All Stories in the End

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Looking over my list of 2013 reads, I seriously doubt anyone really cares to know, but writing up a list on The Penslayer has become a kind of tradition, so here's to tradition.

Goodreads tells me that I am 74% of the way through The Last of the Mohicans; I doubt I'll be able to finish it by the end of 2013, but I have certainly been enjoying it.  My husband gave me a nice little book for Christmas - which exchange, seen by an outsider, might provoke unpleasant jibes.  It's a little reprint of what was originally published in 1936 as Do's and Don'ts for Wives.  I had seen its companion in Waterstones in Glasgow, but hadn't had the time to sit down and read the female version, and Tim remembered and picked it up for me.  I've been casually perusing it, approving of its practical aspects, and nodding over the many ways in which Tim and I manage to emulate a good couple.  Being right is such a good feeling.  My nephew also got me a fantastic little journal for keeping track of one's books read - essentially the physical version of Goodreads, which is awesome because I often feel Goodreads is embarrassingly public: who wants to know my views on books anyway?  So thank you, James: that was an awesome present.  I will get much use out of that.

cut to the chase what have I actually read this year for pete's sake let's get on with it
The Tombs of Atuan // Ursula K. Le GuinThe Five Red Herrings // Dorothy SayersIn the Teeth of the Evidence // Dorothy SayersHave His Carcase // Dorothy SayersWorld War Z // Max BrooksFools Rush In (Where Monkeys Fear to Tread) // Carl TruemanThera // Christos DoumasOn the Incarnation // AthanasiusOn Christian Truth // Harry Blamires1215: the Year of the Magna Carta // Danny DanzigerMystery and Manners // Flannery O' ConnorThe Grand Sophy // Georgette HeyerThe Black Moth // Georgette HeyerBath Tangle // Georgette HeyerFriday's Child // Georgette HeyerDragonwitch // Anne Elisabeth StenglGoddess Tithe // Anne Elisabeth StenglOrthodoxy // G.K. Chesterton
That is what I read: not an overwhelming haul, and quite a stiffening of Georgetter Heyer in there (please try not to notice that bias), but I am that much closer to reading all the books in my library.  Considering my lengthy stint in Glasgow, I say that's pretty fair.  But enough about me.  I also like seeing what other people read - such as, I don't know, Rachel read The Mind of the Maker at last and loved it, making her twenty percent cooler than ever; and she read Manalive, and At the Back of the North Wind, and The Door in the Wall, which, even though I read it a billion years ago and it is technically meant for children, is still a great book.

very little brings souls together like the mutual love of books.