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Willoyd's Reading 2020


willoyd

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Post number

02.  Book List 2020

03.  Favourite books

04.  Favourite authors

05.  Tour of the United States

06.  Classic fiction:  Dickens, Zola

07.  Fiction:  O'Brian, Sansom, Leon, Simenon

08.  Some stats

09.  spare

10.  spare

11.  spare

12.  spare

13.  spare

14.  2019 review, 2020 preview

15.  Accolades for 2019

 

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Book List 2020

Previous book lists: 2009, 2010-2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

January

01.  The Summer Isles by Philip Marsden *****

02.  All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy G *****

03.  Charles I, An Abbreviated Life by Mark Kishlansky ****

 

February

04.  Life Without Diabetes by Roy Taylor ***

05.  Maigret in New York by Georges Simenon ***

 

March

06.  A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles G *****

07.  Emma by Jane Austen R ******

08.  The Napoleonic Wars by Mike Rapport R ****

 

April

09.  Becoming by Michelle Obama G *****

10.  The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent ***

11.  Joy by Jonathan Lee ****

12.  Pale Rider by Laura Spinney ****

13.  Stoner by John Williams GU ***

14.  The Easternmost House by Juliet Blaxland ****

15.  Napoleon by David Bell ****

16.  A Game of Birds and Wolves by Simon Parkin *****

17.  The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton G *****

18.  The Seafarers by Stephen Rutt *****

19.  Harpole and Foxberrow, General Publishers by JL Carr *****

20.  Circe by Madeline Miller G ***

 

May

21.  George IV, King in Waiting by Stella Tillyard ***

22.  A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens G *****

23.  Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene G *****

XX.  The House by Simon Lelic G *

24.  How To Stop Time by Matt Haig G **

25.  Playback by Raymond Chandler *****

26.  The Regency Revolution by Robert Morrison *****

27.  Salt on Your Tongue by Charlotte Runcie ****

28.  The Little Grey Men by 'BB' ****

29.  How I Won The Yellow Jumper by Ned Boulting A ****

 

June

30.  Home by Julie Myerson *****

31.  Wing by Matthew Francis ****

32.  Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler GU ***

33.  Swifts and Swallows by Mike Unwin ****

34.  The Twelve Birds of Christmas by Stephen Moss ****

35.  The Hollow Crown by Dan Jones ****

36.  Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 by Naoki Higashida G ***

37.  The War of the Worlds by HG Wells *****

 

July

38.  The Library of Ice by Nancy Campbell ****

39.  The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood GR ***

40.  Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell G ******

41.  The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd *****

42.  Thrones, Dominations by Jill Paton Walsh *****

43.  Gold by Chris Cleave G *

 

August

44.  Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson GR ******

45.  The Outrun by Amy Liptrot GR ******

46.  Travels with a Donkey by Robert Louis Stevenson ****

47.  A Month in the Country by JL Carr GR ******

48.  The Last Englishman by Byron Rogers R *****

 

September

49.  The 100-Year Old Man Who.... by Jonas Jonasson G **

50.  The Affluent Society by J.K. Galbraith ***

51.  Stop What You're Doing and Read This by Carmen Callil and others ****

52.  The Death of King Arthur, transl by Simon Armitage R ***

53.  The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich U *****

54.  My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite G ***

55.  Working with Nature by Jeremy Purseglove ***

 

October

56.  Mr Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo G *****

57.  Raw Spirit by Iain Banks R ***

58.  To War with Whitaker by Hermione Ranfurley ****

59.  Plainsong by Kent Haruf U ****

60.  My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout G ***

61.  Why We Get the Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman ****

62.  Dear Reader by Cathy Retzenbrinck ****

63.  A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson G **

 

November

64.  The Fortune of the Rougons by Emile Zola R ****

65.  The Covid-19 Catastrophe by Richard Horton ****

66.  Orison for a Curlew by Horatio Clare ****

67.  Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge ****

68.  Island Stories by David Reynolds *****

69.  Greenery by Tim Dee ***

70.  Ariel, A Literary Life of Jan Morris by Derek Johns ****

71.  Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere by Jan Morris *****   

72.  Maigret's Memoirs by Georges Simenon *****

 

December

73.  The Body by Bill Bryson G ****

74.  The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton G ****

75.  A Lost Lady by Willa Cather ****

76.  Wintering by Katherine May ****

77.  Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey ****

78.  From Mull to Cape by Richard Guise ***

79.  Nathan Coulter by Wendell Berry U *****

80.  Wintering by Stephen Rutt ***

81.  Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf R ******

82.  A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon R *****

83.  Paddington Abroad by Michael Bond *****

84.  The Hours by Michael Cunningham R ******               

                                

Ratings
* Disliked this (probably a lot), likely to be unfinished.
** Disappointing: didn't really engage with or like this, may be unfinished.
*** OK: decent enough read, but not unputdownable.
**** Good: into the realms of not wanting to put it down.
***** Excellent: outstanding, even if not quite a favourite.
****** A favourite: something makes this special, even if only personal to me.


A=audiobook, G=Reading group read, R=reread, U=USA States Challenge read,  X=unfinished

 

Edited by willoyd
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Favourite Books
A record of the 127 books and series to which I've given my top rating.  These aren't necessarily the best literature I've read, but the books that are personal favourites, that, for whatever reason, struck a special chord in my reading. Individual books within a series are likely to have scored less, but the rating is for the series as a whole. The lists are divided into

  • Fiction
  • Non-fiction
  • Children's Fiction

Fiction (79)
Ackroyd, Peter: Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem
Ackroyd, Peter: Hawksmoor
Atkinson, Kate: Case Histories
Austen, Jane: Sense and Sensibility
Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice
Austen, Jane: Emma
Bronte, Charlotte: Jane Eyre
Buchan, John: John Macnab
Carr JL: A Month in the Country
Carr JL: The Harpole Report
Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Canterbury Tales
Chevalier, Tracey: Falling Angels
Childers, Erskine: The Riddle of the Sands
Collins, Norman: London Belongs To Me
Cooper, Susan: The Dark is Rising
Cunningham, Michael: The Hours
Davies, Martin: The Conjuror's Bird
Dickens, Charles: A Christmas Carol
Dickens, Charles: Bleak House
Dickens, Charles: David Copperfield

Dunant, Sarah: In the Company of the Courtesan

Eco, Umberto: The Name of the Rose
Eliot, George: Middlemarch
Elphinstone, Margaret: The Sea Road
Elphinstone, Margaret: Voyageurs
Ewing, Barbara: Rosetta
Fforde, Jasper: The Eyre Affair
Goscinny, Rene: Asterix in Britain
Greig, Andrew: The Return of John Macnab

Guareschi, Giovanni: The Don Camillo series
Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Hardy, Thomas: Far From The Madding Crowd
Herbert, Frank: Dune
Heyer, Georgette: The Grand Sophy

Hill, Reginald: On Beulah Height
Holtby, Winifred: South Riding

Horwood, William: Stonor Eagles, The

Horwood, William: Skallagrig
Hulme, Keri: The Bone People

Ivey, Eowyn: To the Bright Edge of the World
Japrisot, Sebastian: A Very Long Engagement

Le Carre, John: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Lee, Harper: To Kill A Mockingbird

Leon, Donna: The Brunetti series

Mantel, Hilary: Wolf Hall

McMurtry, Larry: Lonesome Dove
Melville, Herman: Moby Dick
Miller, Andrew: Pure

Miller, Andrew: Now We Shall Be Entirely Free
Mitchell, David: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Monsarrat, Nicholas: The Cruel Sea
Moorcock, Michael: Mother London
O'Brian, Patrick: The Aubrey-Maturin series

O'Farrell, Maggie: Hamnet
Pears, Ian: An Instance of the Fingerpost
Penney, Stef: The Tenderness of Wolves
Perry, Sarah: The Essex Serpent
Proulx, Annie: The Shipping News
Rushdie, Salman: Midnight's Children
Seth, Vikram: A Suitable Boy
Simenon, Georges: The Maigret series
Smiley, Jane: A Thousand Acres
Smith, Dodie: I Capture the Castle
Steinbeck, John: Of Mice and Men
Stephenson, Neal: Cryptonomicon
Stevenson, Robert Louis: Kidnapped
Swift, Graeme: Waterland

Taylor, Elizabeth: A View of the Harbour
Thomas, Dylan: Under Milk Wood
Thompson, Harry: This Thing of Darkness
Tolkien JRR: The Lord of the Rings
Tolstoy, Leo: War and Peace

Waugh, Evelyn: Brideshead Revisited
Willis, Connie: To Say Nothing of the Dog
Woolf, Virginia: Mrs Dalloway
Woolf, Virginia: The Years
Woolf, Virginia: To The Lighthouse
Woolf, Virginia: Between the Acts
Woolfenden, Ben: The Ruins of Time
Zafon, Carlos Ruiz: The Shadow of the Wind

Non-fiction (40)
Blanning, Tim: The Pursuit of Glory
Brown, Hamish: Hamish's Mountain Walk
Clayton, Tim: Waterloo
Cocker, Mark: Crow Country
Dawkins, Richard: The Blind Watchmaker
Fadiman, Anne: Ex Libris
Frater, Alexander: Chasing the Monsoon

Gogarty, Paul: The Water Road
Hanff, Helen: 84 Charing Cross Road
Harding, Thomas: The House By The Lake
Hastings, Max: All Hell Let Loose
Holland, James: Dam Busters
Hoskins, WG: The Making of the English Landscape

Howell, Georgina: Daughter of the Desert
Huntford, Roland: Shackleton
Jamie, Kathleen: Findings
Junger, Sebastian: The Perfect Storm
Lee, Hermione: Virginia Woolf

Lewis-Stempel, John: The Running Hare
Liptrot, Amy: The Outrun
Longford, Elizabeth: Wellington, The Years of the Sword
MacGregor, Neil: Germany, Memories of a Nation
Moore, Richard: In Search of Robert Millar
Nichols, Peter: A Voyage for Madmen

Nicolson, Adam: The Seabird's Cry
Pennac, Daniel: The Rights of the Reader
Pinker, Stephen: The Language Instinct
Rackham, Oliver: The History of the Countryside
de Saint-Exupery, Antoine: Wind, Sand and Stars
Salisbury, Laney and Gay: The Cruellest Miles

Sands, Philippe: East-West Street

Schumacher, EF: Small is Beautiful
Simpson, Joe: Touching the Void
Taylor, Stephen: Storm and Conquest
Tomalin, Claire: Pepys, The Unequalled Self

Tree, Isabella: Wilding
Uglow, Jenny: The Pinecone
Unsworth, Walt: Everest
Weldon, Fay: Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen
Wheeler, Sara: Terra Incognita

Children's Fiction (8)
Berna, Paul: Flood Warning

Bond, Michael: The Paddington Bear series
Kipling, Rudyard: Puck of Pook's Hill/Rewards and Fairies
Milne, AA: Winnie-the-Pooh/House at Pooh Corner
Pullman, Philip: Northern Lights
Ransome, Arthur: The Swallows and Amazons series
Sutcliff, Rosemary: The Eagle of the Ninth
White, TH: Mistress Masham's Repose

 

Edited by willoyd
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Favourite authors
To qualify for this list, I have to have read at least three books by that author (amazing how many where I've just read two, especially non-fiction!), so no one-book wonders (it's the book then, not the author!). None of the books themselves need to have reached a six star rating, but they do need to have been rated consistently highly. Authors may be listed under both fiction and non-fiction.  I've only included authors of adult books - for favourite children's authors, see favourite book list, as the two lists are pretty much the same.

Fiction
Jane Austen
JL Carr

Charles Dickens
Sarah Dunant
Margaret Elphinstone

Thomas Hardy
Donna Leon
Patrick O'Brian
Georges Simenon

Virginia Woolf

 

Non-Fiction
Tim Clayton
Lisa Jardine
Jan Morris
Simon Schama
Claire Tomalin
Jenny Uglow

 

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A Tour of the States
My experience of American literature being much narrower than I would like, I decided to take a tour of the states in a similar way to our own English Counties challenge: 51 books, one set in each of the American states (including Washington DC).  In fact, the English Counties was modelled on an American States challenge here, but in the spirit of broadening that experience, I have amended it using these rules: a. it must be fiction; b. an author can only appear once; c. nothing before 1900; d. no children's books; e. no rereads. Inevitably some great books and authors will have been left off, but the process itself has already helped identify those holes, and I aim to fill them in as additional reading!  Blue means read, bold blue means read this year.


20/51

The Keepers of the House - Shirley Ann Grau (Alabama) *****
To The Bright Edge of the World - Eowyn Ivey (Alaska) ******
The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver (Arizona) ****
The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks - Donald Harington (Arkansas)
East of Eden - John Steinbeck (California)
Plainsong - Kent Haruf (Colorado) ****
Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates (Connecticut)
The Saint of Lost Things - Christopher Castellani (Delaware)
A Land Remembered - Patrick Smith (Florida)
The Color Purple - Alice Walker (Georgia)
The Descendants - Kaui Hart Hemmings (Hawaii)
Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson (Idaho) ****
The Adventures of Augie March - Saul Bellow (Illinois)
The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields (Indiana)
The Bridges of Madison County - Robert Waller (Iowa) ****
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote (Kansas)
Nathan Coultar - Wendell Berry (Kentucky) *****
All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren (Louisiana)
Empire Falls - Richard Russo (Maine)
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant - Anne Tyler (Maryland) ***
Ethan Frome- Edith Wharton (Massachusetts) ***

The Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison (Michigan)
Main Street - Sinclair Lewis (Minnesota)
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner (Mississippi)
Stoner - John Williams (Missouri) ***
A River Runs Through It - Norman Maclean (Montana)
My Antonia - Willa Cather (Nebraska) *****
The Ox-Bow Incident - Walter van Tilburg Clark (Nevada)
Peyton Place - Grace Metallious (New Hampshire)
The Sportswriter - Richard Ford (New Jersey) ****
Cities of the Plain - Cormac McCarthy (New Mexico)
Underworld - Don DeLillo (New York)
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier (North Carolina) *****
The Plague of Doves - Louise Erdrich (North Dakota) *****
Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson (Ohio) ***

True Grit- Charles Portis (Oklahoma) ****
Trask - Don Berry (Oregon)
The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara (Pennsylvania)
The Witches of Eastwick - John Updike (Rhode Island)
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd (South Carolina) ***
Welcome to Hard Times - EL Doctorow (South Dakota)
A Death in the Family - James Agee (Tennessee)
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry (Texas) ******
The Nineteenth Wife - David Ebershoff (Utah)
The Secret History - Donna Tartt (Vermont)
The Known World - Edward P Jones (Virginia)
Snow Falling on Cedars- David Guterson (Washington) ***
Advise and Consent - Allen Drury (Washington DC) *****

Storming Heaven - Denise Giardina (West Virginia)
The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach (Wisconsin)
The Virginian - Owen Wister (Wyoming)

 

 

 

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Classics fiction

Two authors whose books I want to focus more on:

  • Charles Dickens
  • Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series

 

 

Charles Dickens
01. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837) ****
02. The Adventures of Oliver Twist (1839) *****
03. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1839) *****
04. The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) ***

05. Barnaby Rudge (1841)
06. The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1844)
07. Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son (1848)
08. The Personal History of David Copperfield (1850) ******
09. Bleak House (1853) ******
10. Hard Times (1854)
11. Little Dorrit (1857)
12. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) *****
13. Great Expectations (1861) ****

14. Our Mutual Friend (1865)
15. The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870)

The Christmas Books
16. A Christmas Carol (1843) ******
17. The Chimes (1844) ***
18. The Cricket on the Hearth (1845)
19. The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1846)


Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart Series
01. La Fortune des Rougon ****
02. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon
03. La Curee
04. L'Argent
05. Le Reve
06. La Conquete de Plassans
07. Pot-Bouille
08. Au Bonheur des Dames
09. La Faute de L'Abbe Mouret
10. Une Page d'amour
11. Le Ventre de Paris
12. La Joie de vivre
13. L'Assommoir
14. L'Oeuvre
15. La Bete humaine
16. Germinal
17. Nana
18. La Terre
19. La Debacle
20. Le Docteur Pascal

 

 

 

Edited by willoyd
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Fiction focus

  • Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series
  • CJ Sansom's Shardlake series
  • Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti series
  • Georges Simenon's Maigret books

Books in standard blue are those read in previous years; 2020 books are in bold.

 

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series
01. Master and Commander
02. Post Captain
03. HMS Surprise
04. The Mauritius Command
05. Desolation Island
06. The Fortune of War
07. The Surgeon's Mate
08. The Ionian Mission

09. Treason's Harbour
10. The Far Side of the World
11. The Reverse of the Medal
12. The Letter of Marque
13. The Thirteen Gun Salute
14. The Nutmeg of Consolation
15. Clarissa Oakes
16. The Wine-Dark Sea
17. The Commodore
18. The Yellow Admiral
19. The Hundred Days
20. Blue at the Mizzen

 

CJ Sansom's Shardlake series

01. Dissolution (2003) 

02. Dark Fire (2004)

03. Sovereign (2006)

04. Revelation (2008)

05. Heartstone (2010)

06. Lamentation (2014)

07. Tombland (2018)

 

Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti series

01. Death at La Fenice (1992) ****

02. Death in a Strange Country (1993) ****

03. The Anonymous Venetian (1994) ****

04. A Venetian Reckoning (1995) ****

05. Acqua Alta (1996) ****

06. The Death of Faith (1997) ****

07. A Noble Radiance (1997) ****

08. Fatal Remedies (1999) *****

09. Friends in High Places (2000) ****

10. A Sea of Troubles (2001)

11. Wilful Behaviour (2002)

12. Uniform Justice (2003)

13. Doctored Evidence (2004)

14. Blood from a Stone (2005)

15. Through a Glass, Darkly (2006)

16. Suffer the Little Children (2007)

17. The Girl of His Dreams (2008)

18. About Face (2009)

19. A Question of Belief (2010)

20. Drawing Conclusions (2011)

21. Beastly Things (2012)

22. The Golden Egg (2013)

23. By Its Cover (2014)

24. Falling in Love (2015)

25. The Waters of Eternal Youth (2016)

26. Earthly Remains (2017)

27. The Temptation of Forgiveness (2018)

28. Unto Us A Son Is Given (2019)

 

Georges Simenon's Maigret novels

1-26 read prior to 2020

27. Maigret in New York ***

28. Maigret's Holiday

29. Maigret's Dead Man

30. Maigret's First Case

31. My Friend Maigret

32. Maigret at the Coroner's

33. Maigret and the Old Lady

34. Madame Maigret's Friend

35. Maigret's Memoirs *****

36. Maigret at Picratt's ****

37. Maigret Takes a Room

38. Maigret and the Tall Woman

39. Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters

40. Maigret's Revolver

41. Maigret and the Man on the Bench

42. Maigret is Afraid

43. Maigret's Mistake

44. Maigret Goes to School

45. Maigret and the Dead Girl

46. Maigret and the Minister

47. Maigret and the Headless Corpse

48. Maigret Sets a Trap

49. Maigret's Failure

50. Maigret Enjoys Himself

51. Maigret Travels

52. Maigret's Doubts

53. Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses

54. Maigret's Secret

55. Maigret in Court

56. Maigret and the Old People

57. Maigret and the Lazy Burglar

58. Maigret and the Good People of Montparnasse

59. Maigret and the Saturday Caller

60. Maigret and the Tramp

61. Maigret's Anger

62. Maigret and the Ghost

63. Maigret Defends Himself

 

Edited by willoyd
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Some Stats

 

The Last 10 Years (to end 2019)

Books read - 654  (370 in the past 5 years)

Most books in a year - 80 (2016)

Fewest books in a year - 50 (2011)

Most pages in a year - 23626 (2018)

Most books in a month - 19 (Dec 2011)

Highest average month - 13.5 (December)

Lowest average month - 3.5 (February)

% Fiction / Non-Fiction  - 69 / 31

% Male / Female author - 58 / 42

 

Star ratings

1 - 28 (4.2%, including 0 rereads)

2 - 55 (8.3%, 0 rereads)

3 - 183 (27.6%, 10 rereads)

4 - 207 (31.3%, 7 rereads)

5 - 125 (18.9%, 13 rereads)

6 - 64 (9.7%, 23 rereads)

 

2019 figures

Books read - 75

Most books in a month - 14 (December)

Fewest books in a month - 1 (January)

Pages in the year - 22427 (299 average per book)

Most pages - 845 (Lonesome Dove)

Fewest pages - 100 (A Christmas Carol)

% Fiction / Non-Fiction  - 51 / 49

% Male / Female author - 56 / 41

% Paper / Electronic - 83 / 17 (No audiobooks this year)

% Owned / Borrowed (inc Library) - 73 / 27

 

Star ratings

1 - 2 (2.7%, 0 rereads)

2 - 5 (6.7%, 0 rereads)

3 - 23 (30.7%, 0 rereads)

4 - 25 (33.3%, 1 reread)

5 - 13 (17.3%, 1 reread)

6 - 7 (9.3%, 3 rereads)

 

TBR list

End of...

2017 - 1472

2018 - 1378

2019 - 1331

 

Edited by willoyd
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Review of 2019, Preview of 2020

It was a funny old year.  Intended as one where I concentrated on more of my bigger tomes, and thus likely to see an overall reduction in books read, it certainly started that way:  January was the first month since keeping records where I only completed one book, most of the month focused on the Trollopian doorstopper, The Way We Live Now (and a good read it was too!).  After that, though, the big book focus seemed to slide off a bit (not least with book group choices to get through) and the year started to pick up speed, so much so that by the end the total had reached my second highest number of books ever, 75, although only third ranking on pages (22400 in round terms).  Admittedly it did include a number of biggies, but nowhere near as many as intended.

 

Perhaps the most significant trend was the continuing rise in the proportion of non-fiction books, up from last year's high of 42% to 49%, or just one less than fiction (37 vs 38).  Having said that, whilst last year non-fiction books dominated the accolades, this year saw fiction make a comeback, with Girl, Woman, Other coming out on top (a rare year where I agree with the Booker judges!), in front of the gripping Gertrude Bell biography by Georgina Howell, Daughter of the Desert; three of the four new 6-star books were novels too.  Otherwise, there was little change in the profile of my reading, although, in line with popular trends, I appear to be using my e-reader less year on year, and turning back to 'proper' books.  Female authors represented around 40% of my reading, and around a quarter of my books were borrowed from the library, not dissimilar to other recent years.  I would like to increase both numbers, although with a substantial backlog of my own books to get through, the latter may not change for a while.

 

In terms of the various challenges I set myself (other than more doorstoppers!), some progress was made on most fronts, but in all cases it would be good to have done more.  In particular, I'd like to make bigger inroads in 2020 into my tour of the USA, where 4 books were completed (admittedly double last year, and including the epic Lonesome Dove).  At 15 of the 50 now read, completion date at current rates is still some years off.

 

The accolades listed in the following post highlight the books that made the biggest impact on me this year, both positive and negative.  It was good to get just 2 1-star books this year - both thoroughly deserving of their scores it has to be said!  A new 'award' has been introduced this year - Discovery of the Year - a new one always one of the best experiences one can have in reading.  Last year it would have gone to Willa Cather (and Elizabeth Taylor would have been in there in previous years), but the first winner is George Mackay Brown, an author who I was introduced to by a book group choice, and whose work I'm really looking forward to exploring if this year's experiences are anything to go by.

 

So, what of next year?  I'm almost reluctant to set any goals, as they are almost a guarantee that I won't achieve them, if recent years are anything to go by again, but, probably foolishly, I'll give it a go. They are all too similar to those of other years:

 

 - To make some inroads into my backlog of doorstoppers (one every two months?)

 - To get a good number of states under my belt in my tour of the USA (can I reach half way?)

 - To buy less and use the library more

 

All a bit vague and repetitive perhaps, but my only other 'goal' is to keep on enjoying reading, and too many precise goals to get hung up over will inevitably impact on that (negatively!).

 

To that end, I've further slimmed down the lists in the preliminary posts, particularly all those 'Before You Die' ones.  They're interesting enough, and good for ideas, but otherwise, as someone on these boards recently said, 'they're just lists'.  Now I enjoy lists, but these were somebody else's lists, not mine, so if I'm going to have them, I'd generally rather focus on my lists! So, out they go, and, instead, I'm going to look at creating my own personal version of '1001 books to read'.  In fact, it probably won't be 1001 books long, and it will almost certainly not have the diversity of the original lists, but at least all the books are of interest to me. So, it'll be a list of books I've either read, and feel were essential to my adult reading development (and/or loved!), or books that I feel I want and 'need' to read.  It will include both fiction and non-fiction, but otherwise pretty much anything goes at present. What I can pretty much guarantee is that it won't be balanced or all-encompassing, but it will be personal, and live as a work in progress!  

 

 

 

 

 

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Accolades for 2019

 

Book of the Year

1.  Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

2.  Daughter of the Desert by Georgina Howell

3.  Lonesome Dove  by Larry McMurtry

 

Fiction Book of the Year

Winner: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Runner-up: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry  

 

Shortlist:

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Now We Shall be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller

Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown

 

Non-fiction Book of the Year

Winner: Daughter of the Desert by Georgina Howell

Runner-up:  The Five by Hallie Rubenheld

 

Shortlist:

The Prime Ministers by Steve Richards

Icebreaker by Horatio Clare

 

Duffer of the Year

Winner:  I See You by Clare Mackintosh

Shortlist:  The Widow by Fional Barton

 

Discovery of the Year

George Mackay Brown

 

Most Disappointing of the Year

The Making of the British Landscape by Nicholas Crane

 

Reread of the Year

Paddington Helps Out by Michael Bond

 

 

 

 

Edited by willoyd
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Happy Reading in 2020!

 

I really enjoyed reading your Review of 2019, Preview of 2020 post. It's great you had only 2 1-star reads in 2019. I hope you'll do well on your goals for 2020, with the States of USA tour etc.

 

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I hope you have a great reading year @willoyd!

I think it's nice to have some vague goals. I find it fun to work towards some reading goals but if they're too specific they just become a chore. 

 

I look forward to finding out what 2020's 'Discovery of the Year' will be!

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1 hour ago, Brian. said:

Good luck with your reading year. It's good to see someone else on here reading as much non fiction as I do.

 

Thank you.  And first read of this year is non-fiction too: Philip Marsden's The Summer Isles, the story of his journey up from Cornwall to the Summer Isles off the west coast of Scotland, via the west coast of Ireland.  Only 70-80 pages in, but this isn't one to rush!

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The Summer Isles by Philip Marsden *****

 A Christmas present, this is an account of a sailing voyage the author, who had never before skippered anything more than day trips before, made from Cornwall to the Summer Isles, via the west coast of Ireland.  It was made in memory of his aunt, who was killed in a walking accident on Ben More Assynt, and with whom he had always intended to visit the islands.

 

This could have been a fairly standard account - there is a myriad of similar books - but the quality of  writing, the fascinating people he encounters, and the deep sense of how personal this was that pervades both narrative and journey, all makes for something distinctly greater.  My only 'complaint' is that there is, in fact, very little about the Summer Isles themselves, barely a couple of pages, if that; this should have been entitled 'Journey to....'. Oh, and whilst there are a couple of illustrative maps at the front, yet again a book about something so spatial is completely inadequately mapped.  What is it about publishers - are we so map illiterate nowadays that they are almost completely forgotten, and even when not, so inadequately developed? It's not as if they require any further expense, unlike photos.  Although, on that subject, a few illustrations wouldn't have gone amiss either, particularly of  people mentioned.  But nothing should take away from the writing, which made for a superb start to the New Year's reading.

 

Next book: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (Book group selection)

Edited by willoyd
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New Year acquisitions

A few books acquired in first three weeks of the year:

 

Charity shops

The White King by Leada De Lisle (biography of Charles I)

Everyman for Himself by Beryl Bainbridge (hardback, 1st edition) *

Among Muslims by Kathleen Jamie

Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann (Everyman Classic) *

The Prize of All the Oceans by Glyn Williams

Close Ranges, Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx *

 

Kindle Sale

1989 The Berlin Wall, My Part in It's Downfall by Peter Millar

 

Early Season sales

Underland by Robert Macfarlane *

Lotharingia by Simon Winder

 

* Books on my Big Read list

 

On that note, Big Reading list is now collated: 773 books in total, roughly evenly split between fiction and nonfiction.  However, noteable how few nonfiction books read (47) compared to fiction (148), so aim to make some progress on the former this year.  List is fluid though, and subject to revision.

Edited by willoyd
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Reading Update

 

Two more books finished in the past couple of weeks:

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

Charles I, An Abbreviated Life by Mark Kishlansky

 

Both good reads (the former excellent), and reviews will follow in due course - it's all a bit frantic at the moment.  I'm currently reading The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton for one of my book groups, but whilst I like what I've read so far, I'm struggling a bit to get into it - too many distractions, and bit daunting (750+ fairly densely printed pages).

 

A few more book acquisitions in the past 10 days - partly because I succumbed to the temptation of a local library sale with some quite nice condition hardback volumes going for silly (50p) prices (and not ex-library either) - these marked *. The rest from an Oxfam raid. Particularly pleased with the JB Priestley whose writing I'm definitely getting into, whilst the Maigret's were pristine - surely unread.

 

Fiction

All Among the Barley - Melissa Harrison*

Festival at Farbridge - JB Priestley

Maigret's Patience - Georges Simenon

Maigret and the Loner - Georges Simenon

Maigret and the Wine Merchant - Georges Simenon

 

Non-Fiction

The Other Side of Eden - Hugh Brody*

Lawrence in Arabia - Scott Anderson*

Wartime Britain - Juliet Gardiner*

This is London - Ben Judah
 

 

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Reading Update mid-February

Gosh it's gone awfully quiet here, not least on this thread, so a quick update after a three week hiatus:

 

I'm still reading Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries and, to be honest, have not made huge progress, as am not quite half way through yet (around p. 350).  That's not a problem with the book - far from it - but I've had a fairly frantic month, which is likely to carry on for another week or so. Indeed, I'm in danger of actually reaching the end of the month without a single book completed, which would be a first for at least 12 years!  Big book + lots of work = not a good formula!

 

In the meantime, I've still managed a few acquisitions (surprise, surprise!), mostly through charity shops (not the Kindles!):

 

Fiction and Poetry

The Gentle Axe by R.N. Morris

The Night Manager by John Le Carre

Wing by Matthew Francis (poetry)

Women of the Dunes by Sarah Maine (Kindle)

 

Non-fiction

Sagaland by Richard Fidler and Kari Gislason

Leviathan by David Scott

Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts

Incredible Journeys by David Barrie

 

Edited by willoyd
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