Reading lists, revised

The reading list system I set up four months ago has been pretty satisfactory. I’m changing it just a bit and also adding a couple more for the rest of this year.

  1. unread sf (excluding Who), in order of entry onto my LibraryThing catalogue:
    1. Appleseed by John Clute
    2. White Crow by Mary Gentle
    3. The Year’s Best Science Fiction Twenty-Second Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois
    4. Irish tales of terror, edited by Jim McGarry
    5. Forbidden Acts, edited by Nancy A. Collins
  2. unread sf (excluding Who), in order of popularity on LibraryThing as a whole:
    1. Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett
    2. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
    3. The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay
    4. The Darkest Road by Guy Gavriel Kay
    5. Kushiel’s Scion by Jacqueline Carey
  3. unread sf (excluding Who), as owned by me before start of this year and previously read by you here:
    1. Fairyland by Paul McAuley
    2. Queen City Jazz by Kathleen Ann Goonan
    3. Appleseed by John Clute
    4. The Best Science Fiction of the Year #4, edited by Terry Carr
    5. Shakespeare’s Planet by Clifford D. Simak
  4. unread fiction other than sf or Ian Rankin, in order of entry onto my LibraryThing catalogue:
    1. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
    2. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
    3. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
    4. Thirteen Steps Down: A Novel by Ruth Rendell
    5. Notre-Dame of Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) by Victor Hugo
  5. unread fiction other than sf or Ian Rankin, in order of popularity on LibraryThing as a whole:
    1. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
    2. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
    3. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
    4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
    5. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
    6. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
  6. unread fiction other than sf or Ian Rankin, as owned by me before start of this year and previously read by you here:
    1. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
    2. Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
    3. Notre-Dame of Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) by Victor Hugo
    4. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
    5. Njal’s Saga by Leifur Eiricksson
  7. non-fiction, in order of entry onto my LibraryThing catalogue:
    1. England’s Troubles : Seventeenth-Century English Political Instability in European Context by Jonathan Scott
    2. The Meaning of Tingo by Adam Jacot de Boinod
    3. The Jesuits by Jonathan Wright
    4. The Two Faces of Islam: Saudi Fundamentalism and Its Role in Terrorism by Stephen Schwartz
    5. Radical Islams Rules: The Worldwide Spread of Extreme Sharia Law by Paul Marshall
  8. non-fiction, in order of popularity on LibraryThing as a whole:
    1. The Stuff of Thought:: Language as a Window into Human Nature by Steven Pinker
    2. Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger
    3. Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould
    4. Untold Stories by Alan Bennett
    5. Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf
  9. non-fiction, as owned by me before start of this year and previously read by you here:
    1. The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, edited by Richard Dawkins
    2. A History of the Middle East by Peter Mansfield
    3. The Great Tradition by F.R. Leavis
    4. Constantinople by Philip Mansel
  10. books I have already read but haven’t reviewed on-line, ranked by LT popularity:
    1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
    2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
    3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
    4. Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
    5. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  11. Hugo-award winning novels which I haven’t previously reviewed on-line, in order of winning the award:
    1. Stand on Zanzibar, by John Brunner
    2. To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer
    3. Where late the sweet birds sang by Kate Wilhelm
    4. The uplift war by David Brin
    5. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
    6. The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
  12. unread Doctor Who books, in order of internal continuity:
    1. Zeta Major by Simon Messingham
    2. Imperial Moon by Christopher Bulis
    3. Doctor Who – Slipback by Eric Saward
    4. Time of Your Life by Steve Lyons
    5. The Algebra of Ice by Lloyd Rose
  13. unread Doctor Who books, in order of LT popularity (changed from previous restriction to just New Series Adventures):
    1. Doctor Who Programme Guide: v. 1 by Jean-Marc Lofficier
      The Nightmare of Black Island by Mike Tucker
    2. Doctor Who: A Celebration : Two Decades Through Time and Space by Peter Haining
    3. Wooden Heart by Martin Day
    4. The Pirate Loop by Simon Guerrier
    5. Nightshade by Mark Gatiss
    6. Cat’s Cradle: Times Crucible by Marc Platt
  14. Ian Rankin novels, in order (NB am expecting Strip Jack to arrive shortly in which case it goes at the head of the list):
    1. The Black Book
    2. Mortal Causes
    3. Let It Bleed
    4. Black and Blue
    5. The Hanging Garden
  15. books owned only by me on LT, in order of entry into my catalogue (NB the first of these has since picked up other owners):
    1. Power & Light (The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny: Volume Two) by Roger Zelazny
    2. Doctor Who Quiz Book #3
    3. "Doctor Who" Void Vision Activity Book
    4. Liberal Language: Speeches and Essays 1998-2003 by Graham Watson
    5. A People’s Peace for Cyprus: Testing public opinion on the options for a comprehensive settlement by Alexandros Lordos
  16. books by PoC, in order of entry into my catalogue:
    1. Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul
    2. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
    3. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
    4. Wild Sweet Love by Beverly Jenkins
    5. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
    6. Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran
  17. New list: books acquired before 2006, not otherwise listed or reviewed:
    1. An Empire of Plants: People and Plants that Changed the World by Toby Musgrave
    2. Islam: A Short History by Karen Armstrong
    3. Wheel Of Engaged Buddhism : New Map Of The Path by Kenneth Kraft
    4. Ta Hsueh and Chung Yung
    5. Mr. Bloomfield’s Orchard : The Mysterious World of Mushrooms, Molds, and Mycologists by Nicholas P. Money
  18. Another new list: books acquired by me since 2005, not otherwise listed or reviewed:
    1. Paris Gold Guide (Bonechi Gold Guides) by Giovanna Magi
    2. Year’s Best SF 6, edited by David G. Hartwell
    3. Year’s Best SF 7, edited by David G. Hartwell
    4. Year’s Best SF 8, edited by David G. Hartwell
    5. Who Saved Bosnia by Vitomir Miles Raguz

Progress, as ever, to be reported here.

One thought on “Reading lists, revised

  1. Did you follow any of the afternoon party we had on Twitter. We even have an ‘internet puppy’ tee-shirt now
    Look for cstross or scalzi. Juliet had a few crisp remarks to contribute as well

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