Books I Read in 2011

The annual list, in the order of reading:

Doctor Who: Nuclear Time, Oli Smith

Silas Marner, George Elliot

The Honorary Consul, Graham Greene

Parrot and Olivier in America, Peter Carey

The Quiet American, Graham Greene

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark

The Confession, John Grisham

Horns, Joe Hill

The Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross

Mere Anarchy, Woody Allen

The Making of Doctor Who, Malcolm Hulke & Terrence Dicks

Tarzan the Ape Man, Edgar Rice Burroughs

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson

Doctor Syn: A Tale of Romney Marsh, Russell Thorndyke

The Tenth Man, Graham Greene

The Complete Mr Mulliner Omnibus, P G Wodehouse

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Philip K Dick

The Bone House, Stephen Lawhead

The Uses of Diversity, G K Chesterton

Longitude, Dava Sobel

Supergods, Grant Morrison

The Woman in Black, Susan Hill

A Game of Thrones, George R R Martin

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John LeCarre

Espresso Tales, Alexander McCall-Smith

A Clash of Kings, George R R Martin

Snuff, Terry Pratchett

What We Believe But Cannot Prove, ed. John Brockman

The Silent Stars Go By, Dan Abnett

I tried a bunch of new writers this year — Elliot, Spark, Burroughs, Jackson, Thorndyke, Sobel, Martin, and LeCarre. I enjoyed them all, but Jackson, Martin, and LeCarre were particular delights. I hadn't heard much of Shirley Jackson before I picked her book up, but now I fully anticipate reading her complete works in the next few years. For years I'd been calling John LeCarre my favourite author that I've never read, and he didn't disappoint. It was a rich, quick and entertaining read.

Martin was a bit of a surprise. I downloaded the preview on my Kindle and was impressed with how easily it read and how bold the plot was. I had mostly given up on high fantasy reading, but this turned my mind around and I am slightly ashamed at having taken a couple swipes at the sub-genre in REALMS. (But only ever so slightly.) It was made more fun by the fact that several of my friends are reading the same series; it's enjoyable to read as a group.

Grant Morrison's Supergods was quite an experience. It starts out as a superhero analytical retrospective, and turns into a confidential tell-all about life as a drugged-up anarchistic conjurer.

This was the first year that I read anything on Kindle, and I really enjoyed it. It's a great and versatile platform and I wax lyrical on its future of the publishing industry here.