in 2007

[pellegrina]

After a slow start (no books finished in January!), I gradually caught up to a respectable 85 books this year, largely thanks to my commute which involves four daily chunks of 15-20 minutes sitting in moving objects.

Comments

[rustica]

*blushes* Thank you for the compliment! Yep, pretty much all the slash was on my recommendation, inc that Vorkosigan fic. Ahem.

There's some titles in there I really must check out this year - thanks for that. Incidentally Le Guin is wonderful, but it's her two books of short stories I find myself going back to, time and time again - worth a look if you don't already know them.

[eledonecirrhosa]

Yeah I love Golden Withcbreed and Ancient Light too. I wish Mary Gentle would write more SF as I've found all her fantasy which I've attempted to read (apart from Grunts which is a comedy) rather dull.

Wasn't the second Tanya Huff novel also a re-write of some famous military action? Book 1 Rourke's Drift, book 2 a.n.other battle that I can't remember... Another author who I love her SF and think "Meh!" about her fantasy/horror.

[pellegrina]

Yeah, I'd have to go look at the author's note for which battle. It's funny how there are several women authors whose SF I love (Bujold, Cherryh, Gentle) but whose fantasy etc. I find middling-to-dull. I gave Grunts to malaheed for Christmas, though; somehow the idea of orcs with kalashnikovs just had Malaheed written all over it.

[friend_of_tofu]

87!!!! And one of them is "1610...", which is a doorstop.

Would that I had the time to read as many as that :¬( I doubt I've managed a quarter as many this year (unless you count comics and graphic novels, in which case at least as many), but I've also not really been keeping track of my reading, so maybe I should do that.

Have you read "Ash" yet?

[pellegrina]

But you have a social life, my dear. I have books.

I do tend to count graphic novels and comic books if they have an ISBN rather than an ISSN.

Haven't read Ash; was put off by the framing device and have found everything but the Orthe novels incredibly difficult to get into. na_lon, I believe, has been bogged down in Ash for a couple of years now...

[friend_of_tofu]

I'm surprised by the idea of getting bogged down in Ash - it's quite a page-turner bar a couple of slow chunks. The framing device is actually used *very* well later in the book. I think it's her best work, that I've read anyway, certainly worth going through if only for her obsessive attention to period detail. A. absolutely *loved* it, he's such a history geek.

ATM, my social life is a bit hampered by constant unwellness, which also stops me being able to concentrate on reading so much, but I'll grant you that it's certainly a trade-off. I hope we will get the chance to meet up at some point soon, it seems like aeons since I spent time with you & malaheed.

You guys should come to a con with us! Conception is the obvious choice - small and lovely - but as it's at the end of Jan, I don't think that's very feasible...

[friend_of_tofu]

Oh, and I'm currently reading "The Lives Of The Monster Dogs", which I bought form a charity shop because it sounded delightful and keeps making me think of you - no idea if it will turn out to be as great as the premise (a race of genetically engineered super dogs escape their slavery in an isolated recondite C19th Prussian-nostalgic city, and head for The Real World), but I can lend it to you if it is and you fancy it.

Also, have you read "The End Of My Y" by Scarlett Thomas? Not quite as amazing as its hype, but I enjoyed it a lot and found it to be entertainingly playful. I have lent it elsewhere right now, though.

[hunningham]

Hey, I might give "Deliverer" a try - I enjoyed the first Foreigner set but my interest petered out after book four (book five?). If you like Cherryh you might want to read The Paladin - a great woman swordfighter book.

[pellegrina]

Yes, we have that and I read it in the first flush of my Cherryhphilia. I did like the third Foreigner trilogy better than the second one. It's high time I reread some of her earlier stuff, with Cyteen 2 forthcoming.

[bunn]

I had never read any of Le Guin's science fiction

You've never read Rocannon's World? It's brilliant!