tiistai 1. tammikuuta 2013

2012 in books


Happy New Year! I'm very early with this! Ha!



The first book you read in 2012:
Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood, which was a christmas present in 2011. 


The last book you finished in 2012:
Orlando by Virginia Woolf. Some class at both ends! Don’t I feel all sophisticated and shit. ;)


The first book you will finish (or did finish!) in 2013:
Of the two I’m reading now, I think it will be Stephen Fry’s Making History, which was also a christmas present, but in 2012. Man, Santa really knows what I like. 


Your favorite “classic” you read in 2012:
Umm, I’d count Orlando and Goodbye to Berlin above there as classics, as well as Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5, but as much as I enjoyed them, I think the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are going to take the title of Favourite. I am always a little wary of classics, probably due to being forced to read books in school or something. Or short attention span, I don’t know. Every classic I’ve read, though, I’ve enjoyed, so I should read more of them. Edjucate myself a little. Typo intentional. 


The book series you read the most volumes of in 2012:
I read three books of Kage Baker’s Company-series, the first three, but if we count each short Sherlock Holmes –story as one, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective wins hands down, with ~12 short stories per collection, of which I read two. Plus one longer story, so, about 25 shorties. If not, it’s Mrs. Baker. 


The genre you read the most in 2012:
Throwing a wild guess here, I think it’s those pesky detective stories. 


The book that disappointed you:
John Niven’s Kill your friends, which I bought for the title and because it was praised as the new Trainspotting. The first fifty pages were just… ego-wanking, and while I understand that it was the writer’s intention, I just didn’t like it.


The book you liked better than you expected to:
There were a few, I think, but let’s go with Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5. I’d wanted to give Vonnegut a go for a while, since one of my favourites, Chuck Palahniuk, is so often compared to him. I thought I’d just read a few pages, no pressure, but ended up wanting to read more. I’m definitely going to be reading more Vonnegut in the future.


The hardest book you read in 2012 (topic or writing style):
I had issues with only a few books, and purely for their pacing. Kage Baker’s Mendoza in Hollywood seemed to drone on and on, and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando could get really long-winded, although it didn’t make me want to put it down. And I’m fairly sure I’d have liked Mendoza more if I’d read it in longer portions. The breaks I took with it were a big part of my problems with it.


The funniest book you read in 2012:
James Lear’s The Back Passage. It’s the dick tongue-in-cheek type of funny, with a lot of double entendres and such. Not purely a humorous book, but made me giggle the most. 


The saddest book you read in 2012:
Has to be Ian McEwan’s Atonement. Heart-breaking, but very beautiful. 


The shortest book you read in 2012:
Since I read the Sherlock Holmes –stories on the mobile phone, where they were edited very differently from normal books, I’m not sure of their length. So my answer will be James L. Grant’s collection of short stories, Digging Up Corpses, with 148 pages. 


The longest book you read in 2012:
World Without End by Ken Follett, with 1237 pages, and it was too damn SHORT!!! The kind of book you just sink straight into, and don’t necessarily want to come out. Besides, it is called World WITHOUT End. False advertising!


A book that you discovered in 2012 that you will definitely read again:
I think it would be easier to name something I won’t read again. But to name one, Kathleen Winter’s Annabel. I wanted to read it again as soon as I finished it.  


A book that you never want to read again:
If I don’t like a book, I stop reading it. So I suppose Niven’s abovementioned Kill your friends goes here.  


And finally, make a New Year’s Resolution:
I’m going to read some more classics in 2013, and read through many of the books I already own but which I haven’t gotten around to. I’ve made a list, and I’m gonna put it up here very soon.




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