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)
