What did you read in 2005?

[Flingo]

Rescued Thread. For Archive purposes!

Grammath 30th December 2005 03:35 PM

Since I'm unlikely to post again after today until the New Year (and I wish a happy and prosperous 2006 for each and every one of you lovely people), I thought I'd leave as my parting gift for the year my reading list from 2005.

In terms of number of books, I read 47, which is less than 2004 but there are some weighty tomes - "Quicksilver", "Strange & Norrell" and "Imajica" weigh in around 1,000 pages each, "East of Eden" more than 700. "The Dark Tower" books aren't short either.

I'm not sure why there's so much fantasy on here - it wasn't intentional.

Favourite - "What A Carve Up!"
Biggest waste of time - "Vernon God Little"

Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson (started '04)
The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams
Goodbye, Columbus - Philip Roth
Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson
Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall - Spike Milligan
The Gunslinger - Stephen King
"Rommel", "Gunner Who?" - Spike Milligan
The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King
Stamboul Train - Graham Greene
Piccadilly Jim - PG Wodehouse
The Waste Lands - Stephen King
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - Dai Sijie
The Shot - Philip Kerr
The Ascent of Rum Doodle - W.E.Bowman
Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene
Wizard and Glass - Stephen King
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Dark Star Safari - Paul Theroux
The Final Solution - Michael Chabon
The Confusion - Neal Stephenson [unfinished]
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
Bodily Harm - Margaret Atwood
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
Wolves of the Calla - Stephen King [unfinished]
Beggars Banquet - Ian Rankin
What A Carve Up! - Jonathan Coe
How to be Good - Nick Hornby
A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Stone Baby - Joolz Denby
Aunts Aren't Gentlemen - PG Wodehouse
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason - Helen Fielding
The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh
The Black Echo - Michael Connelly
Pretend We're Dead - Mark Timlin
Now Wait for Last Year - Philip K Dick
The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
Imajica - Clive Barker [unfinished]
A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away - Christopher Brookmyre
Headlong - Michael Frayn
All The Trouble In The World - P J O'Rourke
Skinny Dip - Carl Hiaasen
Rain Men - Marcus Berkmann
The Fortress of Solitude - Jonathan Lethem [unfinished]
Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett
English Passengers - Matthew Kneale [unfinished]


[B]Mungus 30th December 2005 03:49 PM [/B]

At the risk of boring everyone silly, here are the 65 or so books I read (or at least started) this year. Some I can barely remember reading.

Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruis Zafon
Me and the fat man - Julie Myerson
Best of Rumpole - John Mortimer
White City Blue - Tim Lott
My Trade - Andrew Marr
Secret Smile - Nicci French
Feel - Robbie Williams
Great Fire - Shirley Hazzard
Sunday by the pool - Gil Courtemanche
The pursuit of happiness - Justin Cartwright
The Siege - Helen Dunmore
Deja dead - Kathy Reichs
The American Boy - Andrew Taylor
Saturday - Ian McEwan
August - Gerald Woodward
I’ll go to bed at noon - Gerald Woodward
Good morning midnight - Jean Rhys
We need to talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver
Oracle Nights - Paul Auster
My Sister’s Keeper - Jodi Picoult
The Diary of Anne Frank - Anne Frank
Middle of the Bed - Joan Bakewell
The Secret Purposes - David Baddiel
Land of the golden dragon - Isabel Allende
Ice Road - Gill Slovo
Portrait of a Woman - Henry James
The Closed Circle - Jonathan Coe
About Grace - Anthony Doer
The Innocent - Posie Graeme - Evans
Us - Richard Mason
The Two of Us - Sheila Hancock
A dance to the music of time vol 1 - Anthony Powell
Harry Potter 6 - J K Rowling
The Amateur Marriage - Anne Tyler
The drowning people - Richard Mason
Fleshmarket Close - Ian Rankin
The people’s act of love - James Meek
Long Way Down - Nick Hornby
Eve Green - Susan Fletcher
Harry Thompson - This thing of darkness
Becoming Strangers - Louise Dean
Sweet William - Beryl Bainbridge
Right Ho, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse
Arthur and George - Julian Barnes
The Hungry Years - William Leith
Havoc, in its third year - Ronan Bennett
Sleep with me - Joanna Briscoe
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
The Wonder Spot - Melissa Banks
The State of the Union - Douglas Kennedy
A house of light - Candida Clark
Cherry - Matt Thorne
Real - Stephanie Merritt
Take a girl like me - Diana Melly
Velocity - Dean Koontz
Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel
A million little pieces - James Frey
Sight Unseen - Robert Goddard
Special - Bella Bathhurst
Grace and Truth - Jennifer Johnston
The Accidental - Ali Smith
The Lighthouse - P.D. James
Rumpole and the Penge Bunglow Murders - John Mortimer


[B]Phoebus 30th December 2005 03:52 PM [/B]

I must keep a list of what I read for 2006 ...


[B]Mungus 30th December 2005 03:58 PM [/B]

2005 is the first year that I kept a list, partly because I wanted to see how many books I read but mostly to make me reflect on each book and write a short review at the end. I've done this, but I still can't remember some of them!


[B]MarkC 30th December 2005 04:04 PM [/B]

I can answer this as someone asked me this time last year what I read in 2004 and I was unable to answer accurately, so resolved to keep a list.

Books begun or completed in 2005, in chronological order:

Jonathon Strange and Mr Norell - Susanna Clarke
Lighthousekeeping - Jeanette Winterson
*The Shockwave Riders - John Brunner
*The King's General - Daphne du Maurier
The Runes of Earth - Stephen Donaldson
Northern Lights - Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman
The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
The Curious Incident of the dog and the night time - Mark Haddon
**All 10 collected Sandman - Neil Gaiman (these are comics)
**Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michael Faber
The Hotel New Hampshire - John Irvine
*HP1-5 - Joanne Rowling
HP6 - Joanne Rowling
*Gap series - Stephen Donaldson
*Time Master trilogy - Lousie Cooper
**The Isle of Glass - Judith Tarr
**The Golden Horn - Judith Tarr
**The Hounds of God - Judith Tarr
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
**Emma - Jane Austen
**Persuassion - Jane Austen
**Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (somehow I read this twice in the space of about three months)
*Magician - Raymond Feist
*The Colour of Magic through to Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey I wont even attempt to spell her surname
Possession - AS Byatt (in progress)

Failures:
Middlemarch - George Elliot

I know I read it sometime but it didn't make it onto the list:
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
*Good Omens - Gaiman / Pratchett

Explanation of symbols used
* = reread for the 2nd or 3rd time
** = reread for the umpteenth time!



[B]Phoebus 30th December 2005 04:17 PM [/B]

Looking on my former site, though, where I wrote my reviews, 2005 reads included:

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
A Passage to India by EM Forster
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Eduring love by Ian McEwan
Hard Times by Dickens
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Jeeves in the Offing by PG Wodehouse
Saturday by Ian McEwan
The Beach by Alex Garland
The Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe
The Family Tree by Cadwaldr
The Seymour Tapes by Tim Lott
The Ipressionist by Hari Kunzru.

But by far the best was Rumours of a Hurricane by Tim Lott.


[B]Flingo 30th December 2005 06:39 PM [/B]

I read 96 books this year (so far). If you really want to know what they were you can find a list of them here.

[QUOTE]Originally Posted by Mungus
2005 is the first year that I kept a list, partly because I wanted to see how many books I read but mostly to make me reflect on each book and write a short review at the end. I've done this, but I still can't remember some of them! [/QUOTE]

I have kept a list for about 18 months before 2005, but having decided this year to put them on my webspace, I have realised that I am going to need more info than I currently have to remember them! I am going to try to include a rating next year too - mark out of 10 of what I thought or similar.

It does amaze me how much I can remember from the title though.


[B]Mungus 30th December 2005 09:43 PM [/B]

My notes on The Secret Purposes say 'Really enjoyed this but the plot fizzled out a bit at the end'. (With insights like that, I really should be writing for the London Review of Books, shouldn't I?) I haven't read anything else by David Baddiel but was drawn by the personal interest that he had in the subject, I think his grandparents were sent to the Isle of Man in the war or something like that. It's definitely worth picking up, it's well written and very readable but as I recall, the storyline is more romantic that political or historical.

[Flingo]

Page 1 continued

Momo 30th December 2005 11:17 PM

Wow, I only read 15 of the many books you posted ... there's just so many books to read. :(
Anyway, here is the list of my English books (I left out the foreign ones), in total I read 41, not as many as in the years before (58 in 2003 and 64 in 2005) because I had too many migraines.
Woolf, Virginia “Mrs. Dalloway”
Albom, Mitch “Tuesdays with Morrie”
Ghosh, Amitav “The Glass Palace”
Quindlen, Anna “Blessings”
Burke, Paul “Father Frank”
Byatt, A.S. “Possession”
Glover, Douglas “Elle”
Bush, Catherine “Claire’s Head”
Bragg, Melvyn “The Soldier’s Return”
Dohaney, M.T. “To Scatter Stones”
Austen, Jane “Persuasion”
Munro, Alice “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage”
Bryson, Bill “Neither here nor there”
Lamb, Christina “The Sewing Circles of Herat”
Tolstoi, Leo “Anna Karenina”
Lewis, Oscar “Children of Sanchez: Autobiography of a Mexican Family“
Trollope, Anthony “Framley Parsonage”
Bragg, Melvyn “A Son of War”
Brontë, Emily “Wuthering Heights”
Otto, Whitney “How to make an American Quilt”
Seth, Vikram “A Suitable Boy”
McCall Smith, Alexander “In the Company of Cheerful Ladies”
Noble, Elizabeth “The Reading Group”
Golden, Arthur “Memoirs of a Geisha”
White, Colin, Boucke, Laurie “The UnDutchables”
Guterson, David “Our Lady of the Forest”
Ruiz Zafón, Carlos “The Shadow of the Wind”
Dostoevsky, Fyodor “The Adolescent”
Pearson, Alison “I Don't Know How She Does It: The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother”
Ashworth, Andrea “Once in a House on Fire”

My favourites were "Persuasion" and "A Suitable Boy" but I thought a lot of the books I read were brilliant.


Hazel 31st December 2005 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by Mungus
My notes on The Secret Purposes say 'Really enjoyed this but the plot fizzled out a bit at the end'.

I also read this in 2005 but I was a lot less kind than Mungus - I thought it started out very well and turned into a Mills and Boons halfway through!




Hazel 31st December 2005 10:19 AM

It has never occured to me to keep a record or list the books I read in a year, and reading these posts has been a bit of a lightbulb moment for me - why have I never thought to do this? I usually write a quick review for Amazon once I finish a book and thats the only kind of record I keep. But you have inspired me and I will dig out a nice hardback notebook and keep a record for 2006 and then in a years time I can list what I have read. I feel giddy as a schoolgirl...


Mungus 31st December 2005 10:22 AM

Originally Posted by Hazel
I also read this in 2005 but I was a lot less kind than Mungus - I thought it started out very well and turned into a Mills and Boons halfway through!


I think you might have summed it up nicely there Hazel! ;)


Magwitch 3rd January 2006 04:25 AM

I'm just wondering what the point of these sort of threads are? Honestly, I don't want to be rude, really. I'm just wondering. Do people actually want to look at a long list of books that someone else read?
What's the point?


Adrian 3rd January 2006 06:20 AM

I'm another one who never even thought about keeping a list specifically of the books I read in a year. I will do so, because I might have a pattern of alternating something that disappoints with an old favourite or a book by an author I know will be good.

I don't mind the books being listed, as it gives us some insight into our fellow posters, the genres they read and the sheer numbers (I usually read a book a week and I thought that was a lot, but I can't compete with Flingo's annual 96).


Hazel 3rd January 2006 09:09 AM

I enjoy reading people's lists - I like to see what books like minded people read and garner some recommendations from them.

As previously discussed, I also had never considered keeping a record of what I read in a year, but now I have a nice hardback notebook waiting for The Children's War to finish and I will log it in! I am so excited...(!)

[Flingo]

Page 2

Grammath 3rd January 2006, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by Magwitch
I'm just wondering what the point of these sort of threads are? Honestly, I don't want to be rude, really. I'm just wondering. Do people actually want to look at a long list of books that someone else read?
What's the point?


Well, since I started the thread, guess I'd better answer this one.

Three reasons:

1. As a quick way to see if other people have read stuff you've also read, with the aim of inspiring threads to be started on specific works that people want to discuss in more detail.

2. There was one last year that lots of people posted on which I, for one, found quite interesting, so I thought I'd start it again for this year.

3. Nosiness! As chrisqggx4 says, it reveals something about your fellow BGOers, even if it is just that they are anal list keeping types!

Momo 3rd January 2006, 02:33 PM

I agree, I like those lists and have already picked out some books to read myself. That's always the best way to select books, there's so many of them and if someone has read it who likes other books you enjoyed it's more likely you will like this one, as well. I don't know that many people here, yet, since I'm quite new but just comparing other people's list gives me an idea who might have a similar taste.
Anyway, thanks for the hints.


Stewart 3rd January 2006, 04:08 PM

May I suggest that, for 2006, we create a thread (inspired by this thread elsewhere) where we each have one post we can go back and edit the books we read through the course of the year and rate.


My Friend Jack 3rd January 2006, 05:06 PM

For the first time ever, I did maintain a list of books I read in 2005. All I have to do now is find it.

Like others of you, I had never though of doing such a thing before, but perhaps that part of my brain has been kept occupied by maintaining a list of how many times I have played all the music in my collection - will reach the 32nd anniversary at Easter.


Phoebus 3rd January 2006, 09:21 PM

Open Book on Radio 4 had a psychologist or some person on one of their programmes recently who was explaining that men generally read books in terms of objectives and list making ....



megustaleer 3rd January 2006, 10:54 PM

Originally Posted by Stewart
May I suggest that, for 2006, we create a thread (inspired by this thread elsewhere) where we each have one post we can go back and edit the books we read through the course of the year and rate.
Go on then!


Magwitch 4th January 2006, 12:48 AM

Originally Posted by Grammath
Well, since I started the thread, guess I'd better answer this one.

Three reasons:

1. As a quick way to see if other people have read stuff you've also read, with the aim of inspiring threads to be started on specific works that people want to discuss in more detail.

2. There was one last year that lots of people posted on which I, for one, found quite interesting, so I thought I'd start it again for this year.

3. Nosiness! As chrisqggx4 says, it reveals something about your fellow BGOers, even if it is just that they are anal list keeping types!

And three perfectly good reasons they are too! Thanks for that. (Although I must admit that Phoebus's comment strikes a chord with me too )

I did enjoy the thread where people posted their top 10 books as it reminded me of books that I'd always meant to read and introduced me to new ones I'd never heard of.
I can't remember half the books I read last year. Cloud Atlas stands out as one I particularly enjoyed, though.



Opal 4th January 2006, 10:37 AM


Originally Posted by Grammath
2. There was one last year that lots of people posted on which I, for one, found quite interesting, so I thought I'd start it again for this year.

I remember that thread! I did keep a list this year... for a few months anyway! I lost it around Easter I think. But this year I will try harder to keep track of my books! That could even be my NYResolution!!!



Tess 4th January 2006, 10:49 AM

I've kept a list for the past four years, I like to look back and see how my reading tastes have developed and also to know how old I was when I first read something. For Christmas I received a beautiful notebook to use as my book journal

Here is my list for 2005:

Dead Famous - Ben Elton
253 - Geoff Ryman
The Terminal Man - Sir Alfred Mehran
Adventures in the Screen Trade - William Goldman
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Time Travellers Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
The Princess Bride - William Goldman
The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios - Yann Martel
P.S. I Love You - Cecelia Ahern
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Lost for Words - John Humphrys
The Habit - Richard Armour
Dead Air - Ian Banks
The Pearl - John Steinbeck
The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot
The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear - Walter Moers
The Hottest State - Ethan Hawke
Educating Peter - Tom Cox
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M Pirsig
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
Franny and Zooey - J D Salinger
Why I Am So Wise (Penguin Great Ideas) - Friedrich Nietzsche
Body Rides - Richard Laymon
A Widow For One Year - John Irving
Sabriel - Garth Nix
The Shipping News - E.Annie Proulx
The Pilgrimage - Paulo Coelho
Lirael - Garth Nix
Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
K-PAX - Gene Brewer
Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks
Abhorsen - Garth Nix
The Promise of Happiness - Justin Cartwright
Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee
The Perfect Storm - Sebastian Junger
The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff
A Year in the Merde - Stephen Clarke
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Dreams of a Final Theory - Steven Weinberg
Astonishing Splashes of Colour - Clare Morrall
A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway
Tears of the Giraffe - Alexander McCall Smith
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Silent Bob Speaks - Kevin Smith
A Handful of Dust - Evelyn Waugh
French Revolutions - Tim Moore
Tell Me Your Dreams - Sidney Sheldon
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
Foundation and Empire - Isaac Asimov
The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
The Outsider - Albert Camus
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
The Magician's Nephew - C.S.Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S.Lewis
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood
The Horse and His Boy - C.S.Lewis
A Short History of Myth - Karen Armstrong
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Second Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down - Nicey and Wifey
Prince Caspian - C.S.Lewis
Possession -A.S.Byatt
The Essence of Buddhism - Jo Durden Smith
Jeeves in the Offing - P.G. Wodehouse
If Nobody Speaks Of Remarkable Things - Jon McGregor


Momo 4th January 2006, 04:03 PM

Originally Posted by Stewart
May I suggest that, for 2006, we create a thread (inspired by this thread elsewhere) where we each have one post we can go back and edit the books we read through the course of the year and rate.

Yes, please. Sounds great!


Flingo 4th January 2006, 06:47 PM

Stewart has done so - it can be found here

Well done, Stewart!

Flingo 4th January 2006, 08:45 PM

Originally Posted by Stewart
May I suggest that, for 2006, we create a thread (inspired by this thread elsewhere) where we each have one post we can go back and edit the books we read through the course of the year and rate.

In the Announcement and Tips section David made this comment about another of Stewarts sites:

I also enjoyed looking at your history site, which clearly is produced from the same stable as BGO. It's rather like one of those Star Trek episodes set in a strange mirror universe in which everything is similar and recognisable but not quite right! I hope it lives long and prospers! (oh Lord, that's too corny, even for me...)

I have just had exactly the same feeling clicking on the link that inspired the 2006 reads thread too! In fact I have in front of me the 3 sites - one blue, one green, one yellow! Very odd!

Tess 13th January 2006, 09:12 AM


Quote:
Originally Posted by Leese
Tess, did you read the whole trilogy, and how does the book compare to the film? (assuming you've seen it.)

I watched the Spacey film a couple of years back and really enjoyed it, and keep meaning to get to the book. Be interesting to know if it's better/not as good.

Leese, I've only read the first book but if you enjoyed the film then you should definitely pick it up! The film is very close to the book so reading it second does take away some of the suspense, however I would still recommend this to anyone who loved the character of prot.

[Momo]

It was so nice seeing my old thread again and looking through the list of books I read two years ago. I read so many great books that year, wouldn't know which one I'd choose as my favourite one that year.

[hamletbb]

1 WILLIAMS, Kenneth: The Kenneth Williams Diaries ****1/2
2 SHERIDAN, Tommy & McCOMBES, A: Imagine: A socialist vision for the 21st Century **1/2
3 HADDON, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time ****
4 McEWAN, Ian: Enduring Love ****
5 HESSE, Herman: Knulp *****
6 MOBERG, Vilhelm: The Settlers ***
7 MARSHALL, Alan: I Can Jump Puddles (biog.) **1/2
8 CAPOTE, Truman: Breakfast at Tiffany’s ***1/2
9 MARTEL, Yann: The Life of Pi ****
10 TRUSS, Lynne: Eats Shoots and Leaves: The zero tolerance approach to punctuation! ****
11 McEWAN, Ian: Amsterdam ****
12 TOMASI di LAMPEDUSA, Giuseppe: The Leopard *****
13 O’CONNOR, Peter: Understanding Jung, Understanding Yourself **1/2
14 CHOMSKY, Noam: September 11 ***
15 KUNDERA, Milan: Ignorance ***
16 DURAS, Marguerite: The Lover ****
17 GREENE, Graham: The Quiet American *****
18 SHELLEY, Mary: Frankenstein ***
19 LEE, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird ***1/2