A Year in Reading 2011

One of my big favorites this year

I think I should start off by saying that I borrowed the title for this post from The Millions. And then… What can I say after that? Not much really. I can only state the fact that during this year I've read more books than ever before. And that 2011 was a year of new discoveries, during which I've fallen "in love" with Scandinavian crime fiction, felt pleasantly surprised by George R.R. Martin's work and continued my long journey into the world of Japanese fiction; but during it I also enjoyed reading some beautiful stories by European authors. Now here's a list of the books that I've read and reviewed:



David Baldacci – Hell's Corner

Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book

Jeffery Deaver – Edge

Haruki Murakami – Kafka on the Shore

Terry Goodkind – Wizard's First Rule

David Baldacci – The Sixth Man

Yoko Tawada – Where Europe Begins

Michael Connelly – The Fifth Witness

Hitomi Kanehara – Snakes and Earrings

Emma Donoghue – Room

Ian Rankin – The Complaints

Harlan Coben – Live Wire

Philip Pullman – The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

Jo Nesbo – The Devil's Star

John Sandford – Buried Prey

Banana Yoshimoto – The Lake

David Baldacci – One Summer

Charlaine Harris – Dead Reckoning

Téa Obreht – The Tiger's Wife

Karin Fossum – Bad Intentions

Lev Grossman – The Magician King

Stephen Kelman – Pigeon English

Janet Evanovich – Smokin' Seventeen

Sara Blaedel – Call Me Princess

Jussi Adler-Olsen – The Keeper of Lost Causes

Lee Child – Worth Dying For

Camilla Läckberg – The Preacher

Andrey Kurkov – Death and the Penguin

Amanda Kyle Williams – The Stranger You Seek

Evan Munday – The Dead Kid Detective Agency

Wilbur Smith – Those in Peril

Tess Gerritsen – The Silent Girl

Mukoma Wa Ngugi – Nairobi Heat

Sebastian Barry – On Canaan's Side

Lee Child – Second Son

Jo Nesbo – The Snowman

Tim Riley – Lennon

Andrey Kurkov – Penguin Lost

Stella Duffy – Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore

Stephen King – Mile 81

Ismet Prcic – Shards

Jose Saramago – Cain

Harlan Coben – Shelter

Jamil Ahmad – The Wandering Falcon

Amos Oz – Scenes from Village Life

Michael Connelly – Suicide Run

Mary Glickman – One More River

Joyce Carol Oates – The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares

Michael Connelly – Angle of Investigation

Karin Slaughter – Thorn in My Side

Various - No Rest for the Dead

Roberto Bolaño – Antwerp

Alessandro Baricco – Without Blood

Ian Rankin – The Impossible Dead

Michael Connelly – The Drop

Karin Fossum – The Caller

Tess Gerritsen – Freaks



These are the rest of the books that I've read this year but have not yet reviewed; either because it was too early to do so or due to the lack of time:



Marilynne Robinson – Gilead

Mako Yoshikawa – One Hundred and One Ways

Toni Morrison – Beloved

Margaret Atwood – Alias Grace

Amy Yamada – Trash

Dennis Lehane – Shutter Island

PD James – The Murder Room

Kobo Abe – The Woman in the Dunes

Colm Toibin – The Heather Blazing

David Baldacci – Deliver Us From Evil

Ogai Mori – The Wild Geese

George Pelecanos – Shoedog

Michael Connelly – The Reversal

Murasaki Shikibu – The Tale of Genji

Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness

Mordecai Richler – Cocksure

Kenzaburo Oe – Somersault

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Half of a Yellow Sun

Taichi Yamada – Strangers

Masako Togawa – The Master Key

Minette Walters – The Breaker

Yūko Tsushima – The Shooting Gallery

Yasushi Inoue – The Hunting Gun

Kyoko Mori – Shizuko's Daughter

Sōseki Natsume – The 210th Day

Paul Auster – The Book of Illusions

Hitomi Kanehara – Autofiction

Akira Yoshimura – Shipwrecks

Raymond Chandler – The Big Sleep

Stephen King – The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger

Richard Castle – Naked Heat

Rick Riordan – The Lost Hero

Edogawa Rampo – Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination

George R.R. Martin – A Game of Thrones

Dennis Lehane – Moonlight Mile

Hugh Laurie – The Gun Seller

Sōseki Natsume – I Am a Cat II

Hunter S. Thompson – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Harlan Coben – Live Wire

Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451

Miyuki Miyabe – Crossfire

Jeffery Deaver – Carte Blanche

Haruki Murakami – South of the Border, West of the Sun

Patrick Ness – The Knife of Never Letting Go

Daniel Kehlmann – Me and Kaminski

Bret Easton Ellis – Imperial Bedrooms

Yoko Ogawa – The Housekeeper and the Professor

Esther Freud – Hideous Kinky

Mario Vargas Llosa – Who Killed Palomino Molero?

Neil Gaiman – Stardust

Arturo Perez-Reverte – Purity of Blood

Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart

Kobo Abe – The Ark Sakura

Iris Johansen – Quinn

Natsume Sōseki – Kokoro

Andrea Kamilleri – The Track of Sand

Haruki Murakami – Pinball, 1973

Kathy Reichs – Flash and Bones

Shuichi Yoshida – Villain

Richard Castle – Heat Rises

A.D. Miller – Snowdrops

Julian Barnes – The Sense of an Ending

George Pelecanos – The Cut

Tatsuhiko Takimoto – Welcome to the NHK!

Marina Sonkina – Lucia's Eyes and Other Stories

Yoani Sanchez – Havana Real

Tessa Afshar – Pearl in the Sand

Haruki Murakami – 1Q84

David Baldacci – Zero Day

John Connolly – The Burning Soul

Georges Simenon – The Train

Ninni Holmqvist – The Unit

Kaori Ekuni – Twinkle Twinkle

Kwei Quartey – Children of the Street

Michael Ondaatje – The Cat's Table

David Baldacci – No Time Left

Kathy Reichs – Seizure

Barack Obama – Of Thee I Sing

Amy Yamada – Bedtime Eyes

Janet Evanovich – Explosive Eighteen

Thanhha Lai – Inside Out & Back AgainNeil Gaiman - Coraline

Hakan Nesser – The Return

Alex Kava – Hotwire

Patricia Cornwell – Red Mist

Paul Theroux – Murder in Mount Holly

Gillian Bradshaw – In Winter's Shadow.

John Grisham – The Litigators

Yasutaka Tsutsui – The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Stephen King – The Colorado Kid

Asa Larsson – Until Thy Wrath Be Past

Miranda July – No One Belongs Here More Than You

Sofi Oksanen – Purge

Hisham Matar – Anatomy of a Disappearance

Ryu Murakami – Popular Hits of the Showa Era

Thomas Caplan – The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen. Out on the 12th of January.Nick Arvin – The Reconstructionist

Vilmos Kondor – Budapest Noir. Out on February the 1st.

David Perry – The Cyclops Conspiracy. Out on February the 1st.

Raymond Khoury – The Devil's Elixir. Out on the 27th of December.

Val McDermid – The Retribution. Out on the 10th of January.

Philip Pullman – Two Crafty Criminals. Out on the 8th of May.

Niccolo Ammaniti – Me and You. Out at the end of January.

Ernesto Sabato – The Tunnel. Out on the 27th of December.

A.S. Byatt – Ragnarok. Out on February the 1st.



During the past twelve months I've also read 30 books in Greek, which brings the grand total to 190, if the math is right. Not bad at all, I'd dare say.