Back in late 2005, I entered all the books on our shelves into LibraryThing, and tagged 133 of them as “unread”, ie hoping that I would read them some day. Well, that day has arrived; I have read 122 of them, and will not read the other 11. (Why not? Well, three were ebooks on my Palm T|X when it finally gave up the ghost – I think they were all short stories or extracts anyway, so probably shouldn’t have counted. Two of them I just can’t find, but will read if they ever show up. Three are from series of books that I do not feel I need to rea any more of – the Alexander McCall Smith books, and E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith’s Lensman books. Two I gave up on before starting, when I realised that they were academic works too specialised for my tastes or interest. And one I realised I had in fact already read.)
Of the 122 which I have in fact read, I got through 41 in 2006, 39 in 2007, 24 in 2008 and the last 18 in 2009. (Those figures include 10 that I started but gave up on.) The full list, with font size adjusted for how much I liked them, is as follows:
2006 | |
Anansi Boys Neil Gaiman | 2006 |
Shutterbug Follies Jason Little | 2006 |
First Man: the Life of Neil Armstrong James Hansen | 2006 |
Little Women Louisa May Alcott | 2006 |
Learning the World Ken MacLeod | 2006 |
Hidden Camera Zoran Živković | 2006 |
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire Amanda Foreman | 2006 |
Alexander Hamilton Ron Chernow | 2006 |
Malachy Brian Scott | 2006 |
A hat full of sky Terry Pratchett | 2006 |
Alternate Generals Harry Turtledove | 2006 |
The triumph of the West J. M. Roberts | 2006 |
The Prisoner Thomas M Disch | 2006 |
The Complete Enchanter L.Sprague De Camp | 2006 |
Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams M.J. Simpson | 2006 |
Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro | 2006 |
Galactic Patrol E. E. Smith | 2006 |
The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane | 2006 |
The lady of the shroud Bram Stoker | 2006 |
The Wreck of the River of Stars Michael Flynn | 2006 |
Southern Fire Juliet McKenna | 2006 |
Persuasion Jane Austen | 2006 |
The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy | 2006 |
Beloved Toni Morrison | 2006 |
The System of the World Neal Stephenson | 2006 |
The lovely bones Alice Sebold | 2006 |
Villette Charlotte Bronte | 2006 |
The color purple Alice Walker | 2006 |
Star songs of an old primate James Tiptree | 2006 |
The Reader Bernhard Schlink | 2006 |
This Was Not Our War Swanee Hunt | 2006 |
The great English pilgrimage Christopher Donaldson | 2006 |
The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon | 2006 |
Crooked little heart Anne Lamott | 2006 |
Lord Jim Joseph Conrad | 2006 |
Notes From a Small Island Bill Bryson | 2006 |
Joan of Arc: the image of female heroism Marina Warner | 2006 |
The Art of War Sun Tzu | 2007 |
The Secret Visitors James White | 2007 |
The Mill on the Floss George Eliot | 2007 |
Spin State Chris Moriarty | 2007 |
Master of Earth and Water Diana L. Paxson | 2007 |
In Search of the Dark Ages Michael Wood | 2007 |
After Dinner Speaking Fawcett Boom | 2007 |
The Search for Roots Primo Levi | 2007 |
Blindness Jose Saramago | 2007 |
The Way to Babylon Paul Kearney | 2007 |
The Epic of Gilgamesh | 2007 |
The Druid King Norman Spinrad | 2007 |
The Age of Kali William Dalrymple | 2007 |
Islam in Azerbaijan Arif Yunusov | 2007 |
Sailing to Sarantium Guy Gavriel Kay | 2007 |
The True Knowledge of Ken MacLeod | 2007 |
Gilead Marilynne Robinson | 2007 |
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies Alexander McCall Smith | 2007 |
The Mabinogion Jeffrey Gantz | 2007 |
Wild Swans Jung Chang | 2007 |
The Stories of Hans Christian Andersen | 2007 |
Three to see the king Magnus Mills | 2007 |
Once in a Blue Moon Magnus Mills | 2007 |
The Discovery of the Germ John Waller | 2007 |
What Ifs? Of American History | 2007 |
Last and First Men Olaf Stapledon | 2007 |
Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century Mark Leonard | 2007 |
The Kalahari typing school for men Alexander McCall Smith | 2007 |
Blind Voices Tom Reamy | 2007 |
The Shore of Women Pamela Sargent | 2007 |
The full cupboard of life Alexander McCall Smith | 2007 |
Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey | 2007 |
The Happy Prince and Other Tales Oscar Wilde | 2007 |
Athens-Skopje: An Uneasy Symbiosis Evangelos Kofos | 2007 |
Μακεδονία (Macedonia): A Greek Name in Modern Usage | 2007 |
Democratisation in Southeast Europe Dusan Pavlovic | 2007 |
Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany | 2007 |
Endgame in Ireland Eamonn Mallie | 2008 |
National Lampoon’s Doon Ellis Weiner | 2008 |
No great mischief Alistair MacLeod | 2008 |
Trillion year spree Brian Wilson Aldiss | 2008 |
Wandering Stars: An Anthology of Jewish Fantasy and Science Fiction | 2008 |
The embarrassment of riches Simon Schama | 2008 |
Great War Breakthroughs Harry Turtledove | 2008 |
The Cornelius Quartet Michael Moorcock | 2008 |
The Prince of Tides Pat Conroy | 2008 |
Kosova Express James Pettifer | 2008 |
The Phoenix Exultant John C. Wright | 2008 |
The Conquest of Gaul Julius Caesar | 2008 |
Peace Gene Wolfe | 2008 |
Teranesia Greg Egan | 2008 |
The pilgrim’s regress C. S Lewis | 2008 |
The Faded Sun Trilogy C. J. Cherryh | 2008 |
The Ill-Made Mute Cecilia Dart-Thornton | 2008 |
The English: A Portrait of a People Jeremy Paxman | 2008 |
Astra and Flondrix Seamus Cullen | 2008 |
Sunrise Alley Catherine Asaro | 2008 |
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 Tony Judt | 2008 |
Fortunata and Jacinta Benito Perez Galdos | 2009 |
The go-between L. P. Hartley | 2009 |
The Road from Coorain Jill Ker Conway | 2009 |
Rocks of Ages Stephen Jay Gould | 2009 |
Red Branch Morgan Llywelyn | 2009 |
Jennie Paul Gallico | 2009 |
Resurrection Leo Tolstoy | 2009 |
Music & silence Rose Tremain | 2009 |
Cities of salt Abd al-Rahman Munif | 2009 |
The Devil’s Highway Luis Alberto Urrea | 2009 |
Misspent Youth Peter F. Hamilton | 2009 |
Hotel Rwanda: Bringing the True Story of an African Hero to Film | 2009 |
Sacred Visions Andrew M. Greeley | 2009 |
Appleseed John Clute | 2009 |
England’s Troubles Jonathan Scott | 2009 |
White Crow Mary Gentle | 2009 |
lost with Palm T|X | |
The Prisoner of Chillon James Patrick Kelly | lost with Palm T|X |
Dreams of the Compass Rose [Excerpt] Vera Nazarian | lost with Palm T|X |
Quidditch through the ages J. K. Rowling | lost |
The Bessarabian Question in Communist Historiography Wim P. Van Meurs | lost |
The Sunday Philosophy Club Alexander McCall Smith | gave up on series |
Grey Lensman E. E. Doc Smith | gave up on series |
Second Stage Lensmen E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith | gave up on series |
Science Fiction and Postmodern Fiction: A Genre Study Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz | decided it was not for me |
The revolution of the saints Michael Walzer | decided it was not for me |
Battle of Forever A E Van Vogt | realised I had already read it |
There are currently 15 books on my shelf tagged “unread” and acquired during the calendar year 2006, mostly sf anthologies (

I heartily second the recommendation for The Stolen Village! I read it on Micholas’ recommendation & found it fascinating.