Books read in 2015

[white_hart]

2015 was the year I really rediscovered reading for pleasure, after being put off it for 20 years by doing an English degree, or maybe by being too depressed to properly lose myself in fiction. I read 50 books or book-equivalents (novellas and novelettes are included) and started but didn't finish two (italicised in the list*).

The Master Courier's Gift - A J Hall
The Lady Astronaut of Mars - Mary Robinette Kowal
Mystery in White - J Jefferson Farjeon
The Sleeper and the Spindle - Neil Gaiman
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? - Jeanette Winterson
Heart of Iron - Ekaterina Sedia
Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
Pavane - Keith Roberts
The Children’s Book - AS Byatt
Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett
Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett
Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett
Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett
Maskerade - Terry Pratchett
Carpe Jugulum - Terry Pratchett
The Players’ Boy - Antonia Forest
The Players and the Rebels - Antonia Forest
Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovitch
The Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke
Bombs on Aunt Dainty - Judith Kerr
Drowned Ammet - Diana Wynne Jones
The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood
My Real Children - Jo Walton
An Occupation of Angels - Lavie Tidhar
The Disorderly Knights - Dorothy Dunnett
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
Bring Up The Bodies - Hilary Mantel
Murder Most Unladylike - Robin Stevens
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
A Big Hand For The Doctor - Eoin Colfer
Names for the Sea - Sarah Moss
The Shepherd's Crown - Terry Pratchett
The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo - Zen Cho
Doctor Who: The Nameless City - Michael Scott
Starfarers - Vonda N McIntyre
The Lessons - Naomi Alderman
The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith
The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Foxglove Summer - Ben Aaronovitch
Charlotte Sometimes - Penelope Farmer
Arthur: King of the Middle March - Kevin Crossley-Holland
How It All Began - Penelope Lively
Midnight Lamp - Gwyneth Jones
More Work For The Undertaker - Margery Allingham
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler
Ancillary Sword - Ann Leckie
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K Le Guin
Stars In My Pocket Like Grains Of Sand - Samuel R Delaney
White Queen - Gwyneth Jones
Between the Woods and the Water - Patrick Leigh Fermor
The Great Fortune - Olivia Manning
The Box of Delights - John Masefield

* The Sedia was steampunk alt-history but full of things that just read as plain wrong (the worst of which was referring to alt-Florence Nightingale as "Dame Nightingale" rather than "Dame Florence"), and I got halfway through the Byatt and then realised that I didn't care at all about what happened to any of the characters, and Pterry had just died and I wanted to re-read him instead.

Comments

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Any particular reason for not finishing the two?

[white_hart]

The Sedia was steampunk alt-history but full of things that just read as plain wrong (the worst of which was referring to alt-Florence Nightingale as "Dame Nightingale" rather than "Dame Florence"), and I got halfway through the Byatt and then realised that I didn't care at all about what happened to any of the characters, and Pterry had just died and I wanted to re-read him instead.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

I would hurl a book from me with great force on reading "Dame Nightingale".

[white_hart]

I managed to restrain myself, which is probably just as well as it would have done my kindle no good at all.

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

:-) sole disadvantage of Kindles.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Dropping one in the bath wouldn't do it any favours ... ;-)

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Also true of books so not relative disadvantage.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Indeed, although if you drop a book in the bath, at most you have lost one book; if you drop a kindle, you might have to replace the hardware

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Fair comment. Relative disadvantage.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Another disadvantage: can't go "here [son], read this" like I did with actual books this year. Installing Kindle app on (e.g.) his phone: access to my entire Kindle library = bad idea. Handing over Kindle: no Kindle for me until he's done plus see previous point. Getting him his own Kindle (& library): too expensive for now. He can buy his own when he gets a PT job or something. ;-)

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Good point, which I would never have thought of because I don't have children and would therefore just happily hand over the Kindle with all its books.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

I suspect that there must be a way of installing the app for him that will limit his access to only books I want him to read, but he probably needs his own Amazon account for that. And I'd want to give it another year before that happens, minimum. (He's 12.)

[white_hart]

There's a new thing where you can link accounts as a "household" and share books, and it seems to allow you to choose whether or not to share particular things. T and I have set it up to share our books but it says you can also add selected content to up to four child profiles which don't need their own accounts: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201806560

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

You need the right kind of Kindle (I've been poking it since commenting). And since mine won't even connect to our wi-fi right now then a new one may well be on the horizon some time this year, at which point I can set him up with a profile.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

After much deliberation, no luck at getting mine to see the wifi even with all the help pages I could find, and the fortuitous discovery of an Amazon gift card lurking in a Christmas bag, a new Kindle is on its way to me... :)

[white_hart]

Hurrah! (Given that new Kindle books seem to have replaced new yarn as the thing I buy most often, I think that ability to connect to wifi is very important in a Kindle.)

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Yup! Luckily the old one does have quite a lot of content loaded (inc some knitting and cross-stitch PDFs) and so could still be useful, just in a more limited way. I may try sticking it onto a public no-password network if I can find one (it fails at authentication every time so it may be that I can still trick it into connecting) but if not, eh, it is 3.5 years old now.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think I'm the only person I know who enjoyed The Children's Book - I got a copy becasue my sister was bored by it, and most other people didn't finish it either. This is unlike me, but I think it might be that I just liked reading about the pottery.