Sorry, not sorry, you were either going to get two posts close together or one ginormous one … so here’s the ginormous one. We need to cover Christmas acquisitions, the current state of the TBR caused by these, and my books of the year or I’ll never get them done. Ready?
First of all, I want to share the brilliant state my TBR got into before the influx. Look at it! That’s what having a cold does for your reading …
At least this meant the acquisitions could fit in …
And here they are. Arriving on 20 December were three lovely books from my BookCrossing Birmingham Not so Secret Santa (Lorraine):
David Leboff and Tim Dermuth – “No Need to Ask!” about London Underground maps before the famous one.
Simon Winchester – “Outposts” – about the last pieces of the British Empire.
Stella Gibbons – “Conference at Cold Comfort Farm” – a sequel to “Cold Comfort Farm”!
Then from the lovely Cate for my LibraryThing Virago Group not so Secret Santa (along with a great Virago mug):
Angela Thirkell – “Miss Bunting”, “Northbridge Rectory”, “Marling Hall” and “Before Lunch” – all lovely Virago reissues.
From lovely friends:
Pamela Brown – “Golden Pavements” in the lovely Blue Door Theatre Company reissues.
Diana Wynne Jones – “Howl’s Moving Castle”
Sheila Wilkinson – “Too Many Ponies” – novel set at a horse rescue
Annon Shea – “The Phone Book” – I do love a ‘quest’ book and here he reads and discusses, yes, you guessed it …
Jeannette Winterson – “Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere” – her and original suffragette essays
Tony Wilson – “24 Hour Party People” because there has to be a music book in there somewhere
John Sutherland (ed.) – “Literary Landscapes” – about the landscapes novels and novelists inhabit
Dorothy Whipple – “Young Anne” (Persephone) – how did I not have this already?
Lucky me!!
And after they went onto the TBR shelf …
Uh-oh. So a double-stacked shelf NEARLY to the end on both stacks, plus a million Iris Murdochs and the Pile relegated to the lower shelf (large fancy Tolkien book just seen, too). Ulp.
My next two books to read are Tirzah Garwood’s “Long Live Great Bardfield” (the Persephone) and to be fair on me that’s my last Christmas 2017 book to be read, and Iris Murdoch’s “The Black Prince” which I will get read and reviewed earlier than the 26th of January, after December’s failings …
Then I do have some books on the Kindle to read, including one more lovely Dean Street Press book (I have read Elizabeth Eliot’s fabulous “Alice” now as my last book of the year: watch out for the review tomorrow.
Coming up after / amongst those, here’s the beginning of the TBR shelf, so I have a book about swimming (Ian Thorpe’s “This is Me”), a book about kayaking (and nature and personal life changes: Alys Fowler – “Hidden Nature” which was a birthday book), a book about the Riot Grrrl movement in music (Sara Marcus’ “Girls to the Front”), a book about a charlady in New York (Paul Gallico – “Mrs Harris Goes to New York”), a retelling of a Shakespeare play (Anne Tyler’s “Vinegar Girl”) and a book about Greenland (Gretel Erlich’s “This Cold Heaven”) so a representative range of my reading tastes (maybe).
Moving on to …
Reading stats and BEST BOOKS of 2018
Are you still with me? Sorry about this …
OK, so in 2018 I read 115 books, down from 141 in 2017 (however, I wasn’t laid up for a month after an operation this year). I read 59 non-fiction books and 56 fiction, which is the first time I’ve read more non-fiction than fiction for years and years (I wonder if it’s down to my non-fic reviewing for Shiny New Books). I read 39 books by men, 75 books by women and one by one of each and this is slightly more balanced than last year, where I read twice as many books by women as by men.
So here’s my TOP 10 this year, with two highly commended reads and one reader I will be reading more of. I’m not sure why there are more books by men than women here, or why the novels are all by women. Maybe I just read more (good) non-fiction by men. Here they are, in the order in which I read them. No re-reads on there and The Works of Iris Murdoch are a category in themselves of course!
Lucy Mangan – Bookworm – childhood reading experiences that almost matched mine in terms of the books read – magical
Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run – amazing autobiography, open, honest, funny and detailed
Angie Thomas – The Hate U Give – astoundingly good YA fiction on such an important topic
Neil Taylor – Document and Eyewitness – the story of Rough Trade Records, beautifully put together
Dan Hancox – Inner City Pressure – excellent work on the story of grime music
Benjamin Zephaniah – The Life and Rhymes Of – wonderful autobiography
Peter Ginna (ed.) – What Editors Do – essays that were so absorbing and wonderful
Thomas Williams – Viking Britain – undoes all the prejudices, absorbing and fun to read
Barbara Kingsolver – Unsheltered – she’s always in my top 10 and this zeitgeisty novel was brilliant
Kevin Crossley-Holland (and Jeffrey Alan Love) – Norse Myths – because how can a book on this topic, written like that and illustrated like that not be there?
Highly commended:
Katherine Findlay – The Icelandic Adventures of Pike Ward – commended for an amazing job of editing and putting together an excellent book
Ben Smith – 401 – commended for being a brilliant bloke who did a marvellous thing, is lovely, and mentions my running club and has a photo in the book that includes one of my friends
Will read more:
Robert MacFarlane – I read The Old Ways this year and loved it, then was discombobulated by him being younger than me. Why, I don’t know. But I am going to seek out his other works because they’re just magical
So there we go. I read a million running books and none of them makes it into the Top 10 – but then almost all the books I read this year were good, so do go back and have a poke around through the archives!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Jan 01, 2019 @ 19:22:22
Goodness, what wonderful arrivals, and the TBR is now bulging at the seams! 😀 It’s decades since I read Howl’s Moving Castle but it was one of my favourite DWJ books. And interesting reads of the year – very you, and so much non-fiction!
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2019 @ 19:32:23
No bulging to be seen – there’s even a GAP! OK, maybe I’ve infiltrated Matthew’s shelf. Twice. OK. Hm. I can’t believe I’ve never read Howl’s Moving Castle before and it fills in a year on my century of books, too!
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heavenali
Jan 01, 2019 @ 23:39:56
Wonderful pile of new arrivals. So glad to hear that Alice by Elizabeth Eliot is good because lovely Dean Street press sent it me too.
Really interesting top ten – you read so much more non-fiction than I do. Not surprised that Benjamin Zephaniah is listed, I was with you if you remember when you bought it, I had a feeling it would be a book you would love. So glad Unsheltered made your list, that is definitely on my radar though I still have her last two to read. I read 119 and a quarter books, but all those Muriel Spark’s were tiny. 😂
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2019 @ 19:33:35
Ooh, I hadn’t realised – reviewed today and I basically want to get ALL her books now. And yes, I remember you being with me when I bought BZ in my book token splurge and even when I’d spent all my book tokens I still had to get it! I’m glad it was as good as I’d hoped.
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Asha - A Cat, A Book, And A Cup Of Tea
Jan 02, 2019 @ 17:14:07
What an excellent post! I so enjoyed reading this. There are a lot of things on your acquisitions list that I’d love to read 🙂 Howl’s Moving Castle is one of my favourites, and I love Robert Macfarlane’s writing.
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2019 @ 17:16:34
Thank you, and welcome to my blog. I can’t work out how I’ve never read Howl before, as I’ve read most of her other books, some several times (I’m forever pushing them at people who say Harry Potter is The Best). Best of all, my clever friend Laura found the one book from 1986 that I’ve not read and want to, for my Century of Books challenge! And yes, I really like Macfarlane and want to read all the rest of his now, although obviously there won’t be any new books coming in for a while yet …
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Asha - A Cat, A Book, And A Cup Of Tea
Jan 02, 2019 @ 17:24:16
Howl is *probably* my favourite DWJ novel, but it would be tight between that and Charmed Life. It’s just so wonderful, and I’m kind of sad that so many people have only seen the film, as it’s very very different… A Century of Books challenge sounds super interesting!
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2019 @ 18:06:51
Yes, I love Charmed Life and have read it a few times. The Century of Books seemed fun when I started it in 2014 but I haven’t forced it so it’s then lingered on and on while everything I read is from 1933 or 2010, somehow!
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juliana brina
Jan 02, 2019 @ 19:20:44
So many great new books! From your 2018 favourites, I am particularly curious about Bookworm & Viking Britain 🙂 Happy New Year!
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Liz Dexter
Jan 02, 2019 @ 19:34:13
Hooray – people are reading to the end of the post! Yes, those are both highly recommended: hopefully you were able to click through to the reviews OK. Happy new year and happy reading in 2019!
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Grab the Lapels
Jan 03, 2019 @ 03:40:15
I hope you enjoy Howl’s Moving Castle. I love the film and have heard the book is different but also good.
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Liz Dexter
Jan 03, 2019 @ 08:54:21
Thank you! I’ve not actually seen the film but I love her books generally so I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.
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Simon T
Jan 03, 2019 @ 17:06:07
A great list, and nice to see we both had a Kingsolver on there. I’ve started listening to Prodigal Summer on my commute now, read by the author herself.
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Liz Dexter
Jan 03, 2019 @ 17:08:38
Oh that’s my favourite one, and Matthew has really enjoyed the audio books she’s narrated – she’s done nearly all of them, just not one (I think Poisonwood Bible). I bet that’s one of your books of 2019!
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Cari
Jan 03, 2019 @ 20:23:02
Ooh I’d missed that new? Simon Winchester one. Enjoy his writing. Will look for it. Nice split of fiction and non, I should tabulate mine. I feel like I read more fiction this year than normal, but not a majority
My TBR shelves are a camera shy mess. I am fixing that. I’m also purging any whose font are too small to be comfortable
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Liz Dexter
Jan 04, 2019 @ 09:43:28
It’s from 2012, I’d had it on the wish list for a while, in fact had forgotten to take it off when I bought it in July. All about why the map is as it is, looks great. I think I have a bit too much non-fiction but I do have a fair bit of fiction on the kindle. And I’m with you on small print!
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Cari
Jan 07, 2019 @ 00:03:56
Have you read his “The men who United the States?” I j ust caught up to that one late last year.
Outposts now on my wishlist
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Liz Dexter
Jan 07, 2019 @ 08:28:30
Ah, no, will look out for that.
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Cari
Jan 07, 2019 @ 14:22:47
I’ll look to see if I still have it – if I do it will go with your book parcel
It’s not his best, but it was a good read
Let’s see if this stays threaded.
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Thomas
Jan 07, 2019 @ 21:27:33
Omg! A ginormous yet digestible post. Loved reading your stats and top books, especially loved seeing The Hate U Give on there. I haven’t read anything by Barbara Kingsolver yet but she comes highly recommended so I’ll have to check more of her work out. Thanks for documenting your adventures in reading and running on this blog, you’ve read more than I have and that inspires me and reinforces my gratitude for our shared interests in reading and writing. Hope you’re 2019 is off to a great start.
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Liz Dexter
Jan 08, 2019 @ 06:30:04
Oh, I think you would like Kingsolver as she has some great and important messages in there but told in an interesting way, and she also highlights issues in small and poor communities in rural America, too. I loved your books of the year and could learn something about diversity from them (I am tracking diversity this year on a spreadsheet for better stats next year – not doing so well so far apart from the lean towards women writers!). Did you know Angle Thomas has a new one out this year? I can’t wait to read it. Oh, and I might have read more than you have this year but you’re studying and that always takes away from recreational or even just interest reading! Happy 2019 to you!
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Jan Carr
Jan 15, 2019 @ 09:50:05
Hi Liz,
Loved reading this post of yours. Plenty therein that could be added to my New Year’s resolutions although I haven’t actually done that. Book reading on an all time low at present after damaging my spectacles during an unplanned slide on my face across a concrete path- unpleasant experience – do not try to copy!
Knocked sideways for a while but the novelty of moving house shortly is reinvigorating me. Scars and bruises slowly fading and spirits rising. More about that another time. Maybe when I get year 2018’s annual newsletter finished!
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Liz Dexter
Jan 15, 2019 @ 10:08:24
Oh no, sorry to hear about your fall and glad you’re on the mend. Best of luck with your house move x
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