My home is where my books are.
~ Ellen Thompson ~
Update: I managed to squeeze in another book while traveling to my in-laws this weekend bringing my total up to 55!
My uberlist goal for reading for the year was 50 books. This number pales in comparison with many of the book bloggers I have seen but it represented twice as many books as I completed each of the previous two years. One of the things I wanted to see some change in was my habit of starting, and not finishing, books. A subset of this goal was to try to pull books off of my pile in the basement rather than just starting new books. I did really well with that at the beginning of the year but slacked off as the year progressed. All told, out of the 54 books I completed, 13 were books I had owned (but not yet read) prior to the start of the year. 18 were books I purchased new this year, 3 were books I purchased used, 7 were gifts from others (some of which also count as the 13 I mentioned first), and 9 were books that I borrowed from others or from the local library. The rest were re-reads. How many books did I purchase this year but have not read to completion, or even started? Ummm……
So here they are, in the order that I read them. You will see that I counted books like The Complete Peanuts as they were books that had 100’s of pages of cartoons and often took me longer to get through than much shorter novels. I also combined some books that were less than my required page count as one item rather than not including them at all. The highlighted books are ones that I reviewed.
1. Angels and Visitations ~Neil Gaiman
2. Planet of No Return ~Harry Harrison
3. The Planets ~Dava Sobel
4. Thirteen Phantasms and Other Stories ~James P. Blaylock
5. The Water Mirror ~Kai Meyer
6. Legacy (Frank Frazetta) ~Arnie Fenner
7. Bloody Crown of Conan ~Robert E. Howard
8. Beyond the Farthest Star ~Edgar Rice Burroughs
9. Harrowing the Dragon ~Patricia A. McKillip
10. Imagined London ~Anna Quindlen
11. A World Out of Time ~Larry Niven
12. How Reading Changed My Life ~Anna Quindlen
13. To Kill a Mockingbird ~Harper Lee
14. Deathworld ~Harry Harrison
15. Mirrormask & The Alchemy of Mirrormask ~Neil Gaiman/Dave McKean
16. The Book of Flying ~Keith Miller
17. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ~Jules Verne
18. The Goose Girl ~Shannon Hale
19. The Draco Tavern ~Larry Niven
20. Fables (trades 3-7) ~Bill Willingham
21. Hellboy/BPRD (all trades) ~Mike Mignola
22. Homunculus ~James P. Blaylock
23. Among the Dolls ~William Sleator
24. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane ~Kate DiCamillo
25. Han Solo at Star’s End ~Brian Daley
26. Deathworld 2 ~Harry Harrison
27. Anne of the Island ~Lucy Maud Montgomery
28. Tapestry ~Robert McGinnis/Kiddography ~Tom Kidd
29. Anansi Boys ~Neil Gaiman
30. Snake Agent ~Liz Williams
31. The Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge ~Harry Harrison
32. The Silmarillion ~J.R.R. Tolkien
33. The Two Towers ~J.R.R. Tolkien
34. Meet Mr. Mulliner ~P.G. Wodehouse
35. Finding Serenity ~Glenn Yeffeth and Jane Espenson
36. Old Man’s War ~John Scalzi
37. Coraline ~Neil Gaiman
38. The Murders in the Rue Morgue ~Edgar Allan Poe
39. The House on the Borderland ~William Hope Hodgson
40. Strange Happenings ~Avi
41. The Masque of Manana ~Robert Sheckley
42. The Complete Peanuts 1955-56 ~Charles Schulz
43. The Thirteenth Tale ~Diane Setterfield
44. The Haunted Looking Glass ~chosen by Edward Gorey
45. Fragile Things ~Neil Gaiman
46. The Return of the King ~J.R.R. Tolkien
47. Grayson ~Lynne Cox
48. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes: Book One ~Bill Watterson
49. The Complete Peanuts 1957-58 ~Charles Schulz
50. The Looking Glass Wars ~Frank Beddor
51. The Ghost Brigades ~John Scalzi
52. Casino Royale ~Ian Fleming
53. Greywalker ~Kat Richardson (Update: Review completed!)
54. The Fellowship of the Ring ~J.R.R. Tolkien
55. Old Twentieth ~Joe Haldeman
________________________
The Breakdown:
Eight books were re-reads: A World Out of Time, Hellboy/BPRD trades, Han Solo at Star’s End, Anne of the Island, Anansi Boys, Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge, Meet Mr. Mulliner, and Coraline.
Twelve books were counted as challenge reading: Casino Royale, The Ghost Brigades, The Looking Glass Wars, Return of the King, Fragile Things, The Haunted Looking-Glass, The Thirteenth Tale, Coraline, Strange Happenings, The House on the Borderland, Murders in the Rue Morgue, and Grayson.
My favorite:
A hard choice, that. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and The Book of Flying by Keith Miller were two books that I was completely enraptured with while reading and their effects stayed with me for many days after.
John Scalzi’s books Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades reminded me that there exists science fiction that is fun and entertaining, like the kind of story for which this blog is named.
My very first complete reading of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Silmarillion confirmed my suspicions that Tolkien was indeed a master wordsmith. I will be re-reading The Silmarillion and the last chapters and appendices of Return of the King again next year, no doubt about it. If anything, the gift of the Alan Lee illustrated hardbacks makes me want to read them all over again. I was intrigued by how each book of the trilogy seemed to get better as they went along.
The book that made the most impact, however, was probably To Kill a Mockingbird. I mentioned somewhere on this blog that I had a lifelong, ridiculous resistance to reading this book. Once I decided to honor my wife, since it is one of her favorite novels, by reading it, I was amazed at how special this book was. It defied all of my expectations and I wholeheartedly concur with any praise the book receives. It is a literary work of art.
How does one judge re-reads?
There are books so alive that you’re always afraid that
while you weren’t reading, the book has gone and changed,
has shifted like a river; while you went on living, it went on living too,
and like a river moved on and moved away.
No one has stepped twice into the same river.
But did anyone ever step twice into the same book?
~ Marina Tsvetaeva ~
They are obviously favorites for many and varied reasons, enough so that I wanted to read them again. Many of my re-reads are science fiction books that I have treasured from my youth. Looking back over my list I am so pleased with all the books I chose to read this past year. Fantastic fantasy, young adult fiction, science fiction, classic literature, gothic tales, graphic novels, a bit of nonfiction and nostalgic trips with comic strip favorites…it was a very good year.
Final round-up
As far as categories go, (and some of them overlap), it looks like I read:
7 nonfiction books
10 short story collections
13 science fiction books
14 fantasy/fairy tale (including some urban fantasy)
4 art books
5 graphic novel/comic strip books
11 classics (by my warped definition)
8 young adult/children’s books
and several that I wouldn’t know how to categorize.
40 were written by men, 12 by women, and 2 were co-authored/co-edited by a man and woman. (Certainly not something I think about when picking up books but I thought it was interesting).
_________________________
I am so thankful for the inspiration of all of you who have recommended books through your blogs or through your comments on my site and the encouragement you give to me with your devotion to reading. The printed word is not dead, it is alive and well and loved by so many. I am thrilled that so many parents seem to be grasping the importance of reading to their children and/or encouraging their children to read by their example. Each and every reader deserves congratulations for promoting this most wonderful of entertainment and educational formats. Kudos to you! I look forward to all of our book related conversations in 2007. Now go forth laden with good books and proselytize all you come in contact with!
I adore To Kill a Mockingbird. Will definitely be rereading it this year. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. The rest of your list sounds good as well. I’m going to make an effort to read The Lord of the Rings this coming year as well.
Great idea for a post, though I wont get to it by the end of the year since I already have a review to post tomorrow.
And quite the list of books! And you only reviewed a fraction of them!
That just goes to show how lazy a blogger I am Angela! 😉
Interesting list, Carl. I’m ashamed to say I’ve not read very much this year at all…The Thirteenth Tale I read and maybe about 10 others. Sheesh…slow year!
Very interesting list, Carl, especially the breakdown.
I should keep track of the books I read–including the ones I start and then whether I finish them or not.
Question: why did you read The Two Towers before The Fellowship of the Ring?
🙂
Happy New Year!
I had already read a large part of Fellowship before Two Towers came out at the theatre and then I decided I wanted to wait with reading them until after all the films were done. Once I got back to them I really wanted to just get into the meat of the story of what went on once the Fellowship was broken so I started with Two Towers. I originally thought I wouldn’t read the rest of Fellowship this year but then decided that I couldn’t honestly say I read the trilogy for the first time this year if I actually didn’t read ALL of it. So I have a short bit left to read this weekend and I’ll be done.
I started journaling my books 3 years ago and love doing it. It is so fun to go back and look at what I’ve read, how often I re-read certain books, etc. This year I am going to expand upon this by doing a reading journeys thing that one of the other bloggers suggested…more on that in a few days.
If you’ve read Thirteenth Tale, Janet, you’ve read one of the best. Its honestly about quality (and by that I mean books that a person reads that they enjoy reading) rather than quantity. I set a number goal this year simply because I find myself wasting time with television or other things that I don’t enjoy as much if I don’t concentrate on reading.
It is funny as I always had a sort of resistance to reading To Kill a Mockingbird, too. I have a hard time reading books that deal with racial issues, but TKAM was certainly excellently done even though it had its hard moments. I want to do a bit more rereading next year. I don’t think I reread a single book this year! And I came very close to buying the Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane yesterday!! I think I will break down in the end and get it! I have a feeling that I read far more books that I bought this year than were already on my bookshelves–need to work on that one next year! Glad you surpassed your reading goal for the year!
Wonderful post, Carl. I enjoyed reading about your favorites and the breakdown of the books you read. It sounds like you had a full year of reading.
Thanks for the encouragement not to put off reading The Thirteenth Tale. What a terrific book!
A very interesting list. I liked your breakdown at the end, provides a great snapshot of your reading year.
What a wonderful reading year you have had! I enjoyed looking over your list and the breakdown. I’ll be doing a summing up soon too but I have hopes of finishing just. one. more. book. 🙂
You just gave me a whole bunch of interesting choices to add to my TBR Mountain so thank you!
Something about your post reminds me of a word problem in math class. 🙂 I’ve also added a few books from your list to mine.
You mean how stinking long it is?!?! 😉
Congratulations, Carl, on surpassing your goal! Love your breakdown/analysis, by the way. My new year’s resolution this year is all about writing letters and actually mailing them. I’ve always been concerned about the dying art of letterwriting, and so this will be a soapbox sermon for me in ’07…
Happy New Year!
That is cool Rus! My wife is a big letter writer and I really admire her for it. I had some specific letter writing on my uberlist for this year that I never got around to doing and I will be adding those things to my list for this year. One is to my third, fourth, and fifth grade teacher who was a fantastic teacher. I think about her every Christmas when I put the ornament she gave me (each of the class received one) in the third grade. I look forward to the soapbox sermons!
By the way, you R.I.P. readers might find the book I reviewed in the post below this one interesting!
Always glad to find someone who enjoyed “To Kill A Mockingbird.” It’s one of my favourite books that stayed with me.
But your sum-up does inspire me to do more re-reading. But so many books out there unread. The dilemma.
I noticed you count the TPBs for Hellboy and BPRD as just 1 entry. I’m a Mike Mignola fan myself. I’m suddenly caught with an urge to go re-read all my Hellboy/BPRD TPBs.
I noticed you’ve read a few of the Neil Gaiman novels. I think I still prefer his Sandman stuff over his novels. Was disappointed with “Neverwhere” and “American Gods” – so I never got around to reading “Anasi Boys” even though I have a signed copy at home.
You’ll be keeping an eye out for the “Stardust” movie, I guess?
Cheers, and Happy New Year in advance.
I think you’re the first person I’ve ‘met’ who liked Sandman but didn’t like the novels. Neverwhere is one of my top 5 favorite novels of all time. Just love it. And I really liked American Gods. It could’ve used a bit more editing with some of the gods stuff but overall I liked the story. Have you seen the new Absolute Sandman? (I posted about it a few posts back in my Christmas gift round up post). Very cool. Something every Sandman fan should have.
I am looking forward to and also dreading the Stardust movie. I love the book, it is magical, and I am afraid the film just won’t measure up.
I encourage you to give into that urge and re-read Hellboy/BPRD! I re-read it all probably once a year. The trade for BPRD Universal Machine just came out and eventhough I have the individual issues I think I want this in a bound format because I enjoyed the story so much.
Cheers to you as well, Dark and Happy New Year!
Danielle I hope you purchase The Miraculious Journey of Edward Tulley. It’s my favorite Kate DeCamillo book. I plan on reading it to my kids this year.
Carl, I must congratulate you on accomplishing your goal. You’ve read some wonderful books this past year and I have enjoyed the blog reviews. I don’t know how many books I’ve read/listened to this year but it has to be twice as many as the year before. Our talks about and love of books I know has driven me to read more this past year and I thank you for your part in that. It’s hard to pick a favorite of the year but for me if I had to pick just one it has to A Feast of Crows by George RR Martin with a close second being Dimplomatic Implausability by Keith RA DeCandio. I also think from your uberlist that the book you’ve told me about that I still haven’t purchased yet but I keep thinking about again and again is Old Man’s War. I plan on picking it this year as soon as Borders sends me another coupon. Ah who knows I might even pay full price! 🙂 I’m going to make it a goal to finish The Wizard and The Thirteenth Tale in the first quarter of this year too. I have started reading both and haven’t finished them yet. Sorry Mary 🙂
Mary, Thanks again for you inspiring me to listen to TKAMB. As much as I enjoyed the film the book was twice as good. I loved it and I’m sure I will enjoy it again in the future. The message of this book is just as important today as when it was written.
Yeah, I’m looking at The Absolute Sandman everyday – but if I buy the first volume, I’ll have to buy them ALL. And I’m trying to save money these days.
*sigh* I will definitely buy BPRD Universal Machine, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier – and those Fafhrd And The Gray Mouser graphic novels illustrated by Mike Mignola – it’s going to be an expensive 2007.
Stardust movie – Gaiman seems to be okay with the production, so, it’s reassuring in that sense.
But then again, I wasn’t impress with the “Mirrormask” film earlier this year, and I was so looking forward to it. Jim Henson Company, Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean – what’s missing?
I’m the wrong person to ask DO, if you look at my long, gushing review you will see that I absolutely loved Mirrormask. It wasn’t a perfect film, but I still loved it, almost as much as I love its inspiration, Labyrinth.
Its possible all of our pocketbooks will get some help from LOXG…they aren’t known for getting that one out on time! 😉 I am soooo looking forward to it though. Amazon has a pretty good price on Absolute Sandman by the way…not to tempt you any more than you already are!!!
If Mignola is doing those other comics I’m going to have to pick those up as well! Darn!
Jeff, you need to read Old Man’s War! I was thinking about Scalzi last night after talking with Jerry and was reading his blog thinking that he has quickly climbed the ranks to being one of my favorite sci fi authors. I plan on picking up his new book, The Android’s Dream, when we go book shopping as I am now dying to read it. I already ordered the special edition novella Sagan’s Diary that comes out in Feb. which is a story falling between Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades and am looking forward to the May release of the final volume of the trilogy, The Last Colony.
I picked up one of my books off the shelf, Joe Haldeman’s Old Twentieth last night and started reading it because I have been waaay in the mood for sci fi lately. The first of the year always finds me craving sci fi and stuff like Conan and John Carter. Don’t know why!
Excellent list! I’ll definitely be going back to read some of your thoughts on these (Goosegirl, and others). Cheers to an even better reading experience in 2007!
This is great! I also do a breakdown of the books but hadn’t thought to add if they were from my stacks or the library. Good idea which I may just have to use in 2007 🙂
Nice list! I do enjoy reading people’s summing up posts. After reading your post, I want to count how many of my books were re-reads.
What a thorough roundup in books! I’m still working on mine and hopefully it will be ready before the end of the year! Nice post! We have very different reading tastes but I enjoy reading your list just as well. 🙂
What a great, and impressive, wrap-up for your goal of reading 50. There are some I’ll be adding to my list for next year. I had never read “To Kill a Mocking Bird” until last year and thought it wonderful. I think my goal for next year will be to read more than I did this year, which I haven’t counted yet. Although I did read five in the past week. (Nothing like a bad back to increase one’s output. Loved your blog!
That’s a great quote – sums up my own feelings about re-reading much loved books exactly, and also why I don’t tend to do it! Good breakdown, too; I am impressed by how many short story collections you’ve read!
Fantastic list, Carl, interesting because different to the kind of books I would usually choose, but doesn’t mean to say I wouldn’t consider them. I’ve never read To Kill A Mockingbird, for instance, and really would like to. I think I’m going to print all these blogger review lists out so I can use them for reference during 2007!
Go to Semicolon’s site…here, she has a post where everyone can link theirs. Its a great resource!
Great list, Carl! And I love the quoted passage about what constitutes a reread – so true.
I wouldn’t even begin to try and count how many books I bought and haven’t even read yet!
Wishing you and yours all the best for 2007!
I envy you getting to read To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time this year, Carl. 🙂 One of the few “for school” books I remember really, really enjoying for its own sake. It’s excellent.
If you haven’t read them yet, may I nominate Barry Hughart’s Bridge of Birds and Pat O’Shea’s The Hounds of the Morrigan for your reading list this year? I am something of an evangelist for these two underappreciated fantasies and try to get everyone I know who might even vaguely appreciate them to read them. 🙂
As an evangelist for the likes of Neil Gaiman I can certainly appreciate the fervor of wanting to get good books into others’ hands. I will keep these in mind when I am out shopping, they sound like great ideas for the fantasy challenge.
Thanks for commenting on my blog, primarily because it led me to yours! Your reviews are so well-written and I found the on The Silmarillion especially pleasing. Now I really will have to read that DiCamillo this year–it’s been on my shelf for months and I stil haven’t read it.
Thanks Imani, I appreciate it. I think you’ll love Edward Tulane!
pat you read five books this past week. WOW! I feel so slow now. 🙂