2018 via a stack of books
A selection of books I read in 2018
Those of you who've been around a while know this year (for me) has been mixed to say the least, yet I still apparently managed to read 47 books, some of which I piled on the living room floor and took a photo of so you can approve/despair of my taste, a bit like I did for 2016.
Despite taking weeks and weeks to get through River of Gods I was surprised to note that 27 of those 47 books were fiction (at least a dozen speculative fiction). 13 of the remaining 20 were, as you might expect, covering history, the north, class, or a combination thereof.
I read 38 physical books and 9 e-books (hence the Kobo in the photo - it's displaying The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad). Shockingly I only read 5 library books (2 of them were e-books) in 2018, but that doesn't mean I didn't borrow others and give up on them. I also borrowed 2 books from The Library of Mum and Dad, read 4 out-of-copyright e-books (the Conrad, an Anthony Trollope, Wordsworth's guide to the Lakes, and a history of Hinduism and Buddhism from 1921), 13 books I'd either received as a present or won, one review copy from The Bookbag, 15 I bought second-hand, and a paltry 7 that I bought new. And all of the new books were bought with book tokens or Waterstones/Kobo vouchers that people had given me as presents - does that actually make it 20 of the year's 47 that were presents and prizes?
I only wrote a review of a few books I read this year, but to quickly run through a few others...
River of Gods by Ian McDonald is Indian-set sci-fi with strong AI themes, which will probably appeal to Alastair Reynolds fans. It has a large cast of characters, some of whom come together in the manner of a traditional multi-protagonist epic, others (if I recall correctly) skim by each other, more in the mode of Pulp Fiction. If this sounds appealing, I reviewed a fantastic sci-fi noir by Alastair Reynolds, and another Ian McDonald book (Brasyl).
Creation by Steve Grand is from nearly 20 years ago so artificial intelligence has come on since then, but OneMonkey (having read it back then and remembering it was still in the bookcase) recommended it to me around the time I started reading River of Gods and it was a fascinating and thought-provoking (non-fiction) read. My grasp of biology is pretty shaky but I have a strong programming background: some combination of those is probably useful to get the most out of it, but there's a lot of pure thought in there (philosophy, if you will).
The Lost Words was our Christmas present from friend T, and is just beautiful. If you haven't come across it (and if you haven't, where have you been?) it's a response to various nature words being removed from a new edition of a children's dictionary. Those words have been gorgeously illustrated by Jackie Morris, and it's aimed at children (they won't appreciate it - get it for yourself).
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is sci-fi set in Thailand; climate change, genetic modification, rampant capitalism, it's got the lot. I hadn't heard of the author, I picked it up in a charity shop BOGOF and I'm so glad I did. The setting was unusual (I believe the author is American) and it was brilliantly written and suitably tense. There are some pretty nasty bits in it though.
The Tempest Tales by well-known crime author Walter Mosley (whose Easy Rawlins books I've enjoyed but never, it appears, reviewed) was an unusual novella. A man is mistakenly killed by the police in Harlem and St Peter decides he's not allowed into heaven. The man argues that he's not a sinner, he's only ever done the best he, as a black man on a low income in the place and time he lives, could do - there follows a loosely connected novella/story collection showing episodes in his life as he tries to persuade the angel that's been sent back to earth with him to let him into heaven. Humour, philosophy, and some good characters.
Finally, Kate Atkinson's Emotionally Weird was an odd but great book that I raced through. The bulk of it is set at Dundee University in the 70s and has more than a hint of Tom Sharpe about it (I used to love his farces set in higher education). However, this being Kate Atkinson there's a big family mystery wrapping the whole thing up, which I think will particularly appeal if you enjoyed Behind the Scenes at the Museum.
I hope you enjoyed some great books in 2018, and that your To Read shelf is looking as enticing as mine. In the spirit of admitting my limitations I'm intending only to blog once a month in 2019 so hopefully I'll see you here on the last Sunday of January.
Happy New Year!