Books wot I hav read

[were_gopher]

Just before New Year last year there was a piece in the local paper about a ten year old boy who had read 100 books in the last year as a charity thing. This was put up as a terribly fine thing and there were the usual line of letters about how no-one reads anymore and suchlike. I looked at this and figured if a kid could do it then so can I, and it would be a damn sight longer books as well as the pile he was sitting next to had nothing that looked over 100 pages (except maybe a Rowling or two) and mostly shorter. Thinking about it I would probably have beaten his page count at that age as well as ten was when I was reading people like Haggard, Wells, Ransom, Verne, Burroughs etc. I wish I'd kept a list of what I was reading at that age as I think I read less now than I ever did at school.

I did think of following keristor 's example and posting the list monthly but I'd keep forgetting, I know me, so here it is, copied out of the notebook that's been stuffed under the moniter for the last year.

January
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea --- Jules Verne
We --- Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Mammoth Book Of Private Eye Stories --- (edited by) Bill Pronzini & Martin H Greenberg
A Meeting At Corvallis --- S M Stirling
Wetworld --- Mark Michalowski

February
The Pirate Loop ---Simon Guerrier
The Hobbit --- J R R Tolkien
A Christmas Guest --- Anne Perry
The Lepers Bell --- Peter Tremayne
Wishing Well --- Trevor Baxendale
Dark Assassin --- Anne Perry
Halting State --- Charles Stross
A Prayer For The Damned --- Peter Tremayne
All Quiet On The Western Front --- Eric Maria Remarque

March
Peacemaker --- James Swallow
Darkley Dreaming Dexter --- Jeff Lindsay
The Pinhoe Egg --- Diana Wynne Jones
The Ghosts Of Glevum --- Rosemary Rowe
Dracula Cha Cha Cha --- Kim Newman
Dearly Devoted Dexter --- Jeff Lindsay
The Eugenics Wars part 1 --- Greg Cox
The Male Response --- Brian Aldiss
Of Time And Stars --- Arthur C Clarke
The Eugenics Wars part 2 --- Greg Cox

April
The Prestiege --- Christopher Priest
Something In The Water --- Trevor Baxendale
Trace Memory --- David Llewellyn
The Twilight Streets --- Gary Russell
Beautiful Losers --- Leonard Cohen
Smoke And Shadows --- Tanya Huff
The Field Of Blood --- Paul Doherty
Aristotle And The Secrets Of Life --- Margaret Doody

May
The Malice Of Unnatural Death --- Michael Jecks
The Year Of The Cobra --- Paul Doherty
The Mark Of The Beast And Other Fantastical Tales --- Rudyard Kipling (selected stories)
The Queen Of The Night --- Paul Doherty
Martha In The Mirror --- Justin Richards
A Christmas Beginning --- Anne Perry
Cry The Beloved Country --- Alan Paton
Snowglobe 7 --- Mike Tucker
The Fabric Of Sin --- Phil Rickman
The Many Hands --- Dale Smith

June
The Quest --- Wilbur Smith
Watchmen --- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
Exodus --- Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz
A Moorland Hanging --- Michael Jecks
The Nightingale Gallery --- Paul Doherty
The House Of Shadows --- Paul Doherty
Principles Of Angels --- Jaine Fenn

July
The Elixier Of Death --- Bernard Knight
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings --- Maya Angelou
Dispensation Of Death --- Michael Jecks
Last And First Men --- Olaf Stapledon
The Harlequin --- Laurell K Hamilton
The Atrocity Archive --- Charles Stross
Prince Caspian --- C S Lewis
Exiles --- Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz

August
Sword Of Shame --- The Medieval Murderers
The Season Of The Hyena --- Paul Doherty
The Trouble With Tycho --- Clifford D Simak
The Unpleasant Profession Of Jonathan Hoag --- Robert A Heinlein
Regan's Planet --- Robert Silverberg
Conan The Adventurer --- Robert E Howard
Dreams Of Empire --- Justin Richards

September
The Black Gang --- Sapper
The Dark World --- Henry Kuttner
Galactic Pot-Healer --- Philip K Dick
The Hemingway Hoax --- Joe Haldeman
Death Of A Racehorse --- John Creasey
Lord Of The Trees --- Philip Jose Farmer
The Harpers Quine --- Pat McIntosh
The Manor Of Death --- Bernard Knight
The Nicholas Feast --- Pat McIntosh
The Boleyn Inheritance --- Philippa Gregory
Love And Mr Lewisham --- H G Wells

October
St Mungo's Robin --- Pat McIntosh
The Jennifer Morgue --- Charles Stross
Dublin : Foundation --- Edward Rutherford
Shining Darkness --- Mark Michalowski
Epiphany --- Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz
The Doctor Trap --- Simon Messingham
The Scene Of The Crime --- John Creasy
The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward --- H P Lovecraft
Ghosts Of India --- Mark Morris
Aliens For Neighbours --- Clifford D Simak
The Incomplete Enchanter --- L Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt

November
The Castle Of Iron --- L Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt
The Enchanter Completed --- L Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt
The Affirmation --- Christopher Priest
The Lion Of Comarre --- Arthur C Clarke
Prophet Of Fire --- John Creasy
Almost Perfect --- James Goss
Pack Animals --- Peter Anghelides
Skypoint --- Phil Ford
The Prince Of Darkness --- Paul Doherty
The Waxman Murders --- Paul Doherty

December
To Kill Or Cure --- Susanna Gregory
The Death Ship Of Dartmouth --- Michael Jecks
The Prophecy Of Death --- Michael Jecks
Perdido Street Station --- China Mieville
Demon Of The Air --- Simon Levack

All this while keeping up a magazine habit of about 4 weeklys and 8 monthlys

Comments

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

An impressive rate of throughput. I never know how people manage that. =:o}

[were-gopher.livejournal.com]

The books are mostly read in bed after the kids have been sent off to theirs. A glass of something good and a couple of hours of peace before himself turns in and I can easily get through 100 pages a night. Magazines and newspapers are read while cooking in the evening or over lunch. A lot of the Dr Whos and the 50's detectives are an afternoon in the pub after running errands and before picking up the kids (got a decent enough pub (it's a Wetherspoons) between the shops and the school). Doing some work for a radio station the other side of town helped as well, half hour each way on the bus = more reading time.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

I think at best I average ten pages a night (some nights twenty, some nights none). A decent thickness novel takes me all month... Unless it's a Bujold, and therefore un-putdownable even with one eyelid already fast asleep and the other drooping dangerously. I'm currently re-reading those at about one a week.