April 2008 was the month that we applied for Belgian citizenship. A rare month (before this year) when I don't seem to have left the country at all, having arrived home from Ireland late on 31 March and departed for France early on 1 May. This was also the month that B moved from the place near the Dutch border where she had been living since leaving home in October 2007, to where she now is half an hour east of here.

I remember also a dinner with George Soros and a few others, at which he told us that the subprime mortgage crisis would likely lead to a huge financial meltdown in a few months. He was right, of course. (He was saying this in public too.)

Regular commuting meant that I read 43 books in April 2008.

Non-fiction 4 (YTD 18)
A History of Africa, by J.D. Fage
Understanding English Place-Names, by (Sir) William Addison
J.R.R. Tolkien: a biography, by Humphrey Carpenter
J.R.R. Tolkien: Architect of Middle Earth, by Daniel Grotta

Non-genre 2 (YTD 6)
Saturnalia, by Lindsey Davis
True History of the Kelly Gang, by Peter Carey

SF (non-Who) 9 (YTD 27)
Brasyl, by Ian McDonald
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon
Rollback, by Robert J. Sawyer
The Last Colony, by John Scalzi
The Great War: Breakthroughs, by Harry Turtledove
The Cornelius Quartet: The Final Programme , A Cure for Cancer, The English Assassin, The Condition of Muzak, by Michael Moorcock

Doctor Who 28 (YTD 62)
Doctor Who – The Romans, by Donald Cotton
Doctor Who and the Zarbi, by Bill Strutton
Doctor Who and the Crusaders, by David Whitaker
Doctor Who – The Space Museum, by Glyn Jones
Doctor Who – The Chase, by John Peel
Doctor Who – The Time Meddler, by Nigel Robinson
Doctor Who – The Myth Makers, by Donald Cotton
Doctor Who – Mission to the Unknown, by John Peel
Doctor Who – The Mutation of Time, by John Peel
Doctor Who – The Smugglers, by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet, by Gerry Davis
Doctor Who – The Power of the Daleks, by John Peel
Doctor Who – The Highlanders, by Gerry Davis
Doctor Who – The Underwater Menace, by Nigel Robinson
Doctor Who and the Cybermen, by Gerry Davis
Doctor Who – The Macra Terror, by Ian Stuart Black
Doctor Who – The Faceless Ones, by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Who – The Evil of the Daleks, by John Peel
Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen, by Gerry Davis
Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen, by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors, by Brian Hayles
Doctor Who and the Web of Fear, by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Who – The Wheel in Space, by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Who – The Mind Robber, by Peter Ling
Doctor Who and the Krotons, by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Who – The Seeds of Death, by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Who – The Space Pirates, by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Who and the War Games, by Malcolm Hulke

9,300 pages (YTD 28,900)
1/43 by a woman (YTD 11/118)
None by PoC (YTD 2/118)

I'm not going to be cruel to the books I didn't like this month, and instead will recommed the four best new reads (with a shout out also to Carpenter's Tolkien biography, which you can get here): Donald Cotton's novelisation of the story we now call The Romans, which you can get hereBrasyl, which you can get hereTrue History of the Kelly Gang, which you can get hereCornelius Quartet, which you can get here. When I was tallying books back in 2008, I counted the last of these as one volume, but these days I am tallying them separately.