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The year in review
Dec. 31st, 2009 08:43 pm2009 wasn't the best year ever. On the other hand, it could definitely have been worse.
What I achieved: passed my exams, started climbing better/more often, stayed reasonably fit, stayed reasonably sane, tramped all over London in four days, spent four weeks on an archaeological dig in the heart of England, started - and am almost halfway through - a final year thesis, read 110 books.
110 books is nearly thirty fewer than last year. On the other hand, I've been reading a lot more history books, and those take longer. Not to mention the thesis, with all its French and fiddly scholarship, has taken up a lot of time.
Top ten (fiction) books read this year, not necessarily in order:
1. Ursula K. LeGuin, The Dispossessed
2. Elizabeth Bear, By The Mountain Bound
3. Daniel Fox, Dragon In Chains
4. Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals
5. Amanda Downum, The Drowning City
6. Elizabeth Bear, Seven for a Secret
7. Anthony Price, Other Paths to Glory
8. Sarah Monette, Corambis
9. Marie Brennan, In Ashes Lie
10. Kristin Cashore, Graceling.
I must also say here that Dragon In Chains is absolutely beautiful right down to the prose level, and By The Mountain Bound is fabulous and bloody heart-breaking.
The absence of science fiction on that list, apart from the LeGuin... has a lot to do with the fact that while I find space opera amusing, and dystopias engaging, very few of the former are actually any good and very few of the latter are actually enjoyable to read.
Write me thoughtful and interesting and well-written science fiction, people!
Top three non-fiction books of the year, in order:
1. Peter Parsons, City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish: Greek Papyri Beneath the Egyptian Sands Reveal a Long-Lost World, London, 2007.
2. Richard M. Eaton, A Social History of the Deccan 1300-1761: Nine Indian Lives, Cambridge, 2005.
3. Guido Majno, The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World, Harvard, 1975.
I do love the Parsons book: it's written for the non-specialist, and full of the sense and taste and minutiae of daily live. And very well-written, too.
Resolutions for the coming year? I do have a few...
Climb better. Live better. Write better.
Be a better person.
What I achieved: passed my exams, started climbing better/more often, stayed reasonably fit, stayed reasonably sane, tramped all over London in four days, spent four weeks on an archaeological dig in the heart of England, started - and am almost halfway through - a final year thesis, read 110 books.
110 books is nearly thirty fewer than last year. On the other hand, I've been reading a lot more history books, and those take longer. Not to mention the thesis, with all its French and fiddly scholarship, has taken up a lot of time.
Top ten (fiction) books read this year, not necessarily in order:
1. Ursula K. LeGuin, The Dispossessed
2. Elizabeth Bear, By The Mountain Bound
3. Daniel Fox, Dragon In Chains
4. Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals
5. Amanda Downum, The Drowning City
6. Elizabeth Bear, Seven for a Secret
7. Anthony Price, Other Paths to Glory
8. Sarah Monette, Corambis
9. Marie Brennan, In Ashes Lie
10. Kristin Cashore, Graceling.
I must also say here that Dragon In Chains is absolutely beautiful right down to the prose level, and By The Mountain Bound is fabulous and bloody heart-breaking.
The absence of science fiction on that list, apart from the LeGuin... has a lot to do with the fact that while I find space opera amusing, and dystopias engaging, very few of the former are actually any good and very few of the latter are actually enjoyable to read.
Write me thoughtful and interesting and well-written science fiction, people!
Top three non-fiction books of the year, in order:
1. Peter Parsons, City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish: Greek Papyri Beneath the Egyptian Sands Reveal a Long-Lost World, London, 2007.
2. Richard M. Eaton, A Social History of the Deccan 1300-1761: Nine Indian Lives, Cambridge, 2005.
3. Guido Majno, The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World, Harvard, 1975.
I do love the Parsons book: it's written for the non-specialist, and full of the sense and taste and minutiae of daily live. And very well-written, too.
Resolutions for the coming year? I do have a few...
Climb better. Live better. Write better.
Be a better person.
