December Books and Year Round-Up
Jan. 1st, 2006 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slemslempikeDecember 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
A slight move towards more reading again, which should be a good sign. This month's were all great - I really liked The Line of Beauty, which I'd been seeing mentioned around, and thought I should read in a kind of half-hearted way, but then I was at KX with a Smith's voucher and a buy one get one half price offer (which is how I also have the Adrian Mole), and it all came together beautifully. Thud! and Pirates! deserved their punctuation, and were hilarious. I preferred They Knew Mr Knight to Doreen, I think, although the evacuation stuff was really interesting, thinking more about the psychological effects on the families who had to be parted from the children.
I thought that Peace Comes to the Chalet School was wonderul - so well done, and such a good read. I really liked all the detail about the events of the war and their effects on the school. And Margia! It read just like EBD, and that was reinforced when I was reading Caroline the Second, it was just the same kind of feel. I liked Caroline a lot too - more than I was expecting to, with EBD's rarest books often being dire. But I really liked the story of the girl who didn't like her ancestors and tradition constantly shoved down her throat, even the redemption at the end wasn't too saccharine.
I finally got in gear and went to the town library, and found the teen books I'd wanted to buy in Borders but had nobly restrained myself. Strange Boy was wonderful, lovely and magical but also really rooted in life. The Last Virgin was a bit preachy, but not too bad to read. The protagonist's parents are lesbian, which was good because it wasn't The Issue, although it was talked about a bit, and it wasn't an odd thing. Break Point was rather nothingish.
All the books I've read this year are in this post. I am very happy to talk about any of them. Unless I can't remember them, in which case I might distract you with nudity and run off.
I read 244.5 books this year (didn't finish Pyrates), of which 26 (10.63%) were rereads. Most of the rereads came in October and November, part of which was from the joy at having all my books on shelves and out there where I can see them and get them, and partly because I was not doing very well at all, and could only cope with familiar rereads or not at all. Which is why November has such a slump down to nine again, which is how few I read in January, partly because January was a bad month as well. Hmm. Winter is when I don't read as much, apparently. Of course, it's also partly becasue in the first part of the year, I was living with one oher person who I avoided, and had lots of space to read in, and now I live with two lovely housemates so sometimes I don't read because I'm enjoying talking to them or whatever. Here is a table of what I have been reading.
I read far more adult fiction than I thought I had - I'd assumed that I always read more children's, but apaprently not. Adult fiction is the only genre I've consistently read over the year. 46.6% of my reading was adult fiction, 36.6% children's, 8.6% non-fiction, and then 8.21% graphic novels. Probably most of the non-fiction was autobiographies. I think I might make an effort to read more of them.
Also in bookrelated news, I have booked my train tickets for the Chicklit meet-up in February. I'm combining it with a trip to Brighton to see a friend, and the tickets should cost about £35 total, Manchester (where I'll be for a course the day before the meet-up) - London, London - Brighton and then Brighton - Lancaster. Yay!
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
A slight move towards more reading again, which should be a good sign. This month's were all great - I really liked The Line of Beauty, which I'd been seeing mentioned around, and thought I should read in a kind of half-hearted way, but then I was at KX with a Smith's voucher and a buy one get one half price offer (which is how I also have the Adrian Mole), and it all came together beautifully. Thud! and Pirates! deserved their punctuation, and were hilarious. I preferred They Knew Mr Knight to Doreen, I think, although the evacuation stuff was really interesting, thinking more about the psychological effects on the families who had to be parted from the children.
I thought that Peace Comes to the Chalet School was wonderul - so well done, and such a good read. I really liked all the detail about the events of the war and their effects on the school. And Margia! It read just like EBD, and that was reinforced when I was reading Caroline the Second, it was just the same kind of feel. I liked Caroline a lot too - more than I was expecting to, with EBD's rarest books often being dire. But I really liked the story of the girl who didn't like her ancestors and tradition constantly shoved down her throat, even the redemption at the end wasn't too saccharine.
I finally got in gear and went to the town library, and found the teen books I'd wanted to buy in Borders but had nobly restrained myself. Strange Boy was wonderful, lovely and magical but also really rooted in life. The Last Virgin was a bit preachy, but not too bad to read. The protagonist's parents are lesbian, which was good because it wasn't The Issue, although it was talked about a bit, and it wasn't an odd thing. Break Point was rather nothingish.
All the books I've read this year are in this post. I am very happy to talk about any of them. Unless I can't remember them, in which case I might distract you with nudity and run off.
I read 244.5 books this year (didn't finish Pyrates), of which 26 (10.63%) were rereads. Most of the rereads came in October and November, part of which was from the joy at having all my books on shelves and out there where I can see them and get them, and partly because I was not doing very well at all, and could only cope with familiar rereads or not at all. Which is why November has such a slump down to nine again, which is how few I read in January, partly because January was a bad month as well. Hmm. Winter is when I don't read as much, apparently. Of course, it's also partly becasue in the first part of the year, I was living with one oher person who I avoided, and had lots of space to read in, and now I live with two lovely housemates so sometimes I don't read because I'm enjoying talking to them or whatever. Here is a table of what I have been reading.
I read far more adult fiction than I thought I had - I'd assumed that I always read more children's, but apaprently not. Adult fiction is the only genre I've consistently read over the year. 46.6% of my reading was adult fiction, 36.6% children's, 8.6% non-fiction, and then 8.21% graphic novels. Probably most of the non-fiction was autobiographies. I think I might make an effort to read more of them.
Also in bookrelated news, I have booked my train tickets for the Chicklit meet-up in February. I'm combining it with a trip to Brighton to see a friend, and the tickets should cost about £35 total, Manchester (where I'll be for a course the day before the meet-up) - London, London - Brighton and then Brighton - Lancaster. Yay!
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-01 07:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-01 09:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-01 02:40 pm (UTC)Thanks for the comment on The Line of Beauty, which I picked up in a sale, too. I'll look forward to it!
Yay, I'm so glad you can make the meet-up. I really want to come down for it, too!
no subject
Date: 2006-01-01 03:54 pm (UTC)I hope you enjoy it.
Hurrah! That would be great if we can meet up again so soon.