One of my blog New Year's resolutions is to abandon a couple of my routine posts and concentrate more on reviews. The biggest "tradition" I am going to give up are these State of the Blog posts. I've used these quarterly blog assessment posts to keep track of the progress I've made on my various lists -- Prize Winners and Must Reads, Favorite Authors, and Challenges. They have been useful for me because they make me update my lists, but they are not particularly interesting posts.
So I am going to do one final set of State of the Blog posts to wrap up my 2012 reading. Then I will think of some other way to stay organized and keep my lists updated.
This first part addresses the book lists. Part Two, coming soon, will take a look at the author lists. Part Three will deal with the challenges I joined in 2012.
My book lists are over in the right-side column. These are divided between Prize Winners and Must Reads and include lists of books I have read or intend to read for some reason or another. Also in the right-side column are lists of my favorite authors. I add to these lists of lists from time to time.
I only listed a list below if I read a book from it in 2012.
NOTE: If you are working on any of these lists, please leave a comment here or on the post for the list (click on the title below or in the right-hand column) and leave a link to any related post. I will add the links on the list post.
THE PRIZE WINNERS
Books read in 2012: A Case of Need by Micheal Crichton (as Jeffery Hudson)
Books read in 2012:
- The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version); and
- The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré (reviewed here; read for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, British Version).
Books read in 2012 (both for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, British Version):
- The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (reviewed here); and
- Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (reviewed here).
Books read in 2012: three (two for for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, American Version):
- The Spectator Bird, by Wallace Stegner (reviewed here);
- Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (reviewed here); and
- The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (reviewed here)
Books read in 2012: two
- Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (reviewed here); and
- Doctor Zhivagoby Boris Pasternak (reviewed here)
Books read in 2012: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
Books read in 2012: two, both for for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, American Version
- A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (reviewed here); and
- Tinkers by Paul Harding (reviewed here)
THE "MUST READS"
This list is from 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 by Anthony Burgess, which I reviewed here.
Books read in 2012: The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here; read for my 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge).
Books read in 2012: four
- Tinkers by Paul Harding (Pulitzer winner; reviewed here);
- Half of a Yellow Sun; by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie;
- People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (reviewed here); and
- The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Books read in 2012: Doctor Zhivagoby Boris Pasternak (reviewed here)
Books read in 2012: three
- Dracula by Bram Stoker (reviewed here);
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Lewis Stevenson (reviewed here); and
- Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (not reviewed yet)
Books read in 2012: The Children of Men by P.D. James
Books read in 2012: three
- The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here);
- Murder in Belleville by Cara Black (reviewed here); and
- Vie De France: Sharing Food, Friendship and a Kitchen in the Lorie Valle by James Haller (reviewed here)
Books read in 2012: two
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré (reviewed here); and
- Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (reviewed here).
This is a new list that I just created in 2011. I made more progress in 2012 when I participated in the Venice in February Challenge.
Books read in 2012: four
- The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (reviewed here);
- Serenissima by Erica Jong (reviewed here);
- Dressed for Death by Donna Leon; and
- About Face by Donna Leon.
Books read in 2012: one, The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (reviewed here)
You could maybe keep the lists as permanent "pages" accessible in the sidebar, instead of posts. That way you'd be able to keep yourself organized with them, and we in your rooting section could duck in whenever the spirit moved us...
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