sulkyblueblog | 2010 - Books (Reply)

This year I’ve read a really rather pathetic 33 books, down 12 on last year. On the positive side none of them were re-reads, but even still I really wish the total were higher. Given such a small sample it’s not really worth trying to compare them and come up with any sort of ‘best of’list, so here’s just a few random thoughts.

Authors
73% male, 27% female - worse than last year despite the fact that I really thought I was doing better.
42% Brits, 36% American, 22% other – a pretty good balanceand a couple of books not originally written in English.
The only repeat author was Iain M Banks and given my continued disappointment with his works, I think those might be his last. Exactly 50% of the authors were new to me, which I’m very happy with as a balance. Unusually absent from the list is Terry Pratchett.

Genres
18% non-fiction – every year I vow to read more non-fiction, every year I fail, largely because non-fiction doesn’t tend to work well as bedtime reading, or “half a chapter on a bus” reading. Also they tend to be quite dull.
Of the fiction - 7% kids books and 7% media tie ins – less than usual, maybe I’m growing up!
30%sf, 26% fantasy, 33% generic drama type stuff – the fantasy was a surprisingly large percentage, although frankly I’m getting increasingly confused between what’s sf and fantasy. Magic is fantasy right? Monsters? Where does alternate history fall? Gagh. It’s all too confusing.

Years
15% published in 2010 – frankly I was surprised it was that many! I rarely buy hardbacks and only have a small number of authors who I pounce on as soon as they release something. Easily the best of the small sample was Iorich, the latest in Steven Brust’s Taltos series, but it’s not much of a competition.
30% were published in 2009 and of those and the ones reviewed last year, the top three are The Book Thief by Markus Zusak which I read last year and bizarrely two non-fictions from this year Columbine and Free. I really don’t think I could chose between them.
The others were all published in the 2000s except for 2 from the 90s, and 1 each from the 70s and 30s (the latter heavily re-edited).

The reviews
On a very hand-wavey grading system, I recon 21% of the books I read this year were bad, that’s considerably up on the 8% the previous year. Maybe I’m getting grumpy and fussy in my old age, but I suspect this percentage didn’t help with my apathy towards reading more. (Follow the links for more detailed reviews at my website)

Transition by Iain M. Banks – the world(s) he created didn’t make sense to me and I wasn’t confident that Banks had a good grasp of how they worked either.

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks – nothing happened. At least nothing beyond hints and implications.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery - irresistible title, pretensious and boring book

The Dinosaur Hunters by Deborah Cadbury – Exciting title, really boring book

The Magicians by Lev Grossman – extremely poorly written, bad plot, borderline plagiarism, miserable characters, bad pacing.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger – ghosts? Really? where Time Traveller’s Wife made me sob on crowded tubes, this one made me swear out loud at the ludicrous choices the characters and writer made.

Swiftly:A Novel by Adam Roberts – nice idea, really boring to read

I’d describe 48% as ‘adequate’, ‘fine or ‘perfectly ok’. They tend to do what they need to do in non-spectacular fashion. There’s a lot of throwaway type fiction in here, things to enjoy on the commute and pretty much forget about immediately after (many of these I had to actually re-read my reviews to remind myself what they were about). They’re not bad, they’re just not great.

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

The Oxford Murders by Guillermo Martinez

Twilight 4: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombridge

Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer

The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross

Paint Your Dragon by Tom Holt

Ghosts of Manhattan by George Mann

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Transit of Venus: The Brief, Brilliant Life of Jeremiah Horrocks by Peter Aughton

Gridlinked by Neal Asher

Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian

Supernatural: Bone Key by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Makers by Cory Doctorow

Supernatural: Witch's Canyon by Jeff Marriote

Given those criteria I think the fact that I found 30% of my reading better than that is pretty impressive. There were 11 books that I thought were outstanding or remarkable in some way.

Columbine by Dave Cullen – extremely difficult to read, but an impressive piece of journalism investigating all the sides of the tragedy with a relatively open mind.

The Observations by Jane Harris – there didn’t seem to be much plot, but somehow the 500+ pages were enjoyable and compelling.

Taltos 12: Iorich by Steven Brust– extraordinarily satisfying, the whole book just made me smile both with it's written humour, it's implied humour and just with the sheer slickness of its characters and writing.

Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware by Andy Hunt – although there’s a lot of common sense in the book, there’s also a lot of theory to explain why what you know is actually really true. Not only informative, but really fun to read as well.

Free by Chris Anderson – occasionally preachy, but well researched, interesting and even enjoyable to read

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga – well deserved Man Booker Prize winner, a book that benefits from thought and discussion

A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell- a beautiful work, touching on issues of faith, courage and hope without becoming preachy or patronising

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett – beautiful and fascinating use of language and music, although I felt the ending let it down a little

Acting English by Shappi Khorsandi – the Iranian ‘troubles’ told from the eyes of a child transplanted into London, who would eventually become a comedian.