Books 2011

Monday 2nd January 2012 | Other, Reading | Comments Off

Somehow I managed to read 134 books in 2011. I guess this may be related to how little running I did, especially in the second half of the year. I signed up for a Goodreads account recently and I am putting ratings there at this time. (I may start adding reviews at some point.)

Favourite Book of the Year
I was about to follow my usual tradition and select several books in this section and then I realised that from my favourites I could pick one.

  • The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan: Percy returns. I have liked Riordan’s other books, but there was just that something extra special when Percy returned in the second part of this new series.

Other Really Good Books

  • City of Thieves by David Benioff. Set during the siege of Leningrad. Lev and Kolya are arrested and given an alternative to being executed: Find a dozen eggs.
  • Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld. Steampunk and engineered animals creations combine in an impressive alternate story of the start of WWI.
  • Snuff by Terry Pratchett. New Discworld! :)

Surprises of the year
These are not the best books I read this year, but impressive when I did not expect it.

  • Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. Steven’s little brother is diagnosed with leukaemia. The author takes this and makes a really funny book, that still pays respect to the horror of having a seriously ill relative.
  • Room by by Emma Donoghue. Told from the PoV of five year old Jack, as his mum tells him that the room he has lived in his whole life is a prison.

Favourite Cover
My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher.
Half Brother, by Kenneth Oppel, would have been the best if they had taken a hint from Michael Grant’s Gone series and had much less text on the cover.

Twicrap Award for Worst Book
Honored Enemy by Raymond E. Feist. Magacian was really good; the author kept writing and this was where I gave up on reading his work.

Question I will be pondering for a while
Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry. Aka the zombie book. Only I cannot work out why this is being marketed this way, as the zombies are reasonably unimportant and must be putting off a lot of potential readers.

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