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[skygiants]

Final list for 2008! I am still a little bit behind with the booklogging at the very end there but only a little so I don't feel too bad about it. Overall, the booklogging experiment went kind of well, I think, and so I shall attempt to keep it up! (Unless this post receives a huge outcry of 'plz to stop clogging our flists now.' And maybe not even then! NO FLIST IS SAFE, MWAHA.)

1. The Machine's Child, Kage Baker*
2. The Sons of Heaven, Kage Baker
3. A Wizard Alone, Diane Duane
4. The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole**
5. Hamlet, William Shakespeare***
6. Middlemarch, George Eliot
7. The Revenger's Tragedy, Cyril Tourneur or Thomas Middleton**
8. The Monk, Matthew Lewis**
9. The Unknown Ajax, Georgette Heyer
10. Othello, William Shakespeare***
This play maybe makes me the saddest to read of all of them (that I've read, at least) because the tragedy of it all is so pointless. There's a feeling of helpless trainwreckitude I don't get with Hamlet or Macbeth. That said, though, Emilia is one of my favorite Shakespeare characters ever.
11. Making History, Stephen Fry
12. Sejanus: His Fall, Ben Jonson**
13. The Italian, Ann Radcliffe**
14. Gods and Pawns, Kage Baker
15. Macbeth, William Shakespeare***
16. Arcadia, Tom Stoppard
17. Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen***
18. The White Devil, John Webster**
19. An Experiment in Love, Hilary Mantel
20. The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster**
21. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley***
22. King Rat, China Mieville
23. Women Beware Women, Thomas Middleton**
24. 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, John Ford**
25. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte***
26. The Broken Heart, John Ford**
27. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
28. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
29. A Room with a View, E.M. Forster
30. Farthing, Jo Walton
31. Crown Duel, Sherwood Smith*
32. Venetia, Georgette Heyer
33. A Vision of Light, Judith Merkle Riley*
34. Heart of Light, Sarah A. Hoyt
35. Ha'Penny, Jo Walton
36. Le Chanson de Roland, Glyn Burgess (translator)**
37. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte***
38. A Morbid Taste for Bones, Ellis Peters*
39. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede*
40. Barchester Towers, Anthony Trollope**
41. Wizard's Holiday, Diane Duane
42. The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell
43. Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning**
44. Children of God, Mary Doria Russell
45. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens**
46. Snow White and Rose Red, Patricia C. Wrede
47. Lion's Blood, Steven Barnes
48. Idylls of the King, Alfred Lord Tennyson***
49. A Cluster of Separate Sparks, Joan Aiken
50. The Magic City, E. Nesbit
51. The Once and Future King, T.H. White*
52. A Woman of Passion: The Life of E. Nesbit 1858-1928, Julia Briggs
53. The Annotated Alice, Lewis Carroll (ed. Martin Gardner)***
54. Werewolves In Their Youth, Michael Chabon
55. My Lord Brother the Lionheart, Molly Costain Haycraft**
56. Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her, Melanie Rehak
57. Reservation Blues, Sherman Alexie
58. Mortal Engines, Philip Reeve
59. House of Many Ways, Diana Wynne Jones
60. Of Love and Shadows, Isabel Allende
61. The Phoenix Guards, Steven Brust
62. Touch Not the Cat, Mary Stewart
63. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
64. At the Bottom of the River, Jamaica Kincaid
65. Sprig Muslin, Georgette Heyer
66. The Night of the Solstice, L.J. Smith*
67. Heart of Valor, L.J. Smith*
68. The Winter Prince, Elizabeth Wein
69. Dreamhunter, Elizabeth Knox
70. Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
71. The Ear, The Eye and the Arm, Nancy Farmer*
72. Black Maria, Diana Wynne Jones*
73. Hons and Rebels, Jessica Mitford
74. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
75. Monk's Hood, Ellis Peters*
76. Predator's Gold, Philip Reeves
77. Under the Jolly Roger, L.A. Meyer
78. Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954 by Jeffrey Cartwright, Stephen Millhauser*
79. Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry, Harry Kemelman
80. In the Belly of the Bloodhound, L.A. Meyer
81. Midnight Robber, Nalo Hopkinson
82. Only You Can Save Mankind, Terry Pratchett*
83. Johnny and the Dead, Terry Pratchett*
84. Mother Aegypt and Other Stories, Kage Baker
85. Dreamquake, Elizabeth Knox
86. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
87. Persuasion, Jane Austen*
88. The Bone Doll's Twin, Lynne Flewelling*
89. Angelica, Arthur Phillips
90. Orlando, Virginia Woolf
91. Wizards at War, Diane Duane
92. Saint Peter's Fair, Ellis Peters*
93. Portrait in Sepia, Isabel Allende
94. Dragon of the Lost Sea, Laurence Yep*
95. Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA, Brenda Maddox
96. Remnant Population, Elizabeth Moon
97. The Remarkable Millard Fillmore: The Unbelievable Life of a Forgotten President, George Pendle
98. Dragon Steel, Laurence Yep*
99. The Dragon's Pearl, Sirin Phathanothai
100. Seven-Day Magic, Edward Eager*
101. The Ogre Downstairs, Diana Wynne Jones*
102. House of Thieves, Kaui Hart Hemmings
103. A Coalition of Lions, Elizabeth Wein
104. Inda, Sherwood Smith*
105. The Fox, Sherwood Smith
106. The Foreign Student, Susan Choi
107. Dragon Cauldron, Laurence Yep*
108. Dragon War, Laurence Yep*
109. The Sunbird, Elizabeth Wein
110. Mississippi Jack, L.A. Meyer
111. Zahrah the Windseeker, Nnedi Okorafur-Mbachu
112. The Yiddish Policeman's Union, Michael Chabon
113. The Wind Singer, William Nicholson
114. The King's Shield, Sherwood Smith
115. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
116. The Black Arrow, Robert Louis Stephenson
117. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
118. "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?": A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity, Beverly Daniel Tatum
119. Reader and Raelynx, Sharon Shinn
120. Dark Mondays, Kage Baker
121. The Masqueraders, Georgette Heyer
122. Lost City Radio, Daniel Alarcon
123. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Erik Larson
124. Johnny and the Bomb, Terry Pratchett*
125. Changeover, Margaret Mahy
126. Mixed Magics, Diana Wynne Jones
127. The King's Peace, Jo Walton
128. The Shadow Speaker, Nnedi Okorafur
129. Westmark, Lloyd Alexander*
130. Labyrinths, Jorge Luis Borges
131. Making Money, Terry Pratchett
132. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, Amin Maalouf
133. Nation, Terry Pratchett
134. Regency Buck, Georgette Heyer
135. The King's Name, Jo Walton
136. Un Lun Dun, China Mieville
137. The Kestrel, Lloyd Alexander*
138. The Beggar Queen, Lloyd Alexander*
139. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
140. My Bonny Light Horseman, L.A. Meyer
141. The Lion Hunter, Elizabeth Wein
142. Maddigan's Fantasia, Margaret Mahy
143. Kindred, Octavia Butler
144. February House, Sherill Tippins
145. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party, M. T. Anderson*
146. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves, M. T. Anderson
147. The Empty Kingdom, Elizabeth Wein
148. Dogsbody, Diana Wynne Jones*
149. Sylvester, Georgette Heyer
150. Victory of Eagles, Naomi Novik
151. The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - And Why, Amanda Ripley
152. The Lady's Not For Burning, Christopher Fry*

(* = reread; ** = for school; *** = combination of those two things)

New section: Graphic novels and manga!
1. Castle Waiting, Linda Meyer
2. Angel Sanctuary, Kaori Yuki
3. The Red Star, A Multitude Of People
4. Watchmen, Alan Moore
5. Gunslinger Girl, vol. 1-6, Yu Aida
6. PS 238 III: No Child Left Behind, Aaron Williams
7. Y: The Last Man: Whys And Wherefores, Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra
8. No Future For You, Brian K. Vaughan
9. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi

Final tallies:
Total books read: 152
Rereads: 38
New books: 114
Books that might, in theory, count towards 50books_poc were I doing it officially: 25. Not great, but definitely an improvement over last year.
Nonfiction: 11. Again, not that many in the scheme of things, but still an improvement!

Total graphic novel/manga-type things read: 9 (though some of those were several volumes, so . . . I don't know how it divvies up really)

Comments

[sdelmonte]

Wow. I have tried to read about a book a week for years (not counting graphic novels), and succeeded maybe twice - those long non-fiction works I favor can be slow sometimes. But you put me to shame.

[skygiants]

Heh - it's not nearly as impressive as it looks! About half of what I read is children's or YA fiction, which goes a lot more quickly and can be mostly devoured in the course of a subway ride to and from work. The long non-fiction books take me a lot longer.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

Oh. Wow. Your tastes are more eclectic than I thought.

Someone else who read Arcadia this year! ^^ I thought it was a really great, really sweet play.

I love The Winter Prince..I was really upset to find out that it is now very, very hard to find.

[skygiants]

It so is! I love it a lot. The only Stoppard I'd read before then was Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and then my friend (and current roommate) basically shoved Arcadia into my hands and said "READ IT, READ IT NOW!" and so I did, and she was of course absolutely right, it was beautiful. Though terribly sad at the end.

Yeah, I know! shati recommended me the book ages and ages ago, but I could not get my hands on it until this summer after much sorting through various local libraries. Have you read the sequels?

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is one of my favorite plays, as well. ^_^

Only Coalition of Lions, which I think is now also out of print. My library has The Winter Prince, The Sunbird, and The Lion Hunter presently. How are they? I'll read your logs for them later. ^^

[skygiants]

Mine too! I love how much of a literature dork Stoppard is in his plays; it just makes them so much fun to read.

I really liked them! I think - and most other people who have read them seem to think so also - that Coalition of Lions is the weakest of the books, and then they get steadily better as they start following Telemakos again. The last one I think is my favorite, maybe tied with Winter Prince (but don't read my log for that one, it is full of spoilers! :O)

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

I need to read more by him, though I'm worried I've already hit the two greatest and it's just down hill from here.

All right, I'll check out The Sunbird at some point. ^^

Right now I'm reading The Master and the Margarita, soon to be followed by Crime and Punishment, so my reading list is going to be occupied for a little bit.

[skygiants]

My roommate is a huge, huge fan, so one of these days I just really need to hit her shelves and clean them out.

:D!

. . . goodness, yes, those are fairly significant reading Commitments to take on! I hope you enjoy them - I read Crime and Punishment years and years ago, so I only half-remember it.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

I'm really looking forward to it. It's my friend's favorite book, and it sounds very, very good.

[lunamystic]

Plz to NOT be stopping. I love your booklogging posts! My 'to read' list is heavily influenced by them. :)

I so fell down on the job in 2008. I blame moving. But I'm determined to be better in 2009. *firm*

[skygiants]

Ha! I have influence! I AM MIGHTY. Or . . . something. But yay, for serious, I am glad that you find them enjoyable. :D

Moving is an important distraction! Reading can come when things are settled and books are not likely to have to be unpacked and repacked and so on.

[sandrylene.livejournal.com]

I so second this. And I ought to be doing the same, because I know I'm reading a fair number of books per year, but I catch myself clueless as to what they were.

But yes! Continued Becca book opinions please. <3

[skygiants]

That's why I had to do this! Because I keep forgetting what I read, and I like remembering it, because it tends to be good!

[obopolsk.livejournal.com]

You have awesome taste in books! :)

I've been pretty good about keeping a list of the things I read but bad about blogging them -- that's something I need to work on this year.

[skygiants]

Thank you! :D

You totally should! I am always wishing more people on my flist would booklog, I love reading about what other people read.

[emmaco.livejournal.com]

Hello! I found your journal through kattahj and was wondering if you mind me adding you to my flist? You seem like an excellent source of book recs!

[skygiants]

I would absolutely not mind! I always love more people to babble about books with. :D