Recent Book Activity

I have had my nose in a book all my life, reading everything I could find. I loved Biggles and William as a child and still collect any of the works of Capt. WE Johns that I can find.
I will read most things (but don't like chick lit) and love bookcrossing as it has introduced me to many books I wouldn't normally consider. I am addicted to OU study (currently taking modules on children's literature and on plants). I like walks by the sea and pet rats and guinea pigs. I haven't yet found a wild bookcrossing book.
Books on my bookshelf do not necessarily reflect my taste in reading. Books in hand on my PC shelf mostly do reflect my tastes. I'm happy to pass on books marked as available (just ask!) but not those on TBR or PC.

CURRENTLY READING
Children’s Literature: Approaches and Territories – Janet Maybin and Nicola J Watson (eds)
Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends – Heather Montgomery and Nicola J Watson
The Daydreamer – Ian McEwan illustrated by Anthony Browne
Blood Rites – Barbara Ehrenreich

BOOKS READ SO FAR IN 2012 Fiction (f) Non-fiction (nf) + score out of 10
January
Peter Pan, the novel – JM Barrie (f) (6)
The Girl on the Landing – Paul Torday (f) (7)
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry – Mildred Taylor (f) (7)
A Monster Calls – Patrick Ness (f) (10)
Mortal Engines – Philip Reeve (f) (8)
The House of Silk – Anthony Horowitz (f) (7)
The Annotated Peter Pan - JM Barrie and Maria Tatar (ed) (f) (9)
Captivated – Piers Dudgeon (nf) (8)

Book-of-the-month for January: A Monster Calls – Patrick Ness

February
Just William – Richmal Crompton (f) (8)
The Other Side of Truth – Beverley Naidoo (f) (7)
Bevis – Richard Jefferies (f) (8)
The Englishman’s Boy – Guy Vanderhaeghe (f) (9)
The Outlaw Album – Daniel Woodrell (f) (9)
Pigeon English – Stephen Kelman (f) (9)

Book-of-the-month for February: The Outlaw Album – Daniel Woodrell

March
The Sisters Brothers – Patrick DeWitt (f) (10)
Uncle Fred in Springtime – PG Wodehouse (f) (8)
The Year of Living Biblically – AJ Jacobs (nf) (8)
Smut – Alan Bennett (f) (4)
The Greek who Stole Christmas – Anthony Horowitz (f) (4)
The Thing With Finn – Tom Kelly (f) (7)
The Crowfield Curse – Pat Walsh (f) (7)
Tomorrow When the War Begins – John Marsden (f) (7)
Wolves – Emily Gravett (f) (9)
Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears – Emily Gravett (f) (9)
Spells – Emily Gravett (f) (8)
The Wolves in the Walls – Neil Gaiman (f) (9)
The Tunnel – Anthony Browne (f) (7)
Me and You – Anthony Browne (f) (8)
Zoo – Anthony Browne (f) (7)
Gorilla – Anthony Browne (f) (7)
Into the Forest – Anthony Browne (f) (7)
The Shape Game – Anthony Browne (f) (8)
Sing a Song for Sixpence – Randolph Caldecott (f) (6)
The Rabbit Problem – Emily Gravett (f) (8)
The Rabbits – John Marsden and Shaun Tan (f) (10)
Bad Day at Riverbend – Chris Van Allsburg (f) (7)
Zoom – Istvan Banyai (f) (7)

Book-of-the-month for March: The Sisters Brothers – Patrick DeWitt

April
This is not Forgiveness – Celia Rees (f) (7.5)
Conrad’s War – Andrew Davies (f) (7)
The Machine-Gunners – Robert Westall (f) (8)
An Act of Love – Alan Gibbons (f) (3)
The Dolphin Crossing – Jill Paton-Walsh (f) (7)
The Matchlock Gun – Walter D Edmonds (f) (7)
Soldier’s Game – James Killgore (f) (7)
The Outlander – Gil Adamson (f) (10)
Everybody Sees the Ants – AS King (f) (7)

Book-of-the-month for April: The Outlander – Gil Adamson

May
Stalky & Co – Rudyard Kipling (f) (9)
Heroes – Robert Cormier (f) (6)
Parvana’s Journey – Deborah Ellis (f) (8)
Patrol: An America Soldier in Vietnam – Walter Dean Myers (f) (8)


TOP TEN BOOKS READ IN 2011
(but actually a top dozen because I read so many great books last year – and the last 3 are a trilogy, so have to count as one)
Infidel – Tim Hetherington
The Junior Officers’ Reading Club – Patrick Hennessey
The Things They Carried – Tim O’Brien
Master Georgie – Beryl Bainbridge
Going After Cacciato – Tim O’Brien
We Need To Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver
The Sentimentalists – Johanna Skibsrud
Phantom Noise – Brian Turner
Poachers – Tom Franklin
Tomato Red – Daniel Woodrell
Hell at the Breech – Tom Franklin
The Knife of Never Letting Go – Patrick Ness
The Ask and the Answer – Patrick Ness
Monsters of Men – Patrick Ness

MOST HATED BOOK READ IN 2011
Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card

TOP TEN BOOKS READ IN 2010
The Secret Scripture – Sebastian Barry
Mathilda Savitch – Victor Lodato
FeersumEndjinn – Iain M Banks
Hodd – Adam Thorpe
Keeper – Andrea Gillies
The Well and the Mine – Gin Phillips
Here, Bullet – Brian Turner
Burmese Days – George Orwell
War – Sebastian Junger
Dark Matter – Michelle Paver

MOST HATED BOOK READ IN 2010
The Wild Things – Dave Eggers

TOP TEN BOOKS FROM 2009
Village of Stone – Xiaolu Guo
Fallen – David Maine
Explorers of the New Century – Magnus Mills
Generation Kill – Evan Wright
One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer – Nathaniel Fick
God’s Own Country – Ross Raisin
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford – Ron Hansen
A Mercy – Toni Morrison
The Purity Myth – Jessica Valenti
Small Island – Andrea Levy

MOST HATED BOOK READ IN 2009
The Graduate – Charles Webb

TOP TEN BOOKS FROM 2008
Unstrange Minds: A Father Remaps the World of Autism - Roy Richard Grinker
The House of Sleep – Jonathan Coe
The Kite Runner – Khaled Husseini
Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All - Rose Shapiro
The Road – Cormac McCarthy
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
Lullabies For Little Criminals – Heather O’Neill
The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood
Bad Science – Ben Goldacre

MOST HATED BOOK READ IN 2008
Dirty Weekend – Helen Zahavi

TOP TEN BOOKS FROM 2007
The Accidental – Ali Smith
Joe The Only Boy in the World – Michael Blastland
The Brief History of the Dead – Kevin Brockmeir
Stuart A Life Backwards – Alexander Masters
Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Winter's Bone - Daniel Woodrell
God is not Great – Christopher Hitchens
Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name – Vendela Vida
Better : A Surgeon's Notes on Performance – Atul Gawande
On Chesil Beach – Ian McEwan

MOST HATED BOOK READ IN 2007 (disappointingly, a BC book that my
daughter found in the wild)
Desert Claw - Damien Lewis

TOP TEN BOOKS FROM 2006
Astonishing Splashes of Colour – Claire Morrell
Where’s My Cow – Terry Pratchett
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
The Long Dry – Cynan Jones
The Summer Book – Tove Jansson
Black Juice – Margo Lanagan
About Grace – Anthony Doerr
Tsotsi – Athol Fugard
Arthur and George – Julian Barnes

MOST HATED BOOK READ IN 2006
Jonathan Livingstone Seagull – Richard Bach

TOP TEN BOOKS FROM 2005
The Ninth life of Louis Drax - Liz Jensen
The Woman Who Walked into Doors - Roddy Doyle
Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Five Quarters of the Orange - Joanne Harris
Snake Oil - John Diamond
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
A Gathering Light - Jennifer Donnelly
Skinny Dip - Carl Hiassen
Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

MOST HATED BOOK READ IN 2005
The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown