Skip to main content

My Year in Books





I’ve done it! Just ahead of my 31 December deadline I’ve finished my final book of the Discworld series. There are 41 books in total so the smallest amount of cheating was involved since I’d already read 16 of them prior to setting myself this challenge. Despite this it was more difficult than I initially anticipated.  Some of the books took longer to read because they didn’t grip me in the way I expected. Because of this I was forced to abandon my desire to reread several of my favourites such as The Wee Free Men. There is however next year for that.

The most unexpected part of this challenge was that I didn’t automatically love every single Discworld novel penned by Sir Pratchett. Happily I loved enough of them to justify this author’s status as one of my favourites forever more. Besides, anyone who co-authors a book like Good Omens is a writing god as far as I’m concerned.

I didn’t only read the Discworld series during this period though. There were several others and there are some corkers in that list such as The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden & Flowers for Algernon. In total I read 58 books this year.

This challenge has turned my top 5 list into a top 6:

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
The Lord Of The Rings
Flowers For Algernon
The Book Thief
Jane Eyre
Beloved

If this keeps up I’ll have a top 10 before the end of 2018.

I have no doubt whatsoever that the New Year holds even more extraordinary reads for me to discover. After all, I’m never going to stop reading.


MY 2017 READS












I hope your 2017 reading has been half as enjoyable as mine. Wishing you further reading happiness for 2018.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Lindsay26 December 2017 at 21:14

    A good top 6 - I haven't read Flowers for Algernon so must check that out.

    Happy 2018!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rae Stoltenkamp26 December 2017 at 23:34

      I can highly recommend Flowers for Algernon. But have some tissues ready because there's a very sad section towards the end. Happy 2018 to you too.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. It's much appreciated as is the time you take to write a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Faetaera: A Triumvirate

  A Triumvirate Brairton’s minions slipped through a barely noticeable fissure.  The tear would close shortly.  Despite the increase in their regularity the breaches rarely stayed open very long.  To the three insidious spies, the stink of the new world was almost unbearable.  But in time the triumvirate would each become so used to it they would scarcely notice it at all.  That it poisoned them they did not know.  Brairton was not in the habit of informing his operatives of fatal consequences.  Their programming precluded any thought beyond the mission they must complete.  In this Brairton had been exact and had performed the necessary rituals himself. Each had their mission branded into their being.   They would travel together for some time but then slip off to their secret destinations one by one, never to see each other again. The threesome latched on to their individual targets and began their particular brand of individual mis...
Post a Comment
Read more

#Indie Intro

#Review: RED DESERT by Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli 4 Star reading I must confess a certain attraction to the inhospitable red planet ever since I saw Total Recall . The Arnie version of course. There simply is no other. As many of you know, I’ve even squeezed a mention of Mars into my very own little eco SciFi number. So I was delighted to come across this translation of Deserto Rosso. It is written in diary format from the perspective of Anna Persson, an astronaut landed on Mars together with several colleagues. Together they are hoping to set up a primary colony. The opening is dramatic as use of the present tense and the narrator’s situation draws the reader in. The story line switches between events on Mars and flashbacks, in the past tense, in which we learn a great deal of backstory. I found these details and the relationships Anna has with other characters very engaging. I wanted to read on and in fact finished the book in only 4 sittings. Anna's compl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Guest Post: Creative Recharge

Lindsay Bamfield started writing fiction about 10 years ago. She has written a number of short stories and flash fiction pieces and has been published in Greenacre Writers Anthology , Voices from the Web 2012, The Best of Café Lit 2012, Mslexia, Writers’ News and Writing Magazine.  She has won prizes in Writers’ News , Writing Magazine and Words with Jam competitions and has been shortlisted in others. She is currently re-working her first novel with advice from an editor and has a second novel on the back-burner.  How do I recharge my writing batteries? I’m not sure I’m the right person to answer this as my batteries are still somewhat depleted after illness and debilitating treatment, but my writing activity, although still less than ideal has bounced back to some extent. It was only after being ill that I understood just how much energy writing requires. Exhaustion does not engender creativity. After a frustrating dry-spell when I wanted to writ...
5 comments
Read more