2012 book list

JANUARY

1. Perfume - Patrick Suskind

2. Xenocide -Orson Scott Card

3. Tietam Brown - Mick Foley

4. The Life of Hunger - Amelie Nothomb

5. Annabel - Kathleen Winter6. The Stone Gods - Jeanette Winterson

FEBRUARY

7. Q&A - Vikas Swarup

8. A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian - Marina Lewycka

9. The Jungle Books - Rudyard Kipling

10. Persuasion - Jane Austen

MARCH

11. The Psychopath List - Jon Ronson

12. Don't sleep, there are snakes - Daniel Everett

13. To kill a mockingbird - Harper Lee

APRIL

14. Who's afraid of Mr. Wolfe? - Hazel Osmond

15. The Magus - John Fowles

MAY

16. Before I Go to Sleep - S J Watson

17. Embassytown - China Mieville

18. Children of the Mind - Orson Scott Card

JUNE

19. The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

20. The Handmaids Tale - Magaret Attwood

21. Game of Thrones (Book one) - George R. R. Martin

22. How to be a Woman - Caitlin Moran

JULY

23. Sing You Home - Jodi Picoult

24. On the Road - Jack Kerouac

25. A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin

AUGUST

26. Under the Skin - Michel Faber

27. Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

SEPTEMBER

28. The Stand - Stephen King

29. Pandemonium - Lauren Oliver

30. I am Number Four - Pittacus Lore

31. The Man Who Forgot His Wife - John O'Farrell

OCTOBER

32. Shadows in Flight - Orson Scott Card

33. Moranthopology - Caitlin Moran

NOVEMBER

34. Eat Pray Love - Elizabeth Gilbert

35. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

36. Written on the Body - Jeannette Winterson

 37. The Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey

38. IQ84 [Parts 1 & 2] - Haruki Murakami

39. The Flood - Stephen Baxter

40. IQ84 [Part 3] - Haruki Murakami

DECEMBER

41. Ark - Stephen Baxter

42. Write your novel in 30 days - Karen S. Weisner

43. Blue eyed boy - Joanne Harris

44. Pigs might fly - Emily Rodda

45. Is it just me? - Miranda Hart

46. Science & Islam - Ehsan Masood

47. A Storm of Swords - George R. R. Martin

2012

So finally I can look over the past year and see what kinds of books I've read, re-read, loved and hated.

One thing I was particularly interested to find out was how many books I was reading for a second, third or even fourth time. These include: Perfume, Xenocide, The Stone Gods, Before I Go To Sleep, Children of the Mind, and finally Pigs Might Fly. Six out of 47 - not quite as much as I thought it would be. The reasons for rereading are generally just because the books are so good. The timescale between the original reading and rereading differs a bit as well, from over a decade with Pigs Might Fly to less than a year with The Stone Gods - it's never too late, or too early to revisit something brilliant.

Three non-fiction books, plus a couple of biographies (only the best - Caitlin Moran etc.). Exactly what I imagined here to be honest, fiction rules every time. The rate of reading is fairly interesting as well, most books read in November and December, due to holidays, and least in April, August and October.

Best book of 2012 is going to be pretty difficult, so I'm going to put together a shortlist first and then decide. To make things easier (i.e. take The Stone Gods out of the running) I'm going to only include books read for the first time this year.

Shortlist: Annabel, The Day of the Triffids, The Handmaid's Tale, Under the Skin, Eat Pray Love, IQ84, The Flood, The Snow Child.

Hmm. That was going quite well until the end of the year, when I seem to have read more brilliant books. I'm also cheating and including all three parts of IQ84 in one. Okay so Annabel was quite different, and good characters. Day of the Triffids was great, absolutely great, but by this point I had read most of Wyndham's other stuff, so it wasn't quite as brilliant as The Midwich Cuckoos, The Trouble with Lichen, or the one about disfigurement. The Handmaid's Tale I loved, but wanted far more explanation about how the new regime was set up. Some would argue that this could spoil the story, just as a magician never reveals the secrets behind his tricks. However, I found it exceedingly interesting and simply wanted to know more. An unsatisfying ending. Under the Skin - I'm just going to say it now, this is probably the winner, hands down. I shall return to it. Eat Pray Love I read at the perfect time in my life - I was travelling (read: on my first city break) on my own, I've been expanding my palate, particularly in pasta, this year, and I'd jsut started meditation and yoga, embarking on my very own mini-spiritual adventure. So it resonated pretty well and Elizabeth Gilbert really is a good writer, it made me laugh and smile and I enjoyed it so much I started rereading it as soon as I'd finished. IQ84 is one of the most fantastical, original, how-the-hell-did-he-think-of-that plots I've ever read. The Flood was a really good portrait of climate change devastation (because I haven't read enough scifi this year...) and The Snow Child is that magical combination of fairytale and just great fiction. It's the sort of book I will remember, and I knew I would love it before I'd ever even picked it up. Sometimes you do just know (I believe in love at first sight with books).

So after that summing up, I've picked the three best and will now bestow upon them my imaginary awards. In third place (drum roll please) comes IQ84 for sheer brilliance. Second is Eat Pray Love, probably not everyone's cup of tea but one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read and certainly inspired me. And in first place, it simply had to be Under the Skin. By Michael Faber, I was recommended this book and read it after a dearth of good fiction - I'd been starting books and not finishing them, or reading books which I disliked, or felt I should appreciate. It's such a good idea, I do love a story with morals and this remains with you long after the final page has been turned. And the writing is beautiful, it's dark and creepy and the reader cannot help but be intrigued. I recommend you all go out and read it immediately.

My reading resolutions for 2013 will include Life of Pi (preferably before seeing the film), AMoL (Final installment in Wheel of Time) and I would like to reread You Don't Know Me.

Pigs might fly

Guys. I'm really excited. I just found a book which I read as a kid in a tiny library in Zimbabwe, and absolutely adored. I tried to buy it last time I remembered it, but it had GONE OUT OF PRINT. Eugh. On a random whim I googled it again recently and there was one (just one!) copy left on amazon. I read Pigs Might Fly when I was about seven, and obsessed with both books and pigs. I remember very little about the actual story - it's something about pigs flying when the weather gets stormy and this girl is stuck in an alternate reality (just realised I've been a sci-fi geek since before I knew what that meant) and trying to get home. But apart from that, I just remember loving it. So I cannot wait till it arrives *please be before christmas* so I can discover it all over again.

It's less than a month till Christmas...

Don't worry, I'm not about to announce a list of festively themed books (do they even exist?), I'm just noticing how little of the year is left. I'm really excited to start categorising all the books I've read this year and seeing how many are re-read, or recommended or what. But I've noticed that I'm up to number 40 and there is a small but insistent voice inside that is calling for the final tally to be a round number...50 in fact. This would mean I would have to read more books per month than I have done in the previous 11. I will have the Christmas holidays, and being on holiday earlier this month has definitely given me time to read more, but still its a lot. So I'm not sure if its possible but I kind of want to try. I am reading four at the moment, and other things I want to read include a book called Blue Eyed Boy (blurb makes it sound much better than the title), the next in the Game of Thrones series, and the last two in Wheel of Time (I'm really running out of time with this one, and I need to be ready for the finale come 2013). I'm definitely not going to be able to manage two WoT books, but maybe one, which would leave me at seven. And it's practically a certainty that I will be given some form of bookish present for Christmas. If I was really cutting it fine I could probably just read chicklit or childrens books to round it up!

Flood - Stephen Baxter

Finished this late last night when I just couldn't put it down. Apocolyptic fiction at its finest, especially because the danger described in this book seems so much nearer, so much more real than most of the books in this genre.

Apart from a really good plot, I particularly like the way the character's personalities and flaws are exposed as time races by and panic increases. It's a really good look at how humanity would react (not well, by and large) to circumstances they simply never believed could happen. The strength of denial as a defence mechanism should not be underestimated.

It's also quite sad, not just for the demise of civilisation, but SPOILERS! for the way all the hostages strive to protect baby Grace, who grows up throughout the novel. They believe they are constantly acting in her best interests, but it becomes clear that they simply have no idea what those would be, having never taken the time to really get to know her and ask what she wants. A simplistic drive to keep her alive at all costs, in response to a promise made to her mother before she died, is arguably much more harmful than allowing her to go her own way and live in whichever way she chooses.

But, there's a sequel! I'm very excited.

IQ84

I had quite high expectations of this book, based purely on the blurb and cover of course. It just looked like something that would be really good, and fortunately it was. It's got all sorts of elements I am intrigued by, including Japan, magic and cults. It also demonstrated the perfect way to maintain tension and to keep your readers hooked (something I'm trying to deconstruct in the books I read now that I'm writing again). Each chapter is told from one of the two main characters' perspectives. Usually when writers employ this trick, the reader tends to prefer one character, or one plotline, and so can feel slightly irritated at the end of a chapter, when they realise they have to switch. In the case of IQ84 I did feel irritated at the end of each chapter, but for a different reason - both stories were so good, and they so often ended on a mini-cliffhanger that I would be annoyed I'd have to take a break from one character. But then I would remember I'd felt the exact same thing just a chapter before, when I couldn't wait to keep reading about the original character, so I was always happy to be reading more about both of them.

It also raises very interesting questions about reality and perception: in short, how can we tell that the world we are living in is a) real and b) hasn't changed into something else without us realising. My pragmatic response would always be that regardless of any higher truth about reality, we have to live as if this is the only reality we know and always have known. Anything else is futile really, as we have no way of knowing any differently. There's only one moon in our sky.

NaNoWriMo

I heard about NaNoWriMo five days too late, although I don't have anything planned to the stage where I could start immediately anyway. It's a shame because it seems like a great campaign, to help and support writers to write 50,000 words in thirty days - a novel in a month. It also fits in very nicely with the 30 days to a first draft excerpt I've been reading; a month to plan and a month to write. All sounds very structured and quick and easy, although I'm sure it's not. Anyway, I've been following people's progress on their own books and trying to soak up as much advice as possible. The main thing I seem to have found is: Write every day, don't worry about the quality of the work - that comes later - just write. Perhaps I will wait till next year to start, or maybe just December. I'm working on an idea, and hopefully soon I will be at a stage of preparation where I am ready to just write.

On a brief note from Sweden, all my holiday reads were great. Well, apart from Written on the Body which was a bit too love sick for me, and seems to have the potential to irritate people both in and out of relationships. But Eat Pray Love I really, really enjoyed and the Snow Child was just as perfect as I imagined it to be. Perks of Being a Wallflower was also very good, but the film adaptation I'd seen was very true to the book, so it was probably a bit too soon to truly appreciate it.