often seen in the street without a hat

After my last post dithering about when to mark 3000 books, in the end I lost count of where I was and accidentally the 3000th book I finished (including rereads) was Gyles Brandreth's memoir, which is a deeply unsatisfactory outcome. Bah. Oh well, it is a meaningless number anyway.

In my Booker reading project I just finished Oscar and Lucinda which I liked very much indeed. Part of it reminded me of Eva Ibbotson, which I think is just because I've recently read A Company of Swans and there's that whole boat up the overgrown wilderness thing. Next up is Remains of the Day. I have seen the film, but that does not count for these purposes. Nonetheless I shall enjoy imagining Emma Thompson throughout. (One of the panel who chose RotD was the novelist son of John Profumo.)

I have just signed up the free trial of Kobo Plus after I realised about four things on my wishlist were available that way. There isn't that much else that I've found - I don't see myself renewing. (Not deliberately, anyway. I absolutely see myself forgetting to cancel and renewing through absentmindedness.) This means I have an extra impetus to push myself to keep prioritising reading over scrolling mindlessly on my phone to finish up the free books.

How many books did you read this year?

I read 206 books in 2022.

34 biogrqphy (up from 18 last year)
6 children's (down from 18 last year)
1 cartoon collection (a new entry!)
151 fiction (up from 141 last year)
7 non-fiction (down from 12 last year)
8 young adult (down from 10 last year)

I think fewer children's this year because I moved away from home again and most children's books I read in paper form rather than ebooks. The near doubling of biography is because while I don't want to buy most modern biographies I'm quite happy to read them when they pop up on library ebooks.

Perhaps I should start breaking down my fiction categories. But what into? And who decides? When is a book a romance book and when is it litfic about relationships? I just had a go at the first twenty or so books in my list and didn't know what to put them as so I'm just not going to.

19% were by men, of which 4 (1.94% of total) were people of colour

81% by women and non-binary authors of which 22 (10.67% of total) were people of colour

Higher proportions of male writers this year (biographies again I think) and ethnic diversity back up to 2020 rates after a dip in 2021.

Did you reread anything? What?

I reread Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman. When I was going to see my nephews before moving to KL I decided to do a bookhunt instead of an egg hunt in the garden and bought up a lot of stock of children's books in charity shops. One of these was Two Weeks with the Queen, which I had read as a teenager and think it very much still holds up.

Also, I think I might have read Heat and Dust a very long time ago, because I definitely knew the abortion part of the plot already. Unless there's another book involving a twig. But it's possible I just read that excerpt somewhere else so I'm not counting it as a reread.

What were your top five books of the year?

Again, five is too few:

I Will Not Serve - Eveline Mahyere

Less known than the others, I think: convent schoolgirl falls in love with a nun, writes her letters (rather stalkerishly) and is very funny betweentimes. Translated by Antonia White, who knew a thing or two about convents.


Wheels Within Wheels - Dervla Murphy

There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job - Kikuko Tsumura

Seasons quartet - Ali Smith

Priestdaddy - Patricia Lockwood

Scholomance series - Naomi Novik

After Silence - Jessica Gregson

A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting - Sophie Irwin

Jummy at the River School - Sabine Adeyinka



And these were not in the top books, but sufficiently interesting to merit mention:

The Windsor Diaries is by a cousin (I think? Or maybe just a suitably vetted child) of the Queen who spent a lot of time with them growing up. It is interesting because Howard is SO very self-absorbed and critical. The princesses don't dress nicely! She wasn't invited to somewhere she would have liked to be! Elizabeth is too childish! The war goes on in the background but you'd barely notice. Actually a very nice contrast to reading people's diaries and despairing at how erudite and engaged they are in comparison to low me.

I wasn't at all aware of Keisha the Sket when it was around (wrong age, wrong race) and it was fascinating to understand how it developed and got passed around: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/31/keisha-the-sket-by-jade-lb-review-the-literary-version-of-the-black-nod . Even though I am now even more the wrong age this really gripped me and took me back to similar sorts of stories being shared and the condemnation/fascination of teenage girls' sexuality.

This is a spoiler, but Sunny is particularly good because ( I still write lj for the cut texts. )

Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

I hadn't read Dervla Murphy before. I suspect that starting with her autobiography talking about her relationship with her parents rather than her actual travel writing is not the most conventional way into her writing, which therefore makes it perfect. I went on to read her Madagascar book, where she is mostly walking with her daughter, and also enjoyed that, though I would very much like to read an account of all this travel from said daughter's perspective.

Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

So much. I still had about 20 open tabs from last Yuletide sitting unread when I started looking at this year's. I have now closed them unceremoniously. I have a copy of Somerset Maugham's Malaysian Stories that I've carted through at least three countries, unopened. Towards the end of 2022 I signed up to whale weekly to try and read Moby Dick. I'm already behind by at least three emails, despite very much liking the sleepover with Queequeg.

Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

I wanted to "keep reading and keep enjoying it", which I managed, despite incursions of dastardly phone games. (I had to delete Twenty again.)

I decided to start reading the Booker winners, which I have done (see later in the meme).

I had thought that I would have had a lot more time for reading last year as we were scheduled for our cruise, but that didn't happen (despite, or because of, me saying in this very meme "I refuse to believe it will not happen"), so I didn't clear 250 books.

I had also thought that I would move all my unread books to KL with me but although I did move here, it wasn't as clear cut as I thought it would be and I decided not to ship anything over. I did get as far as buying a trunk and packing it, but unpacked it last time I was home.

What was your favourite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

I read 5 books that were published more than 100 years ago -

Girls Together - Louise Mack

Love Insurance - Earl Derr Biggers

The Girls of Rivercliff School - Amy Bell Marlowe

The School They Handed On - Sibyl B Owsley

Potterism - Rose Macaulay

In particular I enjoyed The Girls of Rivercliff School - available on Project Gutenberg and a lovely US boarding school story full of pluck and quiet dignity.

How many books did you buy?

I went down from buying 30 books on Kindle to six. And then fror Kobo I went from 69 to, err, 127. IN MY DEFENCE I have read most of them already and I have been stockpiling for cruises. About halfway through the year I bought the Kobo membership which occasionally gets me cheaper books.

Fewer hardcopy purchases this year probably as have not been around charity shops as much.

Did you use your library?

Yes, for lots of ebooks - around 65 this year. It's probably the best mechanism for getting me to read new authors. I frequently check to see if anything is in the new ebooks section and there are often authors I've never heard of, or books I wouldn't want to spend money on but am quite interested in. (Yes, I fully intend to borrow Spare from the library.)

If you are in the market for a new ereader then Kobo is the only one I know that connects directly to the Overdrive system most UK libraries use.

What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?

An hour or so I'd have thought.

What reading goals do you have for next year?

As I HOPE that the cruises will go ahead, I would like to read more than 250 books. It's a meaningless number. It is better to read books slowly and leisurely and take them in. But I want to read everything.

What’s the longest book you read?

Not a clue. I am experimenting with logging books on Storygraph, which if I keep at it would mean I could answer this question for 2023 next time I meme.

What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

It was of course After Silence, and it very much did! Actually it might also be the longest book I read, certainly up there.

Once I finished the first two Scholomance books the third became very anticipated indeed and exceeded my expectations as I had not thought that it could possibly be as good as the in-school books AND YET.

For future releases, I am technically very pleased for Martha Wells that she is publishing the books she wants but WHERE IS NEW MURDERBOT.

Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?

Not even aware if there was any - would like to know about it if so.

Any books that disappointed you?

What were your least favourite books of the year?

Floating Voter - Julian Critchley (turgid prose, almost complete lack of plot, racism shoe-horned in)

G - John Berger

Waiting for Jeffrey - Alan Coren (I normally really like Alan Coren's style of writing, but this was not one of his better collections)

Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir (but then to be fair I only read half of it as I can't cope with second person narrative and it might be fantastic if you can read all of it)

My Unapologetic Diaries - Joan Collins (dull, repetitive, where was the glossy scandal???)

How to Kill Men and Get Away With It - Katy Brent (seemed shallow, ill-plotted, derivative)

What genre did you read the most of?

Again, Storygraph would be able to tell me this. I imagine it's some definition of "women's fiction". I read more romanace and more SFF than I have previously done, I think, but not so much as to top the list.

Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)?

In my quest to read all the Booker winners I am up to 1980, when William Golding won for Rites of Passage. I've been stalled on the list for a month or so as I am waiting for the Midnight's Children e-book to be available in my library. (Hmm, I have checked my holds and apparently I STILL have to wait another seven weeks for it. Maybe I will crack and purchase.)

This is what I've read, though those in square brackets I read before this year.

Something to Answer For - PH Newby
The Elected Member - Bernice Rubens
[Troubles - JG Farrell]
In a Free State - VS Naipaul
G - John Berger
[The Siege of Krishnapur - JG Farrell]
The Conservationist - Nadine Gordimer
Holiday - Stanley Middleton
Heat and Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Saville - David Storey
Staying On - Paul Scott
The Sea, the Sea - Iris Murdoch
[Offshore - Penelope Fitzgerald]
Rites of Passage - William Golding

There's still a big loss of empire theme running through many of them, and it will be interesting to see how that develops as I move into later books.

The only one I've disliked so far has been G (apart from the drawings of genitals), and I am getting something out of doing this even if I'm not sure what it is. Something additional, I mean, beyond the two obvious gains of "being able to say I've read all the Booker winners" and "potentially doing better in book quiz".

For non-Booker prizes:

Last Night at the Telegraph Club won a National Book Award

Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth were both Hugo nominees and Gideon was also a Nebula nominee

Dial A for Aunties was a Comedy Women in Print winner in 2021

Priestdaddy won the Thurber Prize for American Humor

Sorrow and Bliss was shortlisted for the Women's Prize

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line won an Edgar Award the Lucy Cavendish College fiction prize and was shortlisted for the JCB prize

Ali Smith's Autumn was Booker shortlisted for the Booker, and Summer won the Orwell Prize

What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

The Alan Rickman diaries. I was really looking forward to them, as I like Alan Rickman, he's been in really interesting things, and also I think unfairly I was thinking ooh I love Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility diaries, and he was in S&S, so surely I will like this. It was, as the New York Times said, "fantastically dull". I am sure that they meant something to him, and also that there will certainly have been things cut out, but I cannot for the life of me understand why they were published. (Based on what he/others say about his post-Potter wealth it seems unlikely that there would be financial issues for his widow, who could have sold one of their several houses if so.) There are some tiny little bits of interest, like what he thinks of Daniel Radcliffe's acting, but it's mostly just reeling off lists of who was at dinner parties, and Rickman whining that directors don't get him (when he's acting) that directing is hard (when he's directing), that no-one is as "curious" (as in interested) as he is, and that films are unaccountably edited not to be all about him. (I laughed out loud when he wrote that about S&S.)

( All the books I read in 2022. )

I am six months into my new checklist hobby (previous such pastimes including seeing all of Shakespeare's plays performed) of reading the winners of the Booker Prize. I am starting from the first one and moving forwards, skipping over those I have already read for expediency's sake. The list can be found by clicking this link.

I read through the first three with moderate alacrity:

1969: Something to Answer For - PH Newby

1970: The Elected Member - Bernice Reubens

(The "lost booker" is here, Troubles by JG Farrell, which I read last year)

1971: In a Free State - VS Naipaul

Strong thematic connections for these are loss of reality, and loss of empire. Something to Answer for happens in Suez, and the protagonist is deeply unreliable, and begins to be aware that he is not even sure himself what is true and what is not (he calls his mother - but is she dead? He can't remember what he believes). The Elected Member follows the son of a Jewish family in London, who is in hospital after developing mental illness related to drug use. In a Free State has been published twice. The first time, the Booker-winning time, the main story is prefaced by two short stories. The second time the main story stands alone. Guess which one I bought first, and which does not count as Booker-winning? Correct. Once remedied, I thought all three stories were excellent. The main one returns to the themes of loss of empire, with white people driving through a newly independent African state and finding their previous privileges do not protect them as much as they assume.

After these first three I was stuck for ages at the 1972 winner, G, which is described as an "experimental novel" and I hated it. The occasional crude genital drawing does liven things up, true, but overall it is not for me. Well, to be fair I liked the bit about flying over the Alps. It's not really awful, but it is pretty dull, and I think maybe it was more innovative at the time than it is now, so the "experimentation" is not really evident to me. Plus quite a bit of man-writing-woman (though from his other work I think he is trying not to be here at least). I had forgotten until I read this: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/19/john-berger-g-classics-booker that Berger donated half of the prize money to the Black Panthers. I tried to trick myself that therefore reading it is a form of BLM allyship, but it didn't work. Eventually through sheer diligence and much watching the percentage counter slowly rise I finished it.

1973 was another already-read JG Farrell - The Siege of Krishnapur

In 1973 there were two winners, Holiday by Stanley Middleton, and The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer. I read the former and it seemed very like a lot of other middle-twentieth century books where a middle class man (or woman, or couple, or family) go to the seaside for a holiday, noting the gradations of class and vulgarity around them, experience classic seaside landlady behaviour, and return home, though with the the addition of a crumbled marriage and an interfering father-in-law. This is the sort of novel I rather like, so a nice relief after G. High hopes for the Nadine Gordimer next.

6 down, 49 remaining, of which I have already read twelve, so 37 to read. Too early really to think of the next checklist, but I do look wistfully at the Women's Prize for fiction.

How many books did you read this year?

I read 201 books. I was sitting at around 180 in mid December when I counted up, and thereafter made a concerted effort to get to the entirely meaningless round number milestone of 200. And then didn't realise I had and overshot.

180 of these books were by women, of whom 16 were writers of colour; 21 books by men, of whom two were writers of colour. This is not as diverse as last year, 8.9% compared to 12% - and only slightly higher proportion of women than men.

18 biography
18 children's
10 young adult
12 non-fiction
2 poetry/short stories
141 fiction

Until you get to fiction this is very similar to last year, plus a few more - then I doubled the number of fiction books I read. It is much, much more than I read last year (107). For 2020 I noted that this was unusually low (in fact the second lowest year on record), not least because of overwork and burnout. So this is I think a good suggestion that my mental health is back on track.

Did you reread anything? What?

I reread the Murderbot series by Martha Wells, after reading them earlier this year for the first time on felinitykat's recommendation, and then finding in November/December that I desperately needed to be reading them again. This is entirely appropriate for Murderbot, who uses media to bury themself in to escape life and returns very frequently to the same series for comfort. They are my Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. I think the only other time I've reread a book within the calendar year was The Hawkwood War by Ankaret Wells. Maybe it's something in the surname.

What were your top five books of the year?

I didn't stop at five last year so I see no reason to curtail my list this time.

Character Breakdown - Zawe Ashton
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 - Cho Nam-Joo
The Siege of Krishnapur - JG Farrell
Big Girl, Small Town - Michelle Gallen
Miss Benson's Beetle - Rachel Joyce
Tory Heaven - Marghanita Laski
No-one is Talking About This - Patricia Lockwood
Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters
Jean series - Janet Sandison (Jane Duncan)
The Education of Harriet Hatfield - May Sarton
Murderbot series - Martha Wells

Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

Martha Wells! Though I haven't read any of her non-Murderbot books becasue I guess I'm afraid I won't love them as much. The fact that they are not a book they're not setting out to be should, I suppose, not be held against them but there we are.

I really enjoyed Big Girl Small Town and I hope that Michelle Gallen writes more, soon.

When I was theantichris recommended Susan Beth Pfeffer's YA novels to me and I like them very much so will keep working my way through. I started with Beauty Queen was was eyeopening in how much young women's dieting was normalised, not in the 90s way of it being An Issue, but just that it was accepted that of course it would be a good idea if the younger sister started dieting.

I found a Nicky Edwards book in a secondhand shop that was from the era when women's press books were all about lesbian separatists (and much the better for it) - I have since gone on to read all three available titles and the one about a woman building herself a cottage in the middle of the countryside, unknowingly accompanied by a (lesbian?) ghost from pre-history is excellent.

Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

Last year I wrote:

Because I spent much more time at home in 2020 than I had originally planned, I literally started every day in my flat opening my eyes to see the shelves of unread books in front of me. I think I read 12 of them last year, which leaves around 90 still to go. Not counting all the ebooks I keep buying.

Still the case. Though now I have curtains over the shelves to protect spines from the light, so I don't always see the books now. I feel their reproachful eyeless glare through the fabric though. I also meant to read some quite heavy books about sexual assault, becasue I felt I ought to, but Jess said that since I come across that a lot through my job I needn't force myself if I didn't want to, so I won't.

Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

The goals I set last time I did this meme were:

Should I attempt to recommit to a French book? I would still like to do it, but at this point I don't really see it happening. I would like to read at least ten books from my unread shelves. I would like at least one of the ten to be one of the academicy books I want to read but have been finding too daunting

I was entirely correct that I was not going to read a French book, so I accomplished the goal of it not happening. I think I read 14 books from my towering pile, which is "at least ten", so tick on that. None of the fourteen was an academicy book, which is a shame.

What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

The oldest book I read this year was Death in Venice, a last minute addition when I asked twitter for short books and irrtum suggested Thomas Mann novellas. It was very good, I can see why people make a fuss about it.

In terms of things I'd been meaning to read, I finally found Once More, With Feeling, Victoria Coren (as was)'s account of making a porn film. I'd wanted to read it since finishing her book about poker which was really excellent, but it is not available on kindle so when it popped up in my local charity shop I was very pleased. It was still funny, but you can really see her development from then to now in style.

How many books did you buy?

Lots in charity shops, since they haven't closed since the Jan 2020 lockdown AND there is now a dedicated charity shop bookshop nearish me. Though having said that, I don't think I pick up nearly as many there as from random other forays, the stock doesn't seem to change so much and they have too many uncurated piles.

I've been trying to buy from Kobo (who make my e-reader) or Hive (though that entails extra steps to get onto my ereader that the warm glow of smugness doesn't always counteract) instead of Amazon, as I lost the ability to make the conversion work in Calibre and I don't like reading on my phone so much. Since Kobo's store isn't as good, what mostly happens is that I still find the deals on Kindle monthly or daily deals and then just search to see if they're price matched. I bought 30 books from Kindle, and 69 from Kobo. I am much better at promptly reading the ones on Kobo than on Kindle.

Did you use your library?

Yes! Both as a testing centre and as a source for ebooks, though not for borrowing any physical media. I still forget to read the books that download in time, or end up with a half read book I can no longer access, but it's so good to have it connected to the Kobo.

What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?

Less than an hour when I was powering through young adult books to hit the arbitrary 200.

What reading goals do you have for next year?

To keep reading and keep enjoying it. That sounds unbearably smug like those self help bollocks things that are all about "the journey not the destination". But really, to keep remembering that I like to read and making time for it. This will be hampered by my recent download of a dastardly clicking phone game, which is currently taking up all my reading time.

I think I will do my half-hearted idea from last year and read all the past Booker prize winners. I like having lists and goals. Plus I have already read 14 of them (I thought 15, but I've only watched Remains of the Day, not read it). If I start at the beginning and move forwards this means I will start with Something to Answer for by PH Newby, of which and of whom I have not previously heard.

I shall continue not to commit to reading a book in French.

This year Jess and I are going on our lengthy Antarctic and Atlantic cruise (you may notice a lack of "all going well" - I refuse to believe it will not happen), which will involve two and a half months off work and six weeks of that on a boat, with several sea days where there will be very little to do except read. SO MUCH READING TO DO. I have started to stockpile books on my Kobo for this, including Joan Collins' diaries which Jess has requested I read in her vicinity so that I can regale her with the choicer anecdotes, as I did with the autobiography of Grace Jones in Ukraine in 2021. Numbers continue meaningless, but I might use that dedicated reading time to set a goal to clear 250 books for the year for the first time in recorded memory.

This year is also supposedly when I will finally move to Kuala Lumpur with a relocation allowance, so I plan to take over all my unread books and hope that that will force me to move through them. I want to read them! I bought each and every one with the express intention of doing just that! But somehow there is always something else. I need to find a spur of some sort.

What’s the longest book you read?

I was wondering how people tell this now that ebooks are arguably the norm, and it turns out that if you log things on Goodreads it tells you the pages. This is something that Goodreads could do that I can't (be bothered to) myself. I have just been to look and it seems that you can import books into Goodreads from an excel file, which is where I keep my lists. I shall investigate what sort of file it can cope with (suspect my own columns do not match theirs). Maybe if I manually input a book or two then export that I could use the resulting file to make my own spreadsheet match and then import it. Hmm. If anyone has done this themselves, advice would be welcome.

I'm guessing that a Penny Vincenzi might be the longest, or the Barbara Taylor Bradford A Woman of Substance, which is 928 pages. Which I suppose balances out some of my end of year urgent reading, a few of which might really be novelettes rather than novellas even.

What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

I don't think I had been exactly waiting with bated breath for anything in particular. Had I read Murderbot before this year it would have been the new novella, and it would DEFINITELY have lived up to expectations. I was looking forward to the third Time Police novel from Jodi Taylor, having started that series this year, and enjoyed it very much.

For next year I am looking forward to the new Jessica Gregson book, After Silence, of course. Amazon even has a publication date of my actual birthday, but that is probably just a random date chosen to get it on the system.

Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?

Repeat from last year: I do not think so. If anyone wants to tell me about something they saw in great detail, please do. I like secondhand drama that doesn't concern me.

Any books that disappointed you?
What were your least favorite books of the year?

Home Work by Julie Andrews was one of the first books I read in 2021 and it was just really dull and flatly wrtten. I thought Because of You by Dawn French had a terrible (and arguably unethical) ending and didn't deserve the hype at all. I barely remember at all what Flannelled Fool by TC Worsley was like, but I do recall feeling it was dismissive of child sexual abuse. Oh and Madam by Phoebe Wynne was not very well written and just not super well developed for a quite obvious plot.

What genre did you read the most of?

As ever, women's middlebrow fiction from the mid 20th century.

Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)?

The Murderbot novel Network Effect won the Nebula AND the Hugo this year! Several of the novellas were nominated or won in previous years.

I read This is How You Lose the Time War which won the Nebula and Hugo novella last year.

No-one is Talking about This was nominated for the Booker, and the Women's Prize. I have been trying to read This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga all year, which was also Booker-nominated, but it is in the second person and I just can't. Dolly Alderton's Ghosts was nominated for the Wodehouse humour prize and was the runner-up for Comedy Women in Print.

Oh, I read Skincare by Caroline Hirons, and that was apparently the Lifestyle Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. I am glad to know that the only book I have read on skincare, or am likely to, was a good one.

I also read The Siege of Krishnapur by JG Farrell, which won the 1973 Booker.

Big Girl, Small Town was shortlisted for a bunch of things including Costa first novel, Irish Book Awards Debut and Comedy Women in Print.


What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

Maybe Madam? Not sure if it was hyped, but if it was it shouldn't be.




Everything I read in 2021:

( 2021 )

How many books did you read this year?

I read 107 books, with the following breakdown:

91 women, of whom 11 were writers of colour; 16 men of whom 2 were writers of colour.

14 biographical
13 children's
8 young adults
5 non-fiction
67 fiction

Far fewer books than in 2019, partly because my overwork and subsequent burnout didn't lend themselves to reading, and partly because I raced through Agatha Christie's oeuvre in 2019 and didn't have anything like that to go through in 2020.

Did you reread anything? What?

Two James Herriots, and Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies in preparation for The Mirror and the Light. It had been some time since I'd read them so it was a very good move, I'm not sure I would have picked up on lots of things had I not done so.

However, I'm also certain I reread a bunch of Angela Thirkells when I was buying copies of the ones I didn't have as ebooks, but I don't seem to have recorded those at all.

What were your top five books of the year?

Burmese Days - George Orwell
Fleishman is in Trouble - Taffy Brodesser-Akner
The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel
Fire from Heaven - Mary Renault
Queenie - Candace Carty-Williams
Old Baggage - Lissa Evans
My Sister the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite
Scabby Queen - Kirstin Innes
Sunflower - Rebecca West

Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

I hadn't read any Lissa Evans before, and since reading Old Baggage I've been working my way through them with great enjoyment. I only have one left now (Odd One Out) so I hope she is even now crafting some more excellence. I would very much like to read more about Mattie Simpson, but don't think that will be forthcoming.

Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

Because I spent much more time at home in 2020 than I had originally planned, I literally started every day in my flat opening my eyes to see the shelves of unread books in front of me. I think I read 12 of them last year, which leaves around 90 still to go. Not counting all the ebooks I keep buying.

Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

The goals I set last time I did this meme were to read one of the French children's books I have accumulated and to read as much as I did in 2019. Neither of which I achieved! Ah well.

What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

The oldest book I read was Marriage by Susan Ferrier, which was published in 1818, making it more than TWO HUNDRED YEARS OLD. (I realise that people with literary interests that do not usually firmly situate themselves in the twentieth century will scoff here, but I am not those people.) It was very good! A Scottish author too which was good (had a special little sticker on the front of the Virago edition).

I have also owned a copy of Beyond the Vicarage by Noel Streatfeild for at least twenty years, but only got round to reading it in 2020. It was very good indeed, and I would like to read a critical biography of her too.

How many books did you buy?

Since I was back in Edinburgh when the charity shops reopened after lockdown, I bought more hardcopies than I was expecting! I also picked up occasional books in

Did you use your library?

Yep! Still pleased that my Kobo connects directly to Edinburgh libraries. Do I read all of the books I check out and download? No! Especially since I often check out the book on my computer and then forget to put it on the ereader. I intend to read them all at some point, anyway. The book I borrowed that I wouldn't have bought myself and enjoyed was Slammed by Lola Keeley, a lesbian romance about high ranking tennis players.

What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?

Hours, but I couldn't tell you which took longer and which were quicker.

What reading goals do you have for next year?

Should I attempt to recommit to a French book? I would still like to do it, but at this point I don't really see it happening. I would like to read at least ten books from my unread shelves. I would like at least one of the ten to be one of the academicy books I want to read but have been finding too daunting.

What’s the longest book you read?

Probably one of the Hilary Mantel ones, or maybe the Penny Vincenzi? I feel like Penny Vincenzi books are doorstops in paper form, from my vague memory of shelving as a bookseller. Wow, Goodreads confirms that Old Sins outdoes them by around two hundred pages, clocking in at 992 pages.

What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

I think probably The Mirror and the Light, and yes it very much did. This has also prompted me to check when the paperback of is due so that I can have it on my shelves - end of April, but I can't find any images of the spine, so I don't know whether it will match or clash.

Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?

I do not think so. If anyone wants to tell me about something they saw in great detail, please do. I like secondhand drama that doesn't concern me.

Any books that disappointed you?
What were your least favorite books of the year?

Secrets at St Bride's wasn't great, I bought it becuase I will almost always read a boarding school story in any genre, but it was mostly tedious. I think it was It Must Have Been the Mistletoe which was the one where the heroine took the entire book to realise the man she fancied wasn't gay after all, which was blatantly obvious from the start. I also didn't think much of Expectation by Anna Hope, it was supposed to be electric and voice of a generation but I kind of wanted to punch all of them.

What genre did you read the most of?

Women's middlebrow fiction from the mid 20th century, as always.

Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)?

I did rereads of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies , which both won the Booker (and BUTB the Costa as well), and the The Mirror and the Light was shortlisted for the Women's Prize.

Queenie won the comedy women in print prize which was what finally spurred me on to read it. While it is very funny I also found it very hard to read in places because it is so raw. It was also the best debut book at the British Book Awards best of and was shortlisted for the Jhalak. Fleishman is in Trouble was shortlisted for best debut at the British Book Awards too.

Troubles won the "lost" Man Booker for 1970. I had not previously heard of the Lost Man Booker, which was retrospectively awarded in 2010 to mark that the change in Booker eligibility from "published the year before" to "published that year" had meant that books in 1970 missed out. It's different from the other Bookers in the process as well as belatedness - a public vote online vote after the judges' shortlist.

Since 2005 I have only read 13 books published in 1970, and I would probably agree that Troubles was the best of those, assuming that they wouldn't award it to The Player's Boy as it's a children's book.

The Nickel Boys won the Pulitzer and Orwell, but I haven't read it, because despite Jess and me valiantly attempting some vote-rigging, our Sittwe bookclub chose a book suggested by one of my nemeses, which SHE HAD ALREADY READ and therefore shouldn't have been eligible. You may wish to point out that I could have read it on my own time anyway. You would be correct.

Hmm. I wonder if I want to set myself the task of reading all the Booker winners? I do like a list, and I've already read 14 of them so it's not like starting from scratch. It might also help in future book quizzes to have a better idea of what the Booker winners were.

What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

I think the books I read that were the recipients of most hype all lived up to it! Especially Scabby Queen, which the First Minister talked up.


Everything I read in 2020:

( List. )

I ended up taking this week off at very short notice after a helpful conversation with my manager. I was going to call the GP today to get a phone triage to ask advice about burnout (kind of hoping to be told to take more time off) but you have to be up at 8.30 to ring, and I woke at 11am after staying up til 1am finishing off my work to be able to take time off and then accidentally reading for 2 more hours after that. So maybe tomorrow, and I should see if my work insurance connects me to something.

I have done lots of nothing, including going through all my charity shop recipe book purchases to see if I actually intend to make anything from them. I have discarded three already (after taking photos of the one recipe in each I fancy making as opposed to eating), Nordic eating, Scottish Kitchen and the National Gallery cookbook. They have lots of things that sound delicious, but I only really like cooking things that are putting everything in the same pot and leaving it. Even with that caveat I already found 40 recipes to make with five more books to go through.

The most successful book I have bought is Stewed! by Alan Rosenthal. It is all one pot, and unlike other one-pot books I've gone through, actually MEANS one pot instead of cook ten different ingredients separately and then at the very end put them into the same pot. I have already made 7 things - the standout being Persian sour cherry and walnut stew - several of them more than once. And almost all freeze well, so I can cook and then spread out my eating over more time instead of dying of boredom. I might be about to select a new recipe to do that tonight and go and buy ingredients, or I might be about to order McDonald's. Time will tell. Even if I don't need to go for food shopping I must leave the house anyway, I haven't since Friday when I continued my SWIMMING streak.

Onto the next recipe books to look through - including both Ottolenghi's Jerusalem, and the Marmite Cookbook.

My monthly book quiz team thought it might be nice to have a themed team cocktail tonight. So I went through my parents' cupboard and discovered:

Port
Pink port
Ruby port
Baileys
Mint Choc Baileys
Tia Maria
Galiano
Martini Rosso
Pimms
Blackberry and elderflower Pimms
Gin
Rhubarb and ginger gin
Jack Daniels
Whiskey I am not allowed to have any of as it's the good stuff
Creme de cassis
Creme de whatever blackberry is in French
Grand Marnier
Cointreau
Peach liqueur
Apple schnapps
Dark rum
Light rum
Cognac
Sherry
Bristol Cream sherry
Cinc Cinc

So I think I might have to have quite a lot of cocktails before I go home.

antisoppist mentioned the game Alchemy where you discover elements. Well. She's basically ruined my life. I have been researching things like "how do you make aluminium" to try and get further (still couldn't work it out, watched a video to get given aluminium and broaden my horizons). I just had to google Ghost Rider to work out what on earth one combined with a motorbike to get it if corpse and grave didn't work (I haven't yet discovered ghost itself, so knew it wasn't a ghost). Fire, it turns out. The game is also pretty sexist in that you make man and woman separately, and then if you combine man with other things you get eg scientist, assassin, but not if you also but swords with women. I generally do some educated guesses and then systematically match things up, but the systematicness is now taking a long time as I have discovered 362 things (out of 500). I fear I may never discover cheese.

I am not sure if these sorts of posts work nowadays, but I would like people to tell me about their tenuous connections to fame. Not actual connections, it's important that there is no direct contact between you and a celebrity.

Examples I invite people to retell:

* your piano tuner is the nephew of someone literary
* your mum's friend went out with a musician before they were famous
* your next door neighbour once almost bought a house that later an actor moved in to

No link too tenuous!

I bought a tin of duck meat. It looks a bit like a small tin of tuna, or maybe cat food (it's definitely not cat food)? Like the smallest tin of baked beans you get. It says steamed duck for ingredients with some garlic and onion. I'm assuming that the food labelling regulations here aren't as strict so the long list of preservatives are just not mentioned rather than not present.

I have never cooked with tinned meat before (I'm not sure if I've eaten it before) and find myself a little nervous. Do I just pop it in a pan and fry it? Could it be microwaves? Or is it better to add into something else as an ingredient rather than have on its own? If so, what?

I have been doing a bit more actual cooking too. Very simple things like pasta with microwave-roasted tomatoes and garlic, with myanmar fried beans on top. And I bought some non-fried beans in Mrauk U and cooked them into a puree (that was an accident, i only meant to cook them normally) in the rice cooker with some quince wine (cheap in this wonderful corner shop Jess found with loads of unexpected items) and they were delicious spread on bread. But last night and tonight my dinner has mostly been BBQ flavour Pringles or Pringles knockoffs.