2016: My Year In Books

Anyone who knows me, will tell you that i'm a list freak. I keep track of everything -- with the exception of my finances! (But after writing this blog for ten years i've earned around $8.00 U.S., so money worries are a thing of the past.)

Here's the list of every book i read in 2016. (Before i bought my first PC, i would read at least a book a week. Now, for better or worse, manage at least a book a month. Oh, well...) Books marked with an asterisk were titles i read for the first time, all others i was reading for at least the second time.

James Branch Cabell – Jurgen
Spike Milligan – The Bedside Milligan
Ruth Rendell – Road Rage
Harold Bell Wright – The Shepherd Of The Hills*
Mark Twain – The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer*
Mark Twain – The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn*
Martin Amis – The Moronic Inferno
James Branch Cabell – Quiet, Please
Nick Hornby – Funny Girl*
Henry Beard & Christopher Cerf – Spin-glish: The Definitive Dictionary Of Deliberately Deceptive   Language*
William Hope Hodgson – The Boats Of The Glen Carrig
Colin Dexter – The Wench Is Dead
John Geiger & Alanna Mitchell – Franklin's Lost Ship: The Historic Discovery Of HMS Erebus*
Ian McEwan – The Children Act*
Owen Beattie & John Geiger – Frozen In Time: The Fate Of The Franklin Expedition*
Margaret Atwood – Wilderness Tips
John Wagner & Vince Locke – A History Of Violence*
Patricia Craig (comp.) -- The Penguin Book Of British Comic Stories
Ian Rankin – Standing In Another Man's Grave
Will Gompertz -- What Are You Looking At?: The Surprising, Shocking, And Sometimes Strange Story Of 150 Years Of Modern Art*
J. Frederick Fausz – Founding St Louis: First City Of The New West*
James L. Shaffer & John T. Tigges – The Mississippi River: Father Of Waters*
Eddy L. Harris – Mississippi Solo: A Memoir*
Rod Cragg – The Civil War In 500 Photographs*
Chrissie Hynde – Reckless: My Life As A Pretender*
Peter Such – Riverrun
Tom Sharpe – Ancestral Vices
Tom Sharpe – Riotous Assembly
Tom Sharpe – Indecent Exposure
Mark Twain – Life On The Mississippi*
Tom Sharpe – Porterhouse Blue
Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard – Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever*
Kurt Vonnegut – A Man Without A Country
Tom Sharpe – Wilt
Robert Ludlum – The Bourne Identity*
Tom Sharpe – The Great Pursuit
Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard – Killing Kennedy: The End Of Camelot*
Bruce Springsteen -- Born To Run*

You will note that a lot of the new (to me) books are Americana. That's not a new interest for me, but the recent trip to the Mississippi Valley certainly caused a spike.

And what, i hear you ask, were my favourites of those i read for the first time?

In non-fiction, there's no question: Eddy L. Harris's "Mississippi Solo." He traveled alone, in a canoe, the entire length of the Mississippi River, from its source, Lake Itasca in Minnesota, all the way to the Gulf Of Mexico and it's an amazing tale of strength and endurance in sometimes frightening situations and sometimes sublimely beautiful ones. Runner-up would be Chrissie Hynde's autiobiography, "Reckless."

Fiction is a doddle too: i'd never read Mark Twain's "Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and i adored it. Congratulations, Mark -- i hope you can make it to the awards ceremony! Second choice: Nick Hornby's "Funny Girl."

Happy New Year, everyone, and happy reading.