My Books of 2007

They're not all mine. The one at the back is J's best friend from two doors down.

I've noticed that many book-bloggers keep an online diary of what they're reading and this prompted me to try and list my own reads of 2007. I couldn't remember all of the talking books I've had but I tend to think that if they weren't memorable enough to stay with me, they're probably not worth mentioning.

In no particular order:

A Rebus (can't remember which) - Ian Rankin

An Insp. Wexford (ditto) - Ruth Rendell (seriously dull)

R is for Ricochet - Sue Grafton (An awful shopping list of a book)

Sleep Pale Sister - Joanne Harris (too self-consciously gothic, including annoying over-use of the word 'gothic')

Taras Bulba - Nikolai Gogol (fascinating but brutal)

The Blooding - Joseph Wambaugh (plenty of amusing American misunderstandings of English words)

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (enjoyed it but was a bit baffled about why it was SO popular)

Books I & II of Tender is the Night - F.Scott Fitzgerald (really love the style but needed a break before book III)

Persuasion - Jane Austen (SO much better than the recent TV adaptation)

The Children of Men - P.D. James (interesting premise, slightly dull book results)

A Henning Mankell (can't remember which)

Hen and the art of chicken maintenance - Martin Gurdon

Collected Poems - Fernando Pessoa

Glad to Wear Glasses - John Hegley

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

Currently reading:

The Life of PI - Yann Martel (enjoying)

Behind the scenes at the museum - Kate Atkinson (enjoying most of it, the odd slow patch makes me pick up something else instead)

Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov (really enjoying)

Perdita - Paula Byrne (may never finish)

A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth (keep picking this up and then getting distracted by other things)

The Crimson Petal & The White - Michael Faber (again, may never finish)

Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak (needs more attention than I can give it at the moment)

Days of the Consuls - Ivo Andric (slow-going)

My favourite books:

Orlando - Virginia Woolf

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen

I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

Chocolat - Joanne Harris

The Diving Bell & The Butterfly - Jean Dominique Bauby

The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald

Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie

Collected Poems - Fernando Pessoa

If I Don't Know - Wendy Cope

Other books I intend to read this year:

Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

Snow - Orhan Pamuk

Portrait of a Lady - Henry James

I'll let you know how I get on.

A