Thursday 29 December 2011

Spriggsblog Goes To The Library


Quotation Of The Day:  Anthony Powell -- Books do furnish a room

This being part the next in our year end wrap-up, and today we deal with this year's books.

As i said earlier, i'm a list freak, and i keep track of what i read. Here's the 2011 bunch:

Jan. 10:  Ian Rankin – The Complaints
Jan. 15:  Roberston Cochrane – The Way We Word
Jan. 22:   Robert Barnard – A City Of Strangers
Jan. 29:  Alex Games – Balderdash And Piffle
Feb. 5:  Ian Rankin – Knots & Crosses
Feb. 20:  Ian Rankin – Fleshmarket Close
Feb. 27:  Robert Barnard – A Scandal In Belgravia
Mar. 8:   Michael Hall & Brian Proffitt – The Joy Of Linux
Mar. 18: P.G. Wodehouse – Full Moon
Mar. 25: Ian Rankin – Hide & Seek
Apr. 2:  Ian Rankin – Let It Bleed
Apr. 11: Robert Barnard – Touched By The Dead
Apr. 26: Kingsley Amis – The Old Devils
May 1: Julian Barnes – Pulse
May 12: Ian Rankin – Watchman
May 20: Nick Hornby – Slam
May 26: Isaac Asimov, Terry Carr & Martin H. Greenberg – 100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories
May 31: Julian Barnes – Flaubert's Parrot
Jun. 5: Ian Rankin – Tooth And Nail
Jun. 16: Ian Rankin – A Question Of Blood
Jun. 28: Graeme Thomson – Under The Ivy: The Life And Music Of Kate Bush
Jul. 7: Nicolas Freeling – Not As Far As Velma
Jul. 10: Anthony Burgess – One Hand Clapping
Jul.21: Ian Rankin – Dead Souls
Jul. 28: Bruce Chatwin – The Songlines
Aug. 16: Emilio Raggi, Keir Thomas, Trevor Parsons, Andy Channelle & Sander van Vugt
                           – Beginning Ubuntu Linux
Aug. 27: Ian Rankin – Black & Blue
Sept. 6: Ian Rankin – Mortal Causes
Sept. 16: Ian Rankin – Doors Open
Sept. 26: Martin Myers – The Assignment
Oct. 9: Nancy Edmonds Hansen – How You Can Make $25,000 A Year Writing (No Matter Where You                       Live)
Oct. 17: Nicolas Freeling – A Dwarf Kingdom
Oct. 28: Ian Rankin – The Impossible Dead
Oct. 29: Terry Deary – Horrible Histories: Stratford-Upon-Avon
Nov. 12: Ian Rankin – The Naming Of The Dead
Nov. 20: Ian Rankin – Strip Jack
Nov. 22: Michael Ondaatje – The Collected Works Of Billy The Kid
Nov. 26: Julian Barnes – The Sense Of An Ending
Dec. 11: Northrop Frye – The Great Code: The Bible & Literature
Dec. 14: Lin Carter – Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord Of The Rings

Now, a lot of these were books that i read for the second or third time.  Of the new ones, the perceptive reader will note that i've been on an Ian Rankin binge.  He's been writing since the 80's but i only discovered him a few years ago and i've been grabbing up everything i can.  Unfortunately, this has lead to a problem:  i've read so many of his books in such a short time, i sometimes can't remember which was which.

Another favourite writer is Julian Barnes (www.julianbarnes.com).  I've read three of his books this year -- an oldie but goodie ("Flaubert's Parrot") and two new ones, "Pulse" and "The Sense Of An Ending."

And this year's winner is:  
















To quote the review in The Globe & Mail: it's "a meditation on memory and the way the past is reconstructed to suit the needs of the present."  It also won this year's Man Booker prize so someone, at least, agrees with me (first time for everything).

2 comments:

milo said...

Looks like you had a bit of a run of Ian Rankin novels. Love his stuff.

Freg said...

I've been on an Ian Rankin binge ever since i discovered him -- late as usual -- a couple of years ago ;o)