2004 top ten books

[altariel]

Actually, this is a list of my top fifteen books of the year, because I start with five honourable mentions, and then give a top ten. All in no particular order, except for the last one, which is my book of the year.



Honourable Mentions

The Flambards Trilogy by K.M. Peyton
This was the children’s book series that I enjoyed most after the Green Knowe books - and there was some stiff competition, given that I have also been reading Antonia Forest, Susan Coolidge, and L.M. Montgomery.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
A book that really did deserve the hype.

The World’s Wife by Carol Anne Duffy
I picked this one in part because of the hugely enjoyable reading that I attended earlier in the year (thank you, trixieleitz!).

The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth by J.R.R. Tolkien
Some Tolkien I hadn’t read before. That doesn’t happen much these days.

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
One problem with books that invent a genre is that when you finally get round to reading them, you’ve read so many of the derivatives that they don’t seem inventive at all (I had this problem with Dracula, for example). I read quite a few dystopian novels this year, and this one has all the trappings, but is somehow wittier and cleverer, and did most of it first.


Top Ten

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
I am in love with Cazaril’s angst, his dark hair and his cerebral-ness.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Smarter people than me have certainly said smarter things about this than I can say, so I’ll just nod wisely and agree that it’s bloody brilliant.

Bellwether by Connie Willis
Sociologists can be heroes too. Delightful.

Good Evening, Mrs Craven by Mollie Panter-Downes
A collection of very short stories written during the war for The New Yorker which shows just what can be done in 1500 words.

My Friend My Father by Jane Duncan
This stands for the whole set of Jane Duncan books, which have been one of the best reading experiences I’ve had in ages, particularly because they are so strongly connected to my friendship with katlinel.

The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston
Another book that stands for the whole series. I read a lot of children’s books this year, but I think these were the best written, although they did scare the pants off me in places.

Skellig by David Almond
A very short children’s book which is simply but densely written, and very uplifting without even a hint of sentimentality.

The Separation by Christopher Priest
It stood up to rereading, and it got the thumbs-up from the SF-averse reading group.

Nineteen Seventy-Seven by David Peace
Brutal crime novel set in the North; part of a quartet about the Yorkshire Ripper and 1970s Britain, but this one was the most successful, I thought. Sparse and unremitting prose; very cleverly explores its themes of social and individual decay.

Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
My book of the year. Amazing. Astonishing. Astounding.



The challenge was to read my height in books this year. I think I may have lost a couple of inches through not remembering to measure all the library books I read, and I didn’t measure any of the work-related books I read, or include any of the fanfiction read online (reams and reams and reams...). Anyway, the final tally was: 60 inches of me and something like 101 inches of books, so I think we can call the challenge met. I suppose next year I could try to read twice the height of me... now where is the large-print section in the library...?

I am well aware of the lack of non-fiction. I don't read a lot of non-fiction in my spare time. There are various reasons why, but mostly I blame it on the boogie.

Comments

[kathyh]

I've always been put off Riddley Walker for some reason but maybe I ought to give it a try!

I read depressingly little last year but The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was definitely a highlight. I really must read more this year. I like the idea of reading my own height but I'm taller than you (though not 101 inches *g*) so I might have a bit of a problem at the speed I seem to be reading at the moment.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

My copy of Riddley Walker was kicking about unread for about five years before I found the energy to make the attempt. It's by no means an easy read, and I took my time over it, and read it using this annotated site, which helped enormously. The effort definitely paid off.

I do want to try to read more beard-strokingly literary stuff this year; I signed up for the Dickens project, which is a start. I have no doubt I'll just read a ton of children's books and SF/fantasy, though.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Nineteen Seventy-Seven sounds like a must-read to me. I've never heard of David Peace but that sounds just my thing. Thanks.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I think the whole quartet is exactly your kind of thing: they start with Nineteen Seventy-Four and then go up in three year increments; more here. And there's another one just out in paperback about the Miners' Strike, GB 84 (I've not read that one).

[kathyh]

I have no doubt I'll just read a ton of children's books and SF/fantasy, though.

Me too. I always mean to read more literary stuff but it very rarely happens. Most of the "classic" novels I've read I read as a teenager, though I had the best luck with Dickens when I had a really long commute. It was about the only good thing about my journey!

[(Anonymous)]

(katlinel at work)

It has been a absolute delight to share your enjoyment of the Duncan books. Just let me know if there are any that you want to borrow again to re-read.

I think I may have lost a couple of inches through not remembering to measure all the library books I read

I read this as meaning that you yourself had lost two inches in height. Now that would have made the reading task easier, but still, not a desired result I imagine. :-)

Anyway, congratulations on meeting your challenge! Here's to tons of SF and children's fic in the New Year. And some other things too, an it please you, m'lady.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I had a reading drought during my teens, and have been playing catch-up ever since. I'm thinking of starting Bleak House next: I'm just finishing Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, so I'm still in the Victorian mood. Plus it seems more of a winter book than a summer book.

[kathyh]

I'm just finishing Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, so I'm still in the Victorian mood.

LOL. I'm just about to start that.

I have to admit that I haven't read Bleak House. If the long commute had carried on it would have been next on my list, but from my memories of the brilliant TV dramatisation it is most definitely a winter book.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Have possibly had rush of blood to the head and bought the 1977 and 1984 ones via amazon - will report back.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

God, I hope you like them. They're very, very violent.

(Can't offer to loan you the others, I'm afraid, since I borrowed them myself.)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I read this as meaning that you yourself had lost two inches in height. Now that would have made the reading task easier, but still, not a desired result I imagine. :-)

LOL! Like some weird Dorian Grey thing where for every book I read, I shed a millimetre of height...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Looking forward to hearing how you get on with JS&MN!

I don't remember that adaptation of Bleak House: was it one of those classic Sunday teatime ones?

[communicator.livejournal.com]

hee, now if I don't like them it will be all your fault

on the plus side the Amazon reviewers compare him to James Ellroy, so I'm sure I'll dig it

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Forgive me! Forgive me!

[kathyh]

Looking forward to hearing how you get on with JS&MN!

Three chapters in and fascinated so far, though I think I may need to find a stand to rest it on!

I don't remember that adaptation of Bleak House: was it one of those classic Sunday teatime ones?

No. If I had to put a vague date on it I would say it was 1983 or 4. It starred Denholm Eliott and Diana Rigg and was one of the first dramatisations done wholly on film (rather than the part video, part film of the B7 era). I once read a theory that the BBC didn't do another costume drama for years afterwards as this had raised the bar so high and sent the costs up so much that they couldn't afford it! It's the sort of thing that might show up on BBC4 so it's worth looking out for.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Definitely agree re Riddley Walker. One of my books of the century.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I think I may need to find a stand to rest it on!

I gave up trying to read it in bed, it was just too damn heavy to manage lying down. And I didn't even attempt to read it while on the exercise bike!


one of the first dramatisations done wholly on film

Ooh, how interesting! And it really is ages before they try again, isn't it? IIRC Middlemarch was 1993 or 1994, and that was touted as the first costume drama for years. Thanks for all the info!

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

Agree with you on the Curse of Chalion, also on my top mumbleteen list (whenever I get around to, y'know, posting it). Have you read the next in the series, Paladin of Souls, yet? I liked it just as much - so refreshing to see an adult (i.e. forties) heroine.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I have read PoS, but didn't enjoy it nearly as much - but I think that was mostly because I wanted to read more about Cazaril. I'm going to give it another shot. I did like the heroine a great deal, and she had a young and plucky female sidekick, IIRC.

[kerravonsen]

Sociologists can be heroes too.

(grin) Yes, I can see why that would have particular appeal.

Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban

I still haven't read that.

But then again, I still haven't read "Paladin of Souls", "Das Boot", "Otherland", "Lud-In-The-Mist", "Black Sun Rising", "The Game of Kings", "A Door Into Ocean" or any of the other books actually sitting on my to-be-read shelves, so I'm not really likely to read it any time soon, since I don't actually have it in my posession.

[temeres.livejournal.com]

I have set myself the ambitious target of reading a book a month this year. And to keep the non-fiction:fiction ratio down to 2:1. No, I don't do much reading.

[avon7.livejournal.com]

Reading your own height - that's an interesting idea. I think I'd do that easily (if rereads counted) given I read a book every day or so. (Hmmm... over 20 cm for this year so far.) If re-reads don't count then I'd be in trouble, I think.

Peter's Room - yep, I do like it, though nowhere near as much as some of the others. I have major problems with the moral (well, I would, wouldn't I - given I spend much of my life in various fantasy worlds.) and there's too much Patrick. I prefer, on the whole, the earlier books before Antonia fell so heavily for Nicola and Patrick.

Flambards - oh yich no! They were in the library and they had horses in them so of course I read them but KM Peyton and I just aren't compatible.

Reading - I actually read a Dickens this year - partly because it was cheap and partly because I do think I should make an effort to read something that isn't a kid's book. It was Great Expectations and while I enjoyed it more than Hard Times, which I did at school, I don't feel any need to reread it or anything.

[stultiloquentia.livejournal.com]

pasting this into my to-read list....

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Let me know what you think as and when they reach the 'read' pile!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I don't want to think about the teetering piles that are my 'to-be-read' books... This is the year that I make some headway on them, I swear (which I say every year).