Saturday, January 02, 2010

Books of the Year 2009

So, all through last year, I kept a running tally of the books I had been reading through the year. I thought it would be interesting to look back at the books I have read in that time. So, here's the compiled list:

  1. "Excelsior: Forged in Fire", by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels
  2. "Moonraker", by Ian Fleming
  3. "How to Fossilise Your Hampster", by Mick O'Hare
  4. "Pathfinder: Into the Darklands" by James Jacobs and Greg A. Vaughan
  5. "Pathfinder: A Memory of Darkness" by J.D. Wiker
  6. "Twenty Years After", by Alexandre Dumas
  7. "Diamonds Are Forever" by Ian Fleming
  8. "The Orc King" by R.A. Salvatore
  9. "Star Wars Roleplaying Game Saga Edition Core Rulebook" by Bill Slavicsek, Andy Collins and JD Wiker
  10. "The Lords of the North" by Bernard Cornwell
  11. "Starships of the Galaxy" by Gary Astleford, Owen K.C. Stephens and Rodney Thompson
  12. "Pathfinder: Descent into Midnight" by Brian Cortijo
  13. "Emperor: The Death of Kings", by Conn Iggulden
  14. "Watership Down", by Richard Adams
  15. "From Russia With Love", by Ian Fleming
  16. "Pathfinder: Howl of the Carrion King", by Erik Mona
  17. "Star Wars: Invincible" by Troy Denning
  18. "Pathfinder: House of the Beast" by Tim Hitchcock
  19. "Sword Song", by Bernard Cornwell
  20. "Doctor No", by Ian Fleming
  21. "Pathfinder: The Jackal's Price", by Darrin Drader
  22. "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
  23. "Pathfinder: Dragons Revisited", by Mike McArtor
  24. "Pathfinder: Guide to Absalom", by Owen K. C. Stephens
  25. "Pathfinder: Legacy of Fire Players' Guide", from Paizo Publishing
  26. "Emperor: the Field of Swords", by Conn Iggulden
  27. "Pathfinder: The Great Beyond", by Todd Stewart
  28. "A Sword From Red Ice", by J.V. Jones
  29. "Goldfinger", by Ian Fleming
  30. "Pathfinder: Dungeon Denizens Revisited", by Paizo Publishing
  31. "Shadows Linger", by Glen Cook
  32. "For Your Eyes Only", by Ian Fleming
  33. "Pathfinder: The End of Eternity", by Jason Nelson
  34. "Pathfinder: Bonus Bestiary", by Paizo Publishing
  35. "Krondor: the Assassins", by Raymond Feist
  36. "Pathfinder: The Impossible Eye", by Greg A. Vaughan
  37. "The Pirate King", by R.A. Salvatore
  38. "Emperor: The Gods of War", by Conn Iggulden
  39. "The Book Thief", by Markus Zusak
  40. "Thunderball", by Ian Fleming
  41. "Nineteen Eighty-Four", by George Orwell
  42. "The Spy Who Loved Me", by Ian Fleming
  43. "Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay", by Green Ronin Publishing
  44. "Pathfinder: The Final Wish", by Rob McCreary
  45. "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", by Ian Fleming
  46. "The Princess Bride", by William Goldman
  47. "You Only Live Twice", by Ian Fleming
  48. "Career Compendium" (for "Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay"), by Fantasy Flight Games
  49. "Azincourt", by Bernard Cornwell
  50. "The Man with the Golden Gun", by Ian Fleming
  51. "Octopussy and the Living Daylights", by Ian Fleming
  52. "Devil May Care", by Sebastian Faulks (writing as Ian Fleming)
  53. "Pathfinder: The Bastards of Erebus", by Sean K. Reynolds
  54. "Pathfinder: The Sixfold Trial", by Richard Pett
  55. "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook", by Paizo Publishing
  56. "Lankhmar", by Fritz Leiber

As can be seen, this gives a grand total of 56 books for the year, of which 22 were books for various roleplaying games, be they the core rulebooks, supplements, or adventure modules. The most read author was Ian Fleming, with 12 books (13 if you count "Devil May Care", but I don't). Other favourite authors were Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden, neither of which is a surprise.

The best novel of the year by quite some distance was "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. Honourable mentions must go to "Nineteen Eighty-four" and "Watership Down", both of which would have been the winners by a long way in any 'normal' year. The most disappointing book of the year was "A Sword From Red Ice", which was a rather poor follow-up to two other volumes, both of which had been excellent.

In 2010, my provisional goal is to read 60 books, or roughly five a month, an even more punishing rate than last year. I'll be applying the same rules, with one notable addendum when reading a compiled version of novels, if I have already read some of the component parts, I don't need to reread them to include the whole in the list. This will be relevant when I read "The White Queen", which is now only available with two other novels I have already read, and perhaps also with "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe".

Moreover, in 2010, I also intend to read 20 novels from my master list of "books to read". This list is made up of a combination of two "100 best" lists, the recommended reading list from the 1st Edition DMG, and the recommended reading list from Pathfinder. There are some 250 items on the combined list, although I've already read about 50, and some few are no longer available (and were trash anyway).

And so, onward!

1 comment:

Kezzie said...

Yeh! Well done! We met our book targets!!! It was quite arduous getting there in the end, but a really nice project to have done,so thank you for inspiring me! It's also helped me to clear some books from my bookshelf (alas which have been replaced by others)