2012: Books

These are the books I read last year:

Code Noir, Marianne de Pierres
Crash Delux, Marianne de Pierres
Dead Sea Fruit, Kaaron Warren
Rogue Gadda, Nicole Murphy
Bite Me, Christopher Moore
Black Juice, Margo Lanagan
Cold Magic, Kate Elliot
Thief of Lives Lucy Sussex
Casting Spells, Barbara Bretton
Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan
Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon, James Sullivan
Timeless, Gail Carriger
Laced With Magic, Barbara Bretton
Full Circle, Luis Sepulveda
Deadlocked, Charlaine Harris
Colour, Victoria Finlay
What the Dog Saw, Malcolm Gladwell
Sunshine, Robin McKinley
The Gift, Alison Croggon
Showtime, Narelle Harris
Winter Be My Shield, Jo Spurrier
The Book of Animal Ignorance, the QI Elves
Sean & David’s Long Drive, Sean Condon
The Classic Fairy Tales, Iona & Peter Opie
From Armageddon to the Fall of Rome, Erik Durschmied

25 in total. Six were books I acquired this year, six were non-fiction.

Last year I managed 30 books, but I did ‘cheat’ a little by reading small books in order to increase the score. At the beginning of this month I considered challenging myself to get to 30, which would have meant reading ten books in a month. But December is crazy enough without adding unnecessary extra demands on my time, so I quickly abandoned that idea.

Instead I decided to see if I could finish some of the books I’d already started. Kind of a book WIP finishing challenge. The first was Sean and Dave’s Long Drive, a whacky book about two guys on a driving holiday in Australia that I started way back in the 90s but had to put aside to finish something else. I had to re-read the start, but didn’t mind as it’s a fun, easy read.

I also finished The Classic Fairy Tales, which proved much easier than I expected. It contains early versions of fairy tales, with a short intro on their origins. The first one was rather long and a bit tedious, so I’d put the book aside assuming the rest of them would be as well. But the rest of them were short and not at all tedious, so finishing the book was very enjoyable.

Next I tackled the last third of a non-fiction book about decisive battles in ancient history, which isn’t as dry as it sounds as the author really gets into describing the atmosphere and emotions of the participants. I picked up at the story of Julius Ceasar which gave me enough hints to get me interested in starting second season of Rome, and maybe I’ll finally get hold of I, Claudius, which I’ve been wanting to watch for years.

I’ve managed to get them finished thanks to two things: Paul bought me a little side table that swivels out over my armchair. I can put my book seat on it, which I can’t normally use without kicking the cat off my lap. I confess, I don’t have the heart to push Slinky off when he’s curled up asleep, and wind up playing with my phone instead. Yes, I know. Pathetic.

The other reason is I’ve been ‘sick’ and spent lots of time in the armchair. Without going into gory details, my cycle is the very definition of ‘irregular’ now. Lovely menopause. Or pre-menopause. I may end up calling it ‘life on pause’. I was either a zombie, or too hyper to concentrate for five weeks thanks to medication, so I got no work done and couldn’t get the energy or enthusiasm up for Christmas.

I’d rather it didn’t, but if this keeps happening at least I’ll get more reading done in future.

2 thoughts on “2012: Books

    • I put all of my to-read list books into Goodreads a year or so ago, but there are so many that it’s really clunky trying to keep them in order. I find it most useful as a place to find information about books, especially the rating system applied to potential research books.

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