2013 in books!

Wow, has a year really already passed? Doesn't seem like it. Anyway, happy 2014! Let's do this book meme thing!



The first book you read in 2013:
Making History by Stephen Fry. It was a christmas present, and I absolutely loved it. I didn’t want it to end, and am looking forward to getting to re-read it one day.

The last book you finished in 2013:
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk. We took a weekend trip to Prague, and instead of dragging A Dance with Dragons along, I grabbed Rant for a re-read. It was a very good decision.

The first book you will finish (or did finish!) in 2014:
 I’m in the middle of a bunch of books right now: A Dance with Dragons (only about 200 pages to go!), The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, A Song of Stone, Richard and Staalo. The middle ones are short-ish, so I’m betting on one of those. On the other hand, I finally want to finish Dance. So… we’ll see!

Your favorite “classic” you read in 2013:
What classics did I read… Dune, The Bell Jar, Little Prince (in Finnish) and Catcher in the Rye. Oh, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Hound of the Baskervilles! I think I liked The Bell Jar the most. It was nowhere near as depressing as I had expected, somewhat humorous, actually. And interesting.

The book series you read the most volumes of in 2013:
None, really. Of the few series I’m reading/listening –Dresden Files, A Song of Ice and Fire, Company-books- I only read one of each in 2013.  I did read Skagboys, the prequel to Trainspotting, and then got the urge to re-read Trainspotting as well. Maybe that counts.  

The genre you read the most in 2013:
This year was all around the place, with fantasy and science fiction, drama and comedy, pulp fiction and biographies. A lot had something to do with history: I’m guessing that the winning genre was historical fiction. One of my favourites.

The book that disappointed you:
American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis. It didn’t as much disappoint me as… well, I don’t know. I get that the continuous lists of what everyone is wearing goes with the style and the world of the book, but they got a bit too overwhelming for me, and I quit after 60-80 pages. I’ll most likely give it another go some day. I re-watched the movie in October, so may take a while.

The book you liked better than you expected to:
Tempted to say The Bell Jar here again, but to get some variety, let’s go with Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café. Like I said, I read it after having watched and loved the movie. I went in expecting some extra back story, maybe a few new characters, the usual things they drop out of movie versions, but there was so much more! Hell, there’s even recipes at the end!

The hardest book you read in 2013 (topic or writing style):
Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory. Fuck me but there was some creepy shit in that. Good book, but I haven’t been icked out that properly in ages. Years. I still shudder at the memory of what happened to Eric. And, like I said in my ‘report’, reading about the unnecessary violence towards animals was really difficult.

The funniest book you read in 2013:
Chuck Palahniuk’s Rant or Terry Pratchett’s Lords and Ladies. One is more… creepy and full of black humour, the other pure comedy. I’ll go with Pratchett, it caused more wheezy coughing.

The saddest book you read in 2013:
Ben Myers’ Richard. A fictional take based on the facts known of the disappearance of Richey Edwards, back in 1995. Not what really happened to him, but in parts a reality for a lot of people.

The shortest book you read in 2013:
It’s a wee bit difficult to say with some of the books being in tiny little mobile phone size pages, but I guess Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince takes the cake, with only about 95 beautifully illustrated pages.  

The longest book you read in 2013:
 Dune or Dance with Dragons. Dune has 794 pages in this edition (883 with extras), Dance some 1120 pages plus so many extra bits, but I only made it to about page 870 in 2013. Does that count? I’ve been taking my time with it, keeping it in my locker at work (lunch break is usually juuust long enough for one chapter) because it’s gotten so scruffy from carrying it around in my bag. Plus, you know, trying to make it last a little longer so the wait for the next one won’t feel so long.

A book that you discovered in 2013 that you will definitely read again:
I, uh, I actually started to read Richard again a few weeks ago, and there were several I’d already read before. But to name a few that definitely made the list: Skagboys, Invisible Monsters Remix, Maxie Mainwaring, Lesbian Dilettante, and Valentine Grey. But I really need to work on that Books To Read For The First Time –pile first.  

A book that you never want to read again:
I don’t think I encountered any. I want to give American Psycho another go one day, and even though The Wasp Factory creeped me out so badly, I think I’ll want to read it again some day. So, none this year! Yay!

And finally, make a New Year’s Resolution:
I’m going to continue on The List, and read more books in 2014 than I did in 2013. Even if it’s just by one or two, I’m gonna beat those numbers!

Actually, if my calculations are correct, I read 30 books in 2012, and 33 in 2013, so, yay! Maybe aim for 35 in 2014? I wish I could read more, but full-time work and several time-demanding hobbies get in the way. Darn them. And sleep, darn sleep too!