I’m not altogether sure why my totals for 2006 were so different from 2005 and 2004. In 2004, I read 119 books; in 2005, I read 118; in 2006, I read 99. Eliminating books I had read before, I read 75 in 2004, 85 in 2005, and 59 in 2006.
Again, I read more specfic than anything else, 18 new and 16 re-reads. I read nine nongenre fiction novels (plus rereading another nine), which is up a bit. I only read five new mystery novels, which is substantially down. I’m not sure why. I have changed libraries for the third year in a row, so that may have something to do with it. That definitely had something to do with my only reading one graphic novel in the year. I’m still reading a lot of YA stuff, twelve books, only eight of which were specfic. Other than that, it’s the usual smattering of non-fiction and memoir, with a couple of plays and books of essays. Here’s my annual list of Ten Or So Books Your Humble Blogger Enjoyed:
- Brideshead Revisited was probably my favorite of the non-genre novels I read. Again, I’m not claiming that these books have no genre, but on first glance I’d shelve them with general fiction, along with all the other books that on first glance I’d shelve with general fiction.
- The Fourth Bear tops the mystery section, although it’s also a specfic book of sorts. At one point I imagined a bookstore with lots of extremely fast robots behind the shelves that would allow its patrons to folksonomize the stock, with a browser able to say “this isn’t mystery, this is specfic” and the robots rushing it around to the correct shelf. Yes, technically such a system would have many copies of books, so that the patrons would only add shelving places rather than change them, but I think I would prefer the one that tots up the preferences and yields to a sort of majority rule (within complicated constraints of various kinds).
- Becoming Justice Blackmun was really interesting, and worth reading, and certainly worth having read before the whole confirmation process on the last two Justices.
- Never Let Me Go was not only my best book of 2006, but my best book of the 2004-2006 period of Book Reports in this Tohu Bohu.
- The Day of the Triffids was surprisingly good, and if any Gentle Reader is inclined to dismiss it as fifties tripe, they are sorely mistaken, and due for a pleasant upcomance.
- The Book of Story Beginnings was the best of the YA stuff I read this year. Yes, I’m leaving Ms. Funke off the list, and it wasn’t close. Leaving Skybreaker off the list was a closer call.
- The Time-Traveler’s Wife was quite good.
- I liked Goodbye, Mr. Chips a lot, and think it would be a better world if everybody read it.
- I found myself irritated by What's the Matter with Kansas, but I think it makes the list anyway.
- I liked The Kentucky Cycle enough to include it on the list, too, if only to have two books on the list with titles that include states beginning with the letter K.
I’ve left off the list a few good books, such as Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Spin and The Man in the Basement and A Dirty Job and Any Old Iron. That’s what lists are for.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.