END OF YEAR READING STATISTICS

READING STATS

Books read: 145
Fiction: 91
Non-fiction: 54

This is the 2nd lowest number of books I’ve read in a year since records began in 1997 – but this is due to being on the Book Diet Jan-Jun, when I read a mere 46 (out of an allowed 52) – my natural reading speed is obviously twice that. I believe that December 2005 has seen the highest number of books read, at 28 – but that is pretty well all I’ve done over my Christmas break!

BEST 10 READS OF 2005 (in order of reading them)

LARRY MCMURTRY – Moving On
RUTH OZEKI – All Over Creation
ASNE SEIERSTAD – The Bookseller of Kabul
KIT PEARSON – The Guests of War Trilogy
ELIZABETH WARNOCK FERNEA – Guests of the Sheik
TEMPLE GRANDIN – Thinking in Pictures
CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKARUNI – Arranged Marriage
JULIE OTSUKA – When the Emperor Was Divine
REBECCA WEST – The Fountain Overflows
SHARON MAAS – Of Marriageable Age

HONOURABLE MENTIONS FOR 2005

NICHOLAS BASBANES – Patience and Fortitude / A Splendor of Letters
HELEN HOOVEN SANTMYER – And Ladies of the Club
WILLA CATHER – My Antonia
POLLY TOYNBEE – Hard Work
JENNIFER CHIAVERINI – The Elm Creek Quilts novels
JOHN & ELIZABETH NEWSON – Four Years Old In An Urban Community
ROBERT INMAN – Dairy Queen Days

WORST READS AND DISAPPOINTING READS

Bad:
HANIF KUREISHI – My Ear At His Heart
UMBERTO ECO – On Literature (sorry, I just couldn’t understand most of this!)
JOHN DONAGHUE – Shakespeare My Butt
ADELE PARKS – Husbands

Bad and disappointing:
CATHERINE RYAN HYDE – Pay it Forward
ANNE RIVERS SIDDONS – Fault Lines
CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKARUNI – The Mistress Of Spices

Disappointing (not that bad):
ZADIE SMITH – On Beauty
HARI KUNZRU – Transmission
MALCOLM GLADWELL – Blink

Happy New Year and Happy Reading for 2006 to all my LJ friends!

ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD – The Meaning of Tingo

25 Dec 2005 – Christmas present from Matt

Very amusing book about funny words in foreign languages. Some seemed so odd as to be spurious, but between us we recognised some of the French, German, Latin and Yiddish words, so maybe not.

And the meaning of “Tingo”? Well, you’ll have to get the book!

GWYN HYMAN RUBIO – Icy Sparks

Acquired via BookCrossing 23 Dec 2005 (BookRing)

Charming (again!) small-town tale of misfit, Tourettes, Icy and her struggle to be accepted and find her place in society. A good example of the genre,a little uncomfortable in places, not all the ends are tied up, and ultimately uplifting.

JUSTIN BROWN – UK on a G-String

Bought 30 Sept 2005 (Amazon?)

Charming and amusing adventures of a New Zealand guy door-to-door busking around the UK (after losing a bet) in wintertime. Nicely done, and funny; in the great “quest” tradition I seem to be collecting (new section on the bookshelf for them now!)

More pressies… for the sake of completeness

Feel like I’m boasting away now but… saw best friend and family yesterday and was the happy recipient of…

a notepad shaped like a dress and a notepad shaped like a handbag (I sense BookCrossing notes using these!)
a hand-knitted purple woolly scarf with a fleece backing – mmmm!

Now going to do a quick reading update so they all come out in the right year!!

DANNY WALLACE – Yes Man

Bought 30 Sep 2005 (Amazon?)

Amusing book about what happens when he decides to answer “yes” to every question he is asked. Sweet and laugh-out-loud funny in places, better than I’d expected, even after enjoying “Join Me” – I think I’ve been a bit put off by his telly persona!

More Christmas presents…

Matt got home from his folks’ last night with this haul for me…

DVDs

Bride & Prejudice (saw the film when it came out – yay – this has a commentary!)
Christopher Guest box set – Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman (have only seen A Mighty Wind out of this set – this and Best in Show have commentaries and extras)

BOOKS

Alan Bennett – “Untold Stories”
John Peel – “Margrave of the Marshes”
Gish Jen – “The Love Wife” (so long since I got her first 2 novels, really looking forward to this one)

I am galloping through books at the moment (as you may have noticed – I have been reading them properly, just not doing much housework etc!) to get Mt TBR down – determined to get to these ones before next June, to beat this year’s attempt!

AMIT CHAUDHURI – Afternoon Raag

Bought 23 Sep 2005 – charity shop

A (very) short novella, more of a prose poem, flitting between India and Oxford, music and language, mother and lovers. Extremely evocative of both locations. Maybe less commercial than “A New World” but, like that novel, very accomplished at describing and evoking the minutiae of everyday life.

ANDREW COLLINS – Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now

Acquired via BookCrossing 22 Sep 2005 – wishlist RABCK from GothMarcus

2nd volume of his memoirs, covering his “difficult student 80s” and a few years afterwards. A journey down memory lane for anyone who was a student in the 80s and early 90s – a romp of a quick (Christmas) holiday read.

SHARON MAAS – Of Marriageable Age

Acquired via BookCrossing 20 Sep 2005 – new job RABCK from scotsbookie

A wonderful, fat, satisfying novel, following the fortunes of three main characters on 2 continents (Asia and South America), allowing their intertwining stories to reveal their connections subtly. The last 100 page section was such a page-turner, raced through in my eagerness to see how the stories were resolved!

I’m going to turn this into a bookring, so anyone who wants to join, please let me know with posting preferences