2012 - The Year in Books

For the third time, I am posting no big list of what the year brought me or what I plan for 2013.  Instead, you get just the year in books (here's 2010 and 2011's lists).  This year again I tried to remember to write down each book on a list whenever I finished it, or at least every three or four.  I haven't added the numerous gardening books, cook books, preserving books, simple living and general craft books that I dip into regularly throughout the year.

If you fancy posting something about your reading in 2012, hop on over to clickclackgorilla and join he book lovers' blog hop.  Simply add a link to your post at the bottom of this post and include a link back to that post from yours.  Sounds confusing but it's easy really.  I promise.  Thanks again to Nikki for the inspiration to keep a list of books during the year, not to mention for running a round-up for everyone to join in.  I do find it really interesting to see what others are reading but more than that, I have to admit that I find it really interesting to look back over what I've read.  I sometimes find myself wanting to re-read a book that, if I look at my list, I've just read recently.  And sometimes I look at some of the books on the list and it seems like years ago that I read them.

I'll follow this post in a day or two with a summary of totals for the different categories and plans for next year's reading. I failed totally in my intentions to actually post a bit more about the books I've been reading this year - will have to work on that next year I think.  Having a laptop at home again should help on that score though.

(BC) = Book club books
(RR) = something I've re-read - there are some books, such as by Georgette Heyer, that I invariably read every year when the escapism of new fiction isn't enough and I want to escape into familiar stories that always make me laugh or cry.

1. Jeder stirbt für sich allein - Hans Fallada (BC)
2. god is not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything - Christopher Hitchens
3. The Fry Chronicles - Stephen Fry
4. More Than You Can Say - Paul Torday
5. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
6. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
7. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
8. Personal Demon - Kelley Armstrong
9. Lark Rise - Flora Thornton
10. Living with the dead - Kelley Armstrong
11. Over to Candleford - Flora Thornton
12. Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde
13. Candleford Green - Flora Thornton
14. Sylvester - Georgette Heyer (RR)
15. Funny Boy - Shyam Selvadurai (BC)
16. A Civil Contract - Georgette Heyer (RR)
17. Charity Girl - Georgette Heyer (RR)
18. Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
19. Sprig Muslin - Georgette Heyer (RR)
20. Arabella - Georgette Heyer (RR)
21. Bath Tangle - Georgette Heyer (RR)
22. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows - J.K. Rowling (RR)
23. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
24. April Lady - Georgette Heyer (RR)
25. The Unknown Ajax - Georgette Heyer (RR)
26. Paradise News - David Lodge (BC)
27. Heidi - Die Lehr- und Wanderjahre - Johanna Spyri
28. Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
29. A Monk Swimming - Malachy McCourt
30. Emma - Jane Austen
31. Men of the Otherworld - Kelley Armstrong
32. Frostbitten - Kelley Armstrong
33. Second Coming - John Given
34. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - Deborah Moggach
35. A Dance with Dragons 1: Dreams and Dust - George R. R. Martin
36. A Dance with Dragons 2: After the Feast - George R. R. Martin
37. The Summoning - Kelley Armstrong
38. The Awakening - Kelley Armstrong
39. The Reckoning - Kelley Armstrong
40. Half-Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan
41. This Champagne Mojito is the Last Thing I Own - Ross O'Carroll Kelly as told to Paul Howard
42. Mr S. and the Secrets of Andorra's Box - Ross O'Carroll Kelly as told to Paul Howard
43. The Oh My God Delusion - Ross O'Carroll Kelly as told to Paul Howard
44. NAMA Mia! - Ross O'Carroll Kelly as told to Paul Howard
45. The Pope's Children: Ireland's New Elite - David McWilliams
46. Follow the Money - David McWilliams
47. The Speckled People - Hugo Hamilton
48. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
49. A Long Way from Penny Apples - Bill Cullen
50. The Emperor Wears No Clothes - Jack Herer (RR)
51. Do you come here often? - Alexandra Potter
52. Heat - Georg Monbiot
53. E-Mail an Alle - Matt Beaumont
54. Knight in Shining Armour - JoAnn Ross (RR)
55. Germany and the Germans - John Ardagh 
56. First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde
57. One of our Thursdays in missing - Jasper Fforde
58. Merde Actually - Stephen Clarke
59. Children of Men - P. D. James
60. Xenophobe's Guide to the Aussies - Ken Hunt
61. Down Under - Bill Bryson
62. Hope and Glory - Stuart Maconie (BC)
63. Room - Emma Donoghoe
64. Ein Mann für jede Tonart - Hera Lind
65. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
66. Making History - Stephen Fry (RR)
67. Lobsters scream when you boil them and 100 other myths about food and cooking...plus 25 recipes to get it right every time - Bruce Weinstein + Mark Scarbrough
68. Great Irish Love Stories - Una Morrissy
69. These Old Shades - Georgette Heyer (RR)
70. The Masqueraders - Georgette Heyer (RR)
71. The Edible Woman - Margaret Atwood
72. Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
73. Devil's Cub - Georgette Heyer (RR)
74. Curly Girl - Lorraine Massey with Deborah Chiel
75. Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters
76. Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
77. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
78. Waking the Witch - Kelley Armstrong
79. Two Sisters - Gore Vidal
80. The Kin - Suth's Story - Peter Dickinson
81. Sylvester - Georgette Heyer (RR)
82. Dime Store Magic - Kelley Armstrong (RR)
83. Industrial Magic - Kelley Armstrong (RR)
84. The City and the Pillar - Gore Vidal (BC)
85. Irisches Tagebuch - Heinrich Boell
86. Tales of the Otherworld - Kelley Armstrong
87. Spellbound - Kelley Armstrong
88. Thirteen - Kelley Armstrong
89. The Protector's War - S. M. Stirling
90. Jewel Garden - Sarah and Monty Don
91. The Sunrise Lands - S. M. Stirling
92. A Meeting at Corvallis - S. M. Stirling
93. Off the Grid without a Paddle - Lynne Farr
94. The Scourge of God - S. M. Stirling
95. Food Self-Sufficiency: Reality Check - Susan Gregersen
96. A Modest Proposal - Dr. Jonathan Swift
97. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood (BC)
98. Friday's Child - Georgette Heyer (RR)
99. 7 Myths about Aquaponics - Michelle Booth
100. Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer
101. The Talisman Ring - Georgette Heyer
102. An Only Child - Frank O'Connor
103. My Father's Son - Frank O'Connor
104. Venetia - Georgette Heyer (RR)
105. Cotillion - Georgette Heyer (RR)
106. The Convenient Marriage - Georgette Heyer
107. Cousin Kate - Georgette Heyer (RR)
108. Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods - Gary Paul Nabhan
109. The Sword of the Lady - S. M. Stirling
110. The High King of Montival - S. M. Stirling
111. The Tears of the Sun - S. M. Stirling
112. Dead Aid - Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa - Dambisa Moyo
113. English As We Speak It in Ireland - P. W. Joyce (okay, I'm only halfway through this but I may finish it this evening so I'm going to go ahead and include it but leave out the other three or four books I've started but not yet finished this year :) )

A few random things

For no particular reason I was thinking of this X Factor audition recently and have just re-watched it (again).  Brings tears to my eyes every time as well as a huge grin.  Jonathan has such an incredible voice and I can't wait to get my hands on their album (I just googled it and there is one, called Together). 

Christmas in the middle of summer is kind of wrecking my head.  Hearing ads on telly for getting great christmas deals to start your summer off with a bang is rather disconcerting.  As is seeing things like this (taken at Darling Harbour on Saturday):

And this (ditto):

Of course, after a couple of weeks of regular 40 degree sunny weather before I arrived, Sydney seems to have decided to be a bit Irish in terms of the weather now.  This is what Manly Beach looks like at the moment:

 And the Opera House was somewhat overshadowed by those clouds. 

Everywhere I've been is, understandably enough, fairly touristy but still I've been in one or two nice shops, including braintree hemp, which was selling real soap, something that isn't as easy to find as one might think.  Now to find a lovely piece of aboriginal art to take home with me that won't break the bank.

I slept the night through last night for the second time since getting here, although I didn't actually get to sleep until about 2 o'clock.  Jet lag is kind of kicking my ass but that might also partly be just trying to relax after an extremely busy few months.  Hooray for long holidays!