Barbara's Random Thoughts

Here's my reading list from this past year. I've broken it down by category, and the starred ones are the books read for my book club.

Conclusions and observations: I re-read a lot of children's books, and I should read more non-fiction than I do. (But really, who am I kidding? That's probably not going to change all that much.) Only 11 of these were books I already owned in January 2005, but 12 were borrowed from friends or from the library. Still, I have a lot of unread books on my shelf, and I should read more of them. (But then again, I've made that statement before.)

Fiction (16):
Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco
The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
The Plot Against America, Philip Roth*
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
Persuasion, Jane Austen
The Confessions of Max Tivoli, Andrew Sean Greer
The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruis Zafon*
Good Grief, Lolly Winston
The Clerkenwell Tales, Peter Ackroyd
The Final Solution: A Story Of Detection, Michael Chabon
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin*
Love Letters, Madeleine L'Engle*
Floating in My Mother's Palm, Ursula Hegi
The History of the Siege of Lisbon, Jose Saramago*
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro*

Children's (10):
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley
The Blue Sword, Robin McKinley
Girls in Pants, Ann Brashares
The Goose Girl, Shannon Hale
Judy Moody, Megan McDonald
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
Daddy-Long-Legs, Jean Webster
The Golden Key, George MacDonald
Messenger, Lois Lowry*

Nonfiction (4):
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi*
The Grace Awakening, Charles Swindoll
I'm Not the New Me, Wendy McClure
Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson

Re-read (7):
The Archivist, Martha Cooley*
The Girl with the Silver Eyes, Willo Davis Roberts
Just Like Always, Elizabeth Ann Sachs
Jacob Have I Loved, Katherine Paterson
Gathering Blue, Lois Lowry*
The Giver, Lois Lowry*
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling

Poetry (2):
Red Suitcase, Naomi Shihab Nye
The Complete Poems, Gerard Manley Hopkins

Started in 2005, finished yesterday:
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris

Started in 2005, set aside and still not finished because I got distracted by Harry Potter and it was too big to take on the plane when I went to Wales:
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

Started in 2005, still reading:
A Thread of Grace, Mary Doria Russell
Game of Kings, Dorothy Dunnett

Total books read (not counting poetry, re-reads, or those last few categories): 30

Most enjoyed:
1. The Plot Against America, Philip Roth (Even though it kinda fell apart at the end)
2. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card (I'm still amazed that I hadn't discovered this until this year, and I have Karen to thank for lending it to me.)
3. The Goose Girl, Shannon Hale (Just a plain old good fairy tale. This was another one I kept thinking of longingly when I wasn't reading it.)
4. Red Suitcase, Naomi Shihab Nye (I've dipped into this collection of poems from time to time, and somehow never finished reading all the way through it. I got onto a poetry kick this summer, and devoured the rest of it. Great stuff.)
5. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke (Huge, sprawling, Dickens-ish novel, with magic. It took a while for me to get into it, but I greatly enjoyed it.)
6. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (Over Christmas, I kept wanting to ditch family stuff to get back to reading this. And I know, Julie, you hate the cover.)

Small coda on intentions disregarded by the reading mood of the moment:
Number of specific books I intended to read in 2005: 20
Number actually read from that list: 5
Conclusion: Barbara's not going to make a list like that this year.

Labels: reading