On this day, each year, I now traditionally round up my reading for the year in the vague hope that I will have fulfilled my perennial resolution to read more. Sadly, this year, by number of books alone, I have failed. That said, I am writing more, which is good.
- Her Fearful Symmetry – Audrey Niffenegger
- Enchanted Glass – Diana Wynne Jones
- A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
- Deep Secret – Diana Wynne Jones
- The Merlin Conspiracy – Diana Wynne Jones
- Twilight – Stephanie Meyer
- Four Hedges – Clare Leighton
- The Oxford Murders – Guillermo Martinez
- Living With a Black Dog – Matthew and Ainsley Johnson
- Ring of Bright Water – Gavin Maxwell
Of these, if I were to recommend any to you to read, Four Hedges would stand out brightly as a must. It’s a beautiful book; in its production, in the gorgeous woodcut illustrations, and its writing. Read it, now. Also of note would be Her Fearful Symmetry, the follow up to the amazing Time Traveller’s Wife, and Deep Secret, now shockingly out of print.
If I were to pick one to recommend not to read, it would be Twilight. In truth, I read it as an exercise in trying out my new Kindle and were it not for that I would not have read it. It is lamatable. If I had not known there were vampires in it I would have given up on it much sooner as for a ‘fantasy’ nothing fantastical really happens until you’re 60% of the way through it?!? Its nothing more than a, not terribly well written high school romance. That is all.
I’m currently reading Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl, after which I may read Nigel Slater’s Toast (and maybe on my Kindle)…
