Reading List - 2012
Jan. 1st, 2012 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
askygoneonfireIn 2011 I managed a respectable 29. Commitment to 'read a shit load' rather waned in the tail end of the year so that is my primary target this year.
January
1. Sherlock Holmes short stories from The Complete Sherlock Holmes; The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet and The Adventures of the Copper Beeches - Arthur Conan Doyle
2. When God Was A Rabbit - Sarah Winman This was a book my Mum passed to me after reading it as she said "it's more your sort of thing than mine" which usually means it's either abstract or gay. Turns out it was a bit of both but badly written with an implausible plot designed to pull at the old heartstrings. Pulp fiction in the highest degree.
3. Snuff - Terry Pratchett Really disappointing. Discworld has been sadly going downhill rapidly since TP sadly became ill. A lot of the word play, humour, complexity and depth has gone out of the books and whilst the characters are engaging enough to read compulsively to the end, it doesn't satisfy in the way TP books used to. On a unrelated note, this was the first eBook I've purchased - from Amazon - and I was reet pissed off because it didn't have any chapter divisions in, which books I've got from Project Guttenberg do have.
4. Sympathy for the Devil - Howard Marks Rubbish. I only read it because the Amazon reviews were so good and, allegedly, a character was based on Richey. Striking similarity, yes, but I sincerely hope Marks doesn't know something about Richey the rest of us don't.
5. The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie Good ol' fashioned Christie action - although I think I detected just a hint of anti-Semitism...
February
6. The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare - G. K. Chesterton I enjoyed this but, by the end, I'm not sure I fully understood the depth of references in there. One to read again I think.
7. Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
8. Catching on Fire - Suzanne Collins
9. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins I read this entire trilogy in 5 days. Had nightmares every single night. Was absolutely captivated by Katniss - what an incredibly written character. In some ways it's typical sci-fi/post-apocalyptic fiction fayre, but in other it does what so many fail to do; it is utterly immersive. My only criticisms would be the way one character's death was dealt with and one aspect of the content of the epilogue which I didn't feel was inkeeping with the nformation we'd had on that character up to then but otherwise? Pretty much perfect.
** Leap Day Freebie; 10. A Hunger Artist - Franz Kafka Great, typically Kafka, typically numbing. **
March
11. The Plague - Albert Camus Vaguely disappointed with this. It took me months and months of stop-start to read it but I'm not sure why. It's interesting enough and the narrative style is typical of Camus but something of the pessimism I found so engaging in The Fall and The Outsider was missing. I'm glad I read and glad I finished it but...not a life changer.
12. The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson Good, lost focus in the second half; touched on lots of interesting points that could/should have been developed but weren't and made some blindingly obvious points too. A bit of a let down, particularly given how well it started.
April
13. Gig - Simon Armitage Great, great book. Just my kind of thing. A fusion of prose and poetry, anecdotes and earnest longing. Some fantastic descriptive passages - although I would expect nothing less from Armitage - and it does it all without crossing over into unadulterated pretentiousness. Adored it; made me laugh, made me think.
14. Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett I resolved to go back and read all the Discworld books I've missed (the middle ones - I read in order for a while then skipped to new releases as they happened) which include characters I like, first up i'm back tracking through the history of the Watch. This was good. Although coming to it from Snuff I can't believe Lady Sybil is the same person - MASSIVE change in her characterisation.
15. How to be a Woman - Caitlin Moran Started off brilliantly, my enthusiasm waned about halfway through and by the last quarter it was actively hard work. She moved from inclusive feminism to proscriptive feminism and a few things made me cringe which wouldn't ordinarily have made me cringe but she was so insistent "this is feminism!" that I felt compelled to engage with just how successfully she was a feminist...so yeah.
May
16. Men at Arms - Terry Pratchett It seemed to get a bit lost at times. Although the Corporal Carrot of this book is 100% the Carrot I fancy, which is nice.
June
17. Daytripper - Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon Good In principle this was a good graphic. In practice I didn't quite connect. The style and colouring were a bit imprecise for my liking. The 'surprise' element of each chapter ending with the death of the same character was verging on trite. Somehow, it just didn't come together for me - although it came close.
18. Starman: David Bowie, The Definitive Biography - Paul Trynka Great book, enough narrative pace to keep it interesting, a good overall view of the 'facts' with plenty of clearly marked personal stories to flesh it out. As with all rock biographies I'm sure many people will claim it's pure fantasy but it ties up with other things I've read and heard. I really enjoyed it although it did flag a bit towards the end.
July
19. James Potter and the Hall of Elders Crossing - G. Norman Lippert Objectively, this really wasn't very good - far too many Americanisms, a real betrayal of the basics of the canon (why are different year groups taking the same class? Why would there be a ban on flying brooms for under 11s? etc etc) but somehow, I believe the character of James. I probably won't read any more of the series but this one has entered my imagination rather determinedly.
20. The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie Brilliant! Best Christie I've ever read, absolutely adored Tuppence and Tommy and the little (explicit) feminist asides. Yes!
August
21. From The Complete Sherlock Holmes; Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes; Yellow Face, Silver Blaze, Stock Brokers Clerk, The Gloria Scott, The Musgrave Ritual, The Reigate Puzzle - Arthur Conan Doyle Not as good as some of the previous stories I've read, these are much shorter and as a result suffer from underdeveloped mysteries. Holmes is such a magnetic character, and Watson such an engaging narrator my enthusiasm has't waned much though.
September
22. Partners in Crime - Agatha Christie Fun but, as reviews on Amazon warned me, a bit repetitive by virtue of the short story formula. Still enjoyable - Tommy and Tuppence really magnetic characters.
23. Feet of Clay - Terry Pratchett Super quick read and all the things I love about Pratchett. Plus, Vimes, Carrot, and Angua <3.
24. Maurice and His Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett First book I read in Brighton - found it whilst emptying boxes in the attic of my parents house having believed I'd lent it to a friend who had made it disappear so read with real joy at being reunited. As, ever, fabulous; the man knows his rats.
October
25. Are You My Mother - Alison Bechdel As so many other people have observed, this book doesn't really hang together. The first third s dedicated to the author's reflections on how hard she is finding it to write the book she's writing which, instead of being pleasingly meta, is just annoying. It ends well but I found it, overall, to be navel gazing and quite thin. Certainly not in the same league as Fun Home.
26. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson Until I downloaded this to my kindle, I had no idea RLS wrote it, how ignorant of me. An enjoyable read, beautifully Gothic, spoiled somewhat by the fame of the story which meant I already knew the twist but well worth a read all the same.
November
Apparently I didn't read anything in November...Although I made a start on Mysteries of Udolpho but it is slow going. Weirdly, this happened last year too.
December
27. Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea - Guy Delise I've wanted to read this for a long time and picked it up on the spur of the moment at the library. It's a quick read but not really a life changer - a little too self involved to mean anything much...I think I was disappointed. Nothing to Envy remains the go to book on North Korea.
28. Y: The Last Man Vol. 3 One Small Step - Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, Jose Marzan, Jr. Still making me cringe at moments of sexism and fetishisation of women but it is still compelling enough for me to keep reading, especially since discovering the Brighton municipal library has the whole series!
29. Started, abandoned... Black Hole - Charles Burns. Tried and tried, but the content made me feel physically sick at times and I increasingly got the impression it would end misogynistically so I bailed out. First time in a very long time I've done that.
January
1. Sherlock Holmes short stories from The Complete Sherlock Holmes; The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet and The Adventures of the Copper Beeches - Arthur Conan Doyle
2. When God Was A Rabbit - Sarah Winman This was a book my Mum passed to me after reading it as she said "it's more your sort of thing than mine" which usually means it's either abstract or gay. Turns out it was a bit of both but badly written with an implausible plot designed to pull at the old heartstrings. Pulp fiction in the highest degree.
3. Snuff - Terry Pratchett Really disappointing. Discworld has been sadly going downhill rapidly since TP sadly became ill. A lot of the word play, humour, complexity and depth has gone out of the books and whilst the characters are engaging enough to read compulsively to the end, it doesn't satisfy in the way TP books used to. On a unrelated note, this was the first eBook I've purchased - from Amazon - and I was reet pissed off because it didn't have any chapter divisions in, which books I've got from Project Guttenberg do have.
4. Sympathy for the Devil - Howard Marks Rubbish. I only read it because the Amazon reviews were so good and, allegedly, a character was based on Richey. Striking similarity, yes, but I sincerely hope Marks doesn't know something about Richey the rest of us don't.
5. The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie Good ol' fashioned Christie action - although I think I detected just a hint of anti-Semitism...
February
6. The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare - G. K. Chesterton I enjoyed this but, by the end, I'm not sure I fully understood the depth of references in there. One to read again I think.
7. Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
8. Catching on Fire - Suzanne Collins
9. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins I read this entire trilogy in 5 days. Had nightmares every single night. Was absolutely captivated by Katniss - what an incredibly written character. In some ways it's typical sci-fi/post-apocalyptic fiction fayre, but in other it does what so many fail to do; it is utterly immersive. My only criticisms would be the way one character's death was dealt with and one aspect of the content of the epilogue which I didn't feel was inkeeping with the nformation we'd had on that character up to then but otherwise? Pretty much perfect.
** Leap Day Freebie; 10. A Hunger Artist - Franz Kafka Great, typically Kafka, typically numbing. **
March
11. The Plague - Albert Camus Vaguely disappointed with this. It took me months and months of stop-start to read it but I'm not sure why. It's interesting enough and the narrative style is typical of Camus but something of the pessimism I found so engaging in The Fall and The Outsider was missing. I'm glad I read and glad I finished it but...not a life changer.
12. The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson Good, lost focus in the second half; touched on lots of interesting points that could/should have been developed but weren't and made some blindingly obvious points too. A bit of a let down, particularly given how well it started.
April
13. Gig - Simon Armitage Great, great book. Just my kind of thing. A fusion of prose and poetry, anecdotes and earnest longing. Some fantastic descriptive passages - although I would expect nothing less from Armitage - and it does it all without crossing over into unadulterated pretentiousness. Adored it; made me laugh, made me think.
14. Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett I resolved to go back and read all the Discworld books I've missed (the middle ones - I read in order for a while then skipped to new releases as they happened) which include characters I like, first up i'm back tracking through the history of the Watch. This was good. Although coming to it from Snuff I can't believe Lady Sybil is the same person - MASSIVE change in her characterisation.
15. How to be a Woman - Caitlin Moran Started off brilliantly, my enthusiasm waned about halfway through and by the last quarter it was actively hard work. She moved from inclusive feminism to proscriptive feminism and a few things made me cringe which wouldn't ordinarily have made me cringe but she was so insistent "this is feminism!" that I felt compelled to engage with just how successfully she was a feminist...so yeah.
May
16. Men at Arms - Terry Pratchett It seemed to get a bit lost at times. Although the Corporal Carrot of this book is 100% the Carrot I fancy, which is nice.
June
17. Daytripper - Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon Good In principle this was a good graphic. In practice I didn't quite connect. The style and colouring were a bit imprecise for my liking. The 'surprise' element of each chapter ending with the death of the same character was verging on trite. Somehow, it just didn't come together for me - although it came close.
18. Starman: David Bowie, The Definitive Biography - Paul Trynka Great book, enough narrative pace to keep it interesting, a good overall view of the 'facts' with plenty of clearly marked personal stories to flesh it out. As with all rock biographies I'm sure many people will claim it's pure fantasy but it ties up with other things I've read and heard. I really enjoyed it although it did flag a bit towards the end.
July
19. James Potter and the Hall of Elders Crossing - G. Norman Lippert Objectively, this really wasn't very good - far too many Americanisms, a real betrayal of the basics of the canon (why are different year groups taking the same class? Why would there be a ban on flying brooms for under 11s? etc etc) but somehow, I believe the character of James. I probably won't read any more of the series but this one has entered my imagination rather determinedly.
20. The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie Brilliant! Best Christie I've ever read, absolutely adored Tuppence and Tommy and the little (explicit) feminist asides. Yes!
August
21. From The Complete Sherlock Holmes; Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes; Yellow Face, Silver Blaze, Stock Brokers Clerk, The Gloria Scott, The Musgrave Ritual, The Reigate Puzzle - Arthur Conan Doyle Not as good as some of the previous stories I've read, these are much shorter and as a result suffer from underdeveloped mysteries. Holmes is such a magnetic character, and Watson such an engaging narrator my enthusiasm has't waned much though.
September
22. Partners in Crime - Agatha Christie Fun but, as reviews on Amazon warned me, a bit repetitive by virtue of the short story formula. Still enjoyable - Tommy and Tuppence really magnetic characters.
23. Feet of Clay - Terry Pratchett Super quick read and all the things I love about Pratchett. Plus, Vimes, Carrot, and Angua <3.
24. Maurice and His Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett First book I read in Brighton - found it whilst emptying boxes in the attic of my parents house having believed I'd lent it to a friend who had made it disappear so read with real joy at being reunited. As, ever, fabulous; the man knows his rats.
October
25. Are You My Mother - Alison Bechdel As so many other people have observed, this book doesn't really hang together. The first third s dedicated to the author's reflections on how hard she is finding it to write the book she's writing which, instead of being pleasingly meta, is just annoying. It ends well but I found it, overall, to be navel gazing and quite thin. Certainly not in the same league as Fun Home.
26. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson Until I downloaded this to my kindle, I had no idea RLS wrote it, how ignorant of me. An enjoyable read, beautifully Gothic, spoiled somewhat by the fame of the story which meant I already knew the twist but well worth a read all the same.
November
Apparently I didn't read anything in November...Although I made a start on Mysteries of Udolpho but it is slow going. Weirdly, this happened last year too.
December
27. Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea - Guy Delise I've wanted to read this for a long time and picked it up on the spur of the moment at the library. It's a quick read but not really a life changer - a little too self involved to mean anything much...I think I was disappointed. Nothing to Envy remains the go to book on North Korea.
28. Y: The Last Man Vol. 3 One Small Step - Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra, Jose Marzan, Jr. Still making me cringe at moments of sexism and fetishisation of women but it is still compelling enough for me to keep reading, especially since discovering the Brighton municipal library has the whole series!
29. Started, abandoned... Black Hole - Charles Burns. Tried and tried, but the content made me feel physically sick at times and I increasingly got the impression it would end misogynistically so I bailed out. First time in a very long time I've done that.
