Books Read in 2011

I'm still keeping a list of all the books I read every year.  I don't know if anyone who reads this blog is actually interested in it, but I'm going to keep on posting since I have no where else to share it.  :)  (Re-reads are marked with [RR].)

1.  Escape - Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer
2.  All the Colors of Darkness - Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
3.  The Coming - Joe Haldeman
4.  Drood - Dan Simmons
5.  Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
6.  Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
7.  The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
8.  False Dawn - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
9.  The Mysterious Benedict Society - Trenton Lee Stewart
10.  The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith
11.  Heart-Shaped Box - Joe Hill
12.  I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman
13.  Kiln People - David Brin
14.  The Dragons of Heorot - Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes
15.  Native Tongue - Suzette Haden Elgin
16.  The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett
17.  The Gate to Women’s Country - Sheri S. Tepper  [RR]
18.  The Waters Rising - Sheri S. Tepper
19.  Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris
20.  Z for Zachariah - Robert C. O’Brien
21.  The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood
22.  Earth Abides - George R. Stewart
23.  Delusions of Gender - Cordelia Fine
24.  Woman on the Edge of Time - Marge Piercy
25.  Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren [RR]
26.  How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff
27.  Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
28.  World War Z - Max Brooks
29.  The Hidden Side of the Moon - Joanna Russ
30.  Dawn - Octavia E. Butler
31.  Siberia - Ann Halam
32.  This Perfect Day - Ira Levin
33.  The Lost Gate - Orson Scott Card
34.  Adulthood Rites - Octavia E. Butler
35.  Imago - Octavia E. Butler
36.  The 1978 Annual World’s Best SF - Donald A. Wollheim (ed.)
37.  Anya’s Ghost - Vera Brosgol
38.  The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
39.  Cards of Grief - Jane Yolen
40.  Quiverfull:  Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement - Kathryn Joyce
41.  Camp Concentration - Thomas M. Disch
42.  The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues - Ellen Raskin
43.  The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
44.  The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham
45.  The Last Guru - Daniel M. Pinkwater
46.  The Second Omni Book of Science Fiction - Ellen Datlow (ed.)
47.  From These Ashes - Fredric Brown
48.  The Pirates!  In an Adventure with Scientists and The Pirates!  In an Adventure with Ahab - Gideon Defoe
49.  America Pacifica - Anna North
50.  The Star Road - Gordon R. Dickson
51.  Little Altars Everywhere - Rebecca Wells [RR]
52.  Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood - Rebecca Wells [RR]
53.  The Purity Myth:  How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women - Jessica Valenti
54.  The Universe Maker - A.E. Van Vogt
55.  Time Travelers Never Die - Jack McDevitt
56.  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick  [RR]

Yes, I read Twilight.  And hated it.  After several people I know insisted that it really was good and after ripping on it for ages, I thought it was time I read it so that I knew for sure.  Now I know.  I think my favorite fiction book I read this year (with Twilight being my least favorite--although it definitely had a run for its money) was Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy.  It's utopian, feminist sci fi--if you like that sort of thing.  And I do.

Books Read in 2010

As I'm still keeping track of all of the books I read, I thought I'd share last year's list. Some of these are re-reads and I've marked those with an [RR].

1. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
2. The Invisibles: Say You Want a Revolution - Grant Morrison
3. Planet of the Damned - Harry Harrison
4. Gibbon’s Decline and Fall - Sheri S. Tepper [RR]
5. The Butterfly Revolution - William Butler
6. The BFG - Roald Dahl
7. The World Inside - Robert Silverberg
8. The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett
9. Escape to Earth - Ivan Howard (ed.)
10. All the Myriad Ways - Larry Niven
11. The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks
12. New Dimensions 1 - Robert Silverberg (ed.)
13. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
14. Spindrift - Allen Steele
15. On Our Way To the Future - Terry Carr (ed.)
16. Doorway Into Time - Sam Moskowitz (ed.)
17. The Tesseract - Alex Garland
18. House of Stairs - William Sleator
19. Millennium - Ben Bova
20. Toward Infinity - Damon Knight (ed.)
21. The Bicentennial Man - Isaac Asimov
22. Over Sea, Under Stone - Susan Cooper
23. A Time of Changes - Robert Silverberg
24. Damnation Alley - Roger Zelazny
25. 7 Steps to Midnight - Richard Matheson
26. A Dusk of Demons - John Christopher
27. The Revenants - Sheri S. Tepper
28. The Phoenix and the Carpet - E. Nesbit
29. A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
30. The Awakening - Kate Chopin
31. The Wounded Planet - Roger Elwood and Virginia Kidd (ed.)
32. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
33. Lovelock - Orson Scott Card and Kathryn H. Kidd [RR]
34. Lemony Snickett: The Unauthorized Autobiography - Lemony Snickett
35. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood [RR]
36. The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
37. Engine Summer - John Crowley
38. Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett [RR]
39. The Unsleep - Diana and Meir Gillon
40. The Egypt Game - Zilpha Keatley Snyder
41. Beloved - Toni Morrison [RR]
42. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
43. Millennial Women - Virginia Kidd (ed.)
44. Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
45. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
46. Full Dark, No Stars - Stephen King
47. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
48. The House With a Clock in Its Walls - John Bellairs

I think my favorites for the year (out of new reads) were Pride and Prejudice, The Book of Lost Things, Never Let Me Go and The Hunger Games--all of which I adored--although there were quite a few books I really enjoyed. I'm not really sure how I managed to go this long without reading Jane Austen as she's exactly my style. And if I'd realized Kazuo Ishiguro had written a science fiction book, I would have read it right when it was released because I loved The Remains of the Day so much and sci fi is my favorite genre.

Books Read in 2009

When I changed my blog layout over the summer, one of the things I added was a continually updating list of all the books I read during the year. I meant to post about it, but never quite got around to it. I am a voracious reader--I have been as long as I can remember. In 2008, I started keeping track of all of the books I read because I was curious about how many I read in a year. I enjoyed having the list since I tend to be on the forgetful side and sometimes forget what I've read, so I continued it in 2009. I read 56 books in 2008 and 78 in 2009. (Those numbers don't include comics--unless the comics were bound into a book--and it doesn't include crafty or cook books.) I don't know the reason for the huge difference in numbers--I guess we will see what this year brings.

Here's the final list for last year:

1. Man Plus - Frederik Pohl
2. Not With a Bang - Chapman Pincher
3. Childhood’s End - Arthur C. Clarke
4. The Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth
5. The Second Trip - Robert Silverberg
6. The Margarets - Sheri S. Tepper
7. The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler
8. The City of Ember - Jeanne DuPrau
9. He, She and It - Marge Piercy
10. Masters of Everon - Gordon R. Dickson
11. Coraline - Neil Gaiman
12. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
13. The Infinity Box - Kate Wilhelm
14. Solar Lottery - Philip K. Dick
15. The Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke
16. Sardonicus - Ray Russell
17. We Who Are About To... - Joanna Russ
18. Redwall - Brian Jacques
19. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
20. View From Another Shore - Franz Rottensteiner (ed.)
21. Batman: Year One - Frank Miller
22. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Frank Miller
23. The Crucible of Time - John Brunner
24. Monument - Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
25. Imperial Earth - Arthur C. Clarke
26. Now You See It... - Richard Matheson
27. City of Illusions - Ursula K. LeGuin
28. Enchantress From the Stars - Sylvia Engdahl
29. Downward to the Earth - Robert Silverberg
30. Highway of Eternity - Clifford D. Simak
31. The Time Machine - H.G. Wells (audio)
32. Always Coming Home - Ursula K. LeGuin
33. Years of the City - Frederik Pohl
34. Matilda - Roald Dahl
35. Shock III - RIchard Matheson
36. The Peace War - Vernor Vinge
37. The Eyes of Heisenberg - Frank Herbert
38. Looking Backward From the Year 2000 - Mack Reynolds
39. Stress Pattern - Neal Barrett Jr.
40. Two Views of Wonder - Thomas N. Scortia and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (ed.)
41. Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry
42. Island in the Sea of Time - S.M. Stirling
43. Planet of Exile - Ursula K. LeGuin
44. Devil in a Blue Dress - Walter Mosley
45. Those Who Watch - Robert Silverberg
46. The Santaroga Barrier - Frank Herbert
47. Spaceling - Doris Piserchia
48. Truckers - Terry Pratchett
49. Diggers - Terry Pratchett
50. Wings - Terry Pratchett
51. Woe Is I - Patricia T. O’Conner
52. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Master’s Choice - Alfred Hitchcock (ed.)
53. Five Children and It - E. Nesbit
54. He Is Legend - Christopher Conlon (ed.)
55. Tor Double #4 (Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo - John Varley and The Star Pit - Samuel R. Delany)
56. The Stars, Like Dust - Isaac Asimov
57. The Currrents of Space - Isaac Asimov
58. A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
59. The Infinitive of Go - John Brunner
60. Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine
61. Through Darkest America - Neal Barret, Jr.
62. In Deep - Damon Knight
63. Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
64. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture - Ariel Levy
65. A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett
66. The Life of Pi - Yann Martel
67. Riddley Walker - Russel Hoban
68. Seven-Day Magic - Edward Eager
69. Reach For Tomorrow - Arthur C. Clarke
70. The Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison
71. The Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge - Harry Harrison
72. The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World - Harry Harrison
73. The Girl Who Owned a City - O.T. Nelson
74. King’s Blood Four - Sheri S. Tepper
75. Necromancer Nine - Sheri S. Tepper
76. Wizard’s Eleven - Sheri S. Tepper
77. The Sheep Look Up - John Brunner
78. Under the Dome - Stephen King

If anyone would like to discuss books with me or suggest any that they think I might like, I would love that. Really--please do. I would also like to take this opportunity to say that I sometimes read books because of their badness (I like bad movies too.) so please don't assume that I think the books I read are all good. Sometimes the absolute horribleness of a book makes it incredibly entertaining. At least to me.

Books and More Books

My birthday was last Saturday (not this past Saturday, but the one before that--April 26th) so Chris and I went used book shopping to buy me lots of birthday books. We already have piles of books that have no where to live, but you can aways find room for more, right? We seem to think so anyway.

First we went to our local library which was having a bag sale--all the books you could fit in a paper grocery bag for $3. (We insanely overfilled ours and gave them $6.)


These are some of the more entertaining ones:
The New Complete Hoyle--published in 1956,
The Wonderful World of Science - Book Five--an elementary school textbook published in 1941,
Polly's Homemaking Pointers--1965--love these hilarious/scary old homemaking manuals,
Stitch By Stitch--published 1986
and Creative Needlework--published 1974.
(There were about 15-20 that I didn't take a picture of.)

Creative Needlework has some really fun projects and what Chris and I agree is the pretty much the best picture ever taken. (You might want to click the photo for the larger size to really get the full effect.)


Then we went to several used books stores and got probably 20 more books. Mostly fairly old sci fi paperbacks, as evidenced in the photo. (Including a couple that I believe are out of print.)


All in all it was quite a gratifying haul of books and it made for a happy birthday for me. And after all of the wonderful book buying, we went out for dinner with some friends for the best Indian food ever.