Books Read - 2005

January
Kill Your Boyfriend - Grant Morrison
Books of Magic I - Neil Gaiman
A Woman's Place - Ruth Adam
The Virgin in the Garden - A.S. Byatt
Told by an Idiot - Rose Macaulay
Still Life - A.S. Byatt
Books of Magic II - Neil Gaiman
Books of Magic III - Neil Gaiman
Books of Magic IV - Neil Gaiman

Hmm. January is either an anomaly, or marks a new era in my reading. I...was about to say that I'd never read this many comics before, but then I remembered reading the first five books of Strangers in Paradise in two days when staying with Ing. But still - I seem to have been corrupted somewhat. I'm finding that I need to change my reading style. I read very quickly, and skim-read most description. So the words in comics are easy to take in, but I find that I'm not really seeing the pictures, and have to make myself slow down and take it in. I'm still dipping in and out of Scheherazade, which I really like, and looking forward to reading Locas.

I also don't seem to have read any children's books this month, which I'm absolutely certain has never happened before. This is probably partly because I don't have most of my books in Manchester with me, and so I don't grab hold of one if I'm looking for something to read, and also because I haven't been buying so many, because I had an almost completely successful ebay diet for three months (the exception was a d/w copy of The Thuggery Affair, which I NEEDED) and so haven't had much temptation. I have got Nancy, Young Canadian to read, along with sundry random unreads. This will almost certainly change in February, because Hilary McKay's Permanent Rose is coming out. Yay! Saffy's Angel is one of my favourite books - certainly a desert island necessity - and Indigo's Star almost miraculously failed to be a disappointment.

February
Catherine, Called Birdy - Karen Cushman
Ghost World - Daniel Clowes
Delicate Monster - Storm Jameson
Miss Rivers and Miss Bridges - Geraldine Symons
Global Frequency - Warren Ellis
Cheerful Weather for the Wedding - Julia Strachey
Permanent Rose - Hilary McKay
Morality For Beautiful Girls - Alexander McCall Smith
The Kalahari Typing School for Men - Alexander McCall Smith
Global Frequency: Detonation Radio - Warren Ellis
America (The Book) - Daily Show/Jon Stewart
Batgirl: Year One
Sabine - Time Kennemore
Nancy, Young Canadian - Phillis Garrard
Every Boy Has One - Meg Cabot
Provincial Daughter - RM Dashwood
'...and that's when it fell off in my hand.' - Louise Rennison
Biddy and Quilla - Evelyn Smith
Saving Francesca - Melina Marchetta
The Doings of Hilda - Phillis Garrard
The Full Cupboard of Life - Alexander McCall Smith

March
Strangers in Paradise - Terry Moore
Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin
The Trial of Lady Chatterley - C.H. Rolphe
Fidelity - Susan Glaspell
The Have I Got News for You Shameless Cash-in Book
The Towers of Trebizond - Rose Macaulay
Women - Winifred Holtby
Five Dolls in a House - Helen Clare
The Jane Austen Book Club - Karen Joy Fowler
Black Mischief - Evelyn Waugh
Teens - Louise Mack
Rhodesian Adventure - Mollie Chappell
Poor Things - Alasdair Grey
Dancing Star - Gladys Malvern
The House of Arden - E. Nesbit
The Single Heart - Storm Jameson
Felicity Dances - Arnold L. Haskell
Denehurst Secret Service - Gwendoline Courtney
Monica and the Fifth - Brenda Page
A Day Off - Storm Jameson
Middles of the Forest School - Phyllis Matthewman
Planetary - Warren Ellis
Bunty Annual 1975

April
Cherry Ames, Boarding School Nurse - Helen Wells
Helen's Inheritance - Dora Joan Potter
The Wanderer - Sharon Creech
Autumn Term - Antonia Forest
Saturday Night - Caroline B. Cooney
Bachelor Girl - Roger Lea MacBride (Rose Wilder)
Annie on my Mind - Nancy Garden
Good Girls Don't - Claire Hennessy
Strangers in Paradise: High School - Terry Moore
The Letters of Nancy Mitford
More Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin
Joanna Godden - Sheila Kaye-Smith
The Flying Feeling - Hilary McKay
Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary - Ruby Ferguson
The Village - Marghanita Laski
The Home-maker - Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Highland Fling - Nancy Mitford
Christmas Pudding - Nancy Mitford
Pigeon Pie - Nancy Mitford
Sharpe's Gold - Bernard Cornwell
The Way Things Are - E.M. Delafield
Jean of the Fifth - Winifred Darch
The Friendly Young Ladies - Mary Renault

May
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Sharpe's Devil - Bernard Cornwell
Good Daughters - Mary Hocking
The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams
"...then he ate my boy entrancers" - Louise Rennison
Dear Diary - Claire Hennessy
Psmith Journalist - P.G. Wodehouse
The Adventures of English - Mervyn Bragg
Time after Time - Molly Keane
Five B and Evangeline - Christine Chaundler
The Priory - Dorothy Whipple
A Handful of Dust - Evelyn Waugh
Thomasina Toddy - Josephine Elder
Ramage - Dudley Pope
Flashman at the Charge - George Macdonald Fraser
Watching the English - Kate Fox
Girls in Pants - Ann Brashares
Sugar Rush - Julie Birchill
How to Breathe Underwater - Julie Orringer
Sisters - Debby Mayer
Sabine - A.P.
Lighthousekeeping - Jeanette Winterson

June
Ramage's Diamond - Dudley Pope
Cherry Ames at Hilton Hospital - Helen Wells
The Angel Makers - Jessica Gregson
Katharine Goes to School - Winifred Darch
Hostages to Fortune - Elizabeth Cambridge
Laura's Summer Ballet - Linda Blake
Miss Mole - E.H. Young
Stone Butch Blues - Leslie Feinberg
Flying Under Bridges - Sandi Toksvig
Whistling for the Elephants - Sandi Toksvig
Someone From a Distance - Dorothy Whipple
The World Which Was Ours - Hilda Bernstein
Love Rules - Freya North
Flashman and the Dragon - George Macdonald Fraser
Helen, Ballet Student - Linda Graeme
Pyrates - George Macdonald Fraser (only read half)
Cecil of the Carnations - Winifred Darch
Cecily Bassett, Patrol Leader - Winfred Darch
Dorothy's Dilemma - Elsie Jeanette Oxenham

July
Science of the Discworld III - Terry Pratchett
The Abbey Girls - Elsie J. Oxenham
The Ship - C.S. Forrester
Daughter of Fortune - Isabel Allende
Rachel in the Abbey - Elsie J. Oxenham
A World of Girls - L.T. Meade
Hypatia's Heritage - Margaret Alic
St. Winifred's - F.W. Farrar
To the Last Man I Slept With and All the Jerks Just Like Him - Gwendolyn Zepeda
Stereotype - Claire Hennessy
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - J K Rowling
The Silent Speaker - Noel Streatfeild
The Royal Ballet School - Noel Streatfeild
The Bazalgettes, or Folly and Farewell - E.M. Delafield (Anon)
The Pothunters - P.G. Wodehouse
A Prefect's Uncle - P.G. Wodehouse
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Tales of St. Austin's - P.G. Wodehouse
Two Thrilling Terms - Nancy Breary

August
Juniors Will Be Juniors - Nancy Breary
She Went All the Way - Meggin Cabot
The Semi-Attached Couple - Emily Eden
Sixsational - Meg Cabot
The Inimitable Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse
The Bad Girls' Club - Rhian Tracey
Mulliner Nights - P.G. Wodehouse
The Pirates! in an Adventure with the Scientists - Gideon Defoe
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff
The Art of Murder - Jose Carlos Somoza
The Clicking of Cuthbert - P.G. Wodehouse
The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman - Sue Townsend
Doctor Sally - P.G. Wodehouse
Carrie Pilby - Caren Lissner
Tempest-Tost - Robertson Davies
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
The Lower Fourth Excels Itself - Nancy Breary
Mainly About the Fourth - Nancy Breary
No Peace for the Prefects - Nancy Breary
Jeanette in the Summer Term - Alice Lunt
Well Done Denehurst - Gwendoline Courtney
Random Access Memory - Hattie Hayridge
A Little Universe - Pamela Brown
The Semi-Detached House - Emily Eden
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Cathedral Wednesday - William Mayne
Second From Last in the Sack Race - David Nobbs
The Drunken Forest - Gerald Durrell
The Penguin Searle - Ronald Searle
Fifth Business - Robertson Davies
The Manticore - Robertson Davies
World of Wonders - Robertson Davies
The Love-Child - Edith Olivier
Delta Wedding - Eudora Welty
Doves of Venus - Olivia Manning
The Third Miss Symons - F M Mayor
The Master of the Shell - Talbot Baines Reed
Sanctuary - Terry Moore
Trumpet - Jackie Kay
Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
Mr Fitton's Commission - Showell Styles

September
Three New Girls - Joanna Lloyd
Strangers in Paradise 8
Strangers in Paradise 9
Junk Mail - Will Self
Strangers in Paradise 10
Strangers in Paradise 11
Goodbye to All That - Robert Graves
Strangers in Parasdise 12
Strangers in Paradise 13
Leaven of Malice - Robertson Davies
The Radiant Way - Margaret Drabble
A Mixture of Frailties - Robertson Davies
My Friends the Miss Boyds - Jane Duncan
'Who Sir? Me Sir?' - K.M. Peyton
A Natural Curiosity - Margaret Drabble
Downhill All the Way - K.M. Peyton
The Play Room - Olivia Manning
The Garrick Year - Margaret Drabble

October
Susannah of the Mounties - Muriel Denison
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - Winifred Watson
The Stars' Tennis Balls - Stephen Fry
Sense and Sensibility Filming Diaries - Emma Thompson
A Question of Upbringing - Anthony Powell
Penny Dramatic - A. Stephen Tring
I'm Not Your Other Half - Caroline B. Cooney
Catherine Goes to School - Joanna Lloyd
Memories - Claire Hennessey
Vlad the Drac - Ann Jungman
Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
What Are You Like? - Anne Enright
I'm Alice (I Think) - Susan Juby
A Young Man's Passage - Julian Clary
Vlad the Drac Returns - Ann Jungman
Seven Little Australians - Ethel Turner
Peggy and the Brotherhood - Elsie J Oxenham
Lady Susan - Jane Austen
The Watsons - Jane Austen
Sanditon - Jane Austen
Jane Runs Away from School - Joanna Lloyd
Catherine, Head of the House - Joanna Lloyd
Audrey, a New Girl - Joanna Lloyd
The Unknown Shore - Patrick O'Brian
Jill's Gymkhana - Ruby Ferguson
Love in a Cold Climate - Nancy Mitford

November Books
Master & Commander - Patrick O'Brian
Post Captain - Patrick O'Brian
The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford
Cherries in the Snow - Emma Forrest
The Middle of the Sandwich - Tim Kennemore
There Were No Windows - Norah Hoult
House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
We Were Amused - Rachel Ferguson
Don't Tell Alfred - Nancy Mitford

December Books
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen - Dyan Sheldon
The Last Virgin - David Belbin
Mrs Weber's Diary - Posy Simmonds
Strange Boy - Paul Magrs
They Knew Mr Knight - Dorothy Whipple
My Perfect Life - Dyan Sheldon
Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction - Sue Townsend
Thud!- Terry Pratchett
Doreen - Barbara Noble
The Pirates! in an adventure with whaling - Gideon Defoe
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
Break Point - Rosie Rushton
Peace Comes to the Chalet School - Katherine Bruce
Caroline the Second - Elinor M. Brent-Dyer