Books you've read this year

['thul]

the speed depends entirely upon the book. some books take long time, others little time. (text size, page count, complexity of language and such)

[Mervi]

I've always considered myself a fast reader - I was usually the first to finish anything that we read in school for example. I'm however no match to those people who can read a Harry Potter book in one sitting!

But I've noticed I've slowed down a LOT lately. I guess it's just that now that I can choose what I read (and as I'm sure you've noticed I'm extremely picky ) I want to savour what I'm reading and not just run through a whole book with a glance/paragraph technique. It's also that I read less than I used to (my list for this year would probably be the shortest of all) so I guess my skills are getting rusty. Too much time spent on the computer!

[Nuytsia]

I wouldn't BEGIN to know what books I've read this year!
Next year I will make a list.....

I have read stacks more non-fiction books than novels..... hmmmm what novels have I read.....not that many to be honest....well I know I read Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven and I have a feeling I read the Tawny Man trilogy this year but I couldn't prove it!
I know I have read all the Robin Hobb books within the last 2 years - I only came across them for the first time in 2009.

Crap, I give up! *brain dissolves into a puddle of mush*

[Mervi]

I should try to make a list next year too. I tried that a couple of years ago but always forgot to add read books to it. I do list new books I purchase to my account at librarything, so maybe having an online list of read books as well would help.

Anyway, I counted today that so far I've purchased 34 books this year for myself. That does not include books bought as gifts for other people (or a few freebies I've got!) Doesn't sound that much, except this was the year I wasn't supposed to buy any books due to my financial situation. I keep telling myself many of them were 2nd hand and really cheap but then some were 2nd hand and pricier than new books so...

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Finnish translation) read
2. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by Tolkien
3. 10-lb Penalty by Dick Francis
4. Dead Cert by Dick Francis (Finnish translation), re-read
5. [[Meditations on Middle-earth]] by various, incl Robin Hobb read
6. Knock-down by Dick Francis (Finnish translation)
7. Field of 13 by Dick Francis
8. [[The Unicorn Treasury]] by various, incl Megan Lindholm read
9. Beowulf, A Longman Cultural Edition
10. [[110/110]] by various incl Hobb and Lindholm
11. The Bleak House by Charles Dickens (Finnish translation)
12. The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien (Finnish translation, new corrected edition)
13. [[Royal Assassin]] by Robin Hobb (UK 1st/1st hardback yay row complete!!!) re-read
14. Lord and Ladies by Terry Pratchett (Finnish translation)
15. Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett
16. Jingo by Terry Pratchett
17. The Dark Is Rising parts 1-3 omnibus, (Finnish translation)
18. Kolmen caballeron paluu ja muita Don Rosan parhaita (A Finnish hardcover collection of Don Rosa's comics) read
19. J.R.R. Tolkien : author of the century by Tom Shippey
20. [[Dragon Haven]] by Robin Hobb read
21. The Art of Horsemanship by Xenophon (Finnish translation)
22. Kuttu ja kutunpito by UMA Aaltonen (Finnish book about goats, particularly does)
23. Minä olen sukua hevosille (A Finnish language anthology of horse poetry)
24. Trial Run by Dick Francis read
25. To the Hilt by Dick Francis
26. Shattered by Dick Francis
27. Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
28. Proof by Dick Francis (Finnish translation)
29. Tree and Leaf : including Mythopoeia and the Homecoming of Beorhtnoth by Tolkien
30. Mielen ja rakkauden kasvit (A Finnish book on herbs etc, especially ones that affect moods)
31. Taitava ratsastaja by Gunnar Hedlund (A Finnish translation of a Swedish book about horses and riding from the 70's, very hard to obtain these days)
32. Robin Hood by John Finnemore (Finnish translation, re-read, I *need* to stop buying copies of this, I think this is the third one? But it's the ultimate Robin Hood for me!)
33. Pako kielletystä laaksosta (another Finnish hardcover collection of Don Rosa comics)
34. [[Magical Beginnings]] by various incl Megan Lindholm (well this one's still somewhere between the US and my home...)

Looking at that list, I think I need to make a pact with myself. NO NEW BOOKS until these have been read. And the ones from the year before (I'm working on that with the Liavek volumes atm...) Exceptions include those I've read previously but only purchased to have a copy at hand.

Other books I know I've read this year include the four 3,5 Finnish fantasy books that were nominated for Kuvastaja Award (given out by the Finnish Tolkien Society), the Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, Elizabeth: the Apprenticeship by David Starkey (audiobook), [[Forging Dragons]] by John Howe, the first Temeraire book by Naomi Novik and GRRM's A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows. Ooh and [[Assassin's Apprentice]] & the first [[Liavek]]. Brian Sibley's Peter Jackson biography. So I guess that makes about 20 books + something I've probably forgotten.

[Farseer]

Doesn't sound that much, except this was the year I wasn't supposed to buy any books due to my financial situation. I keep telling myself many of them were 2nd hand and really cheap but then some were 2nd hand and pricier than new books so...

I was the same and feel rather guilty that I have still indulged. The way I'm going with buying books, I can just picture myself having to tell my boys that they won't be able to go to University because the money is now sitting on the bookshelf !

I don't have ANY Lindholm books but would like to correct that sometime soon...and am glad that I've timed it correctly with the future re-releases!

[redchild]

I feel like I've read a lot more this year but I can't say I've finished very many...

Wait I know why. It's because of that Arthurian mythology class I took in spring that required so much reading but was very interesting.

So starting with those, I'll list what I can remember off the top of my head:

Le morte Darthur - Malory
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Knight of the Cart - Chretien de Troyes
The Alliterative Morte Arthur
Prose Merlin and Suite du Merlin (this and the above are in an anthology)
Death of Arthur
Parzival- Wolfram von Eschenbach
Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
Queen of Air and Darkness- T.H. White
Ill-Made Knight- T.H. White
Game of Thrones- G.R.R. Martin
Clash of Kings- G.R.R. Martin
The Farseer Trilogy- Robin Hobb (reread)
Dragon Keeper- Robin Hobb
Dragon Haven- Robin Hobb
Dragons of Eden- Carl Sagan
Demon Haunted World- Carl Sagan
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors- Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan
Greta Garbo: A Life Apart- Karen Swenson
Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy- Mark A. Viera
Walking With Garbo- Raymond Daum
Complicated Women- Mick LaSalle
Dangerous Men- Mick LaSalle
Kitchen Confidential- Anthony Bourdain
Old Man's War- John Scalzi
The Ghost Brigades- John Scalzi
The Last Colony- John Scalzi
Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre and Jeffrey Katzenberg

Most of the older Arthur stuff I admit I've had to skim, all because the language is so archaic and so drawn out. I didn't even bother to read Geoffrey because half of the damned thing is nothing but lists of knights' names at battles.

I also have that same problem with buying too many books. It's just so tempting and after you buy it, you find a new book on amazon that looks very good also and is quite cheap...so you get that too. My amazon wish list is still full of things I'm forcing myself not to get all at once. It's like window shopping. Look but don't touch!
Paperbackswap has cut down on my book buying costs and emptied up some book storage space, but I end up using up all my credits so I BUY them. I think I've bought more credits than I've earned by trading my old books away...

[Atthis]

Well I certainly can’t remember all the books I’ve read this year, or even if I’ve read more or less than usual. I’ve never kept a record, but it’s a great idea. Maybe next year…. One thing I do know for sure is that I, too, have bought far more books than usual. It’s all because of this second-hand book stall open every Thursday at my uni! Well, that and being introduced to the Book Depository. Oh, and it doesn’t help that they keep releasing more and more Penguin Classic titles, which you can buy in Australia for less than half the price of most other books. I think I’ll have to make a pact with myself like Mervi. Less buying, more reading!

The ones I can remember reading this year:

•The Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb
•The Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb
•The Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb
•The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb
•Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
•Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and other strange tales by Robert Louis Stevenson
•The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula Le Guin
•The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker
- Regeneration
- The Ghost Road
- The Eye in the Door
•Shutter Island by Denis Lehane
•The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov
•The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody
- Obernewtyn
- The Farseekers
- Ashling
- The Keeping Place
- The Stone Key

Of course most of the Hobb books were re-reads, and actually so were the first four Obernewtyn books. I’ve been following that series for 14 years now!

By the way, what’s Paperbackswap, Redchild? It sounds intriguing.

[redchild]

PaperBackSwap is a sort of network where people can trade their used books that are in relatively good condition. It runs on a system of credits: 1 credit for one book, 2 credits for audiobooks.

You simply post the ISBN's of the books you don't want anymore up for trade and when another user wants your book, they can request it. You print out the shipping label and mail it to them. You pay for the shipping, the price depends on the weight of the book. When they receive your book, they'll mark it as received and you get a credit which you can use towards requesting a book.

And it works vice versa so when you request a book, that person will mail it to you and they will receive credit after you've gotten the book.

Of course the down side to this is the only books you can request are ones that are available. You can wish list it and PBS will email you if the wished book is posted and you can request it. The other down point is that it might take a while to earn credits because not everyone may be rushing to order books from you. Titles that have multiple copies in the system are requested by the order of when that book was posted. So if you have a really ubiquitous title, it will take a longer time for it to be your turn to mail it out. You can also buy credits (about 4 dollars a credit) if you're running short.

Otherwise it's pretty nifty and even useful as I've already used it before to request books for school. Then I post it back when I'm finished and get credits when somebody else wants it.

[Nuytsia]

Heheh I don't feel so bad about my shocking powers of recall when I realise that most of you guys actually bought the books so you can sort of refer to your bookshelves for the list!
I must admit I did get almost all the books I read this year from the library.
If it was like the library system in Perth I could get an online list of all the books I have borrowed this year and post up a list with very little effort!
Alas here the library system does not provide such a list ...... (well they must have the info somewhere but it's not available to me on the website)

Everyone's lists are so interesting! And now I know I can ask Mervi for advice on goats and herbs! Yay!

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Dragons of Eden- Carl Sagan
Demon Haunted World- Carl Sagan
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors- Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

Those sound like titles of awesome fantasy/sf novels, but I understand they're science fact, right? I seem to remember an excerpt of Dragons of Eden being in the classic book on consciousness The Mind's I.