Unread books from 2005

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:




















































































































































































































































































































































































































God’s Clockmaker John North 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
Daughter of the Drow Elaine Cunningham 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
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee Dee Brown 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
An intimate history of humanity Theodore Zeldin 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
800 Years of Womens Letters Olga Kenyon 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
Wilt In Nowhere Tom Sharpe 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
Shadowkings Michael Cobley 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 Golden Transcendence John C. Wright 2008
The English: A Portrait of a People Jeremy Paxman 2008
The Duke And I Julia Quinn 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
The Stories of Elizabeth Spencer 2009
Cities of salt Abd al-Rahman Munif 2009
The Devil’s Highway Luis Alberto Urrea 2009
The Enchanted Isles K.C. Flynn 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
   
The Man in the Iron Mask Alexandre Dumas 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 (The Year’s Best Science Fiction Twenty-Second Annual Collection ed. by Gardner Dozois, Irish tales of terror ed. by Jim McGarry, Forbidden Acts ed. by Nancy A. Collins, Seasons of Plenty by Colin Greenland, Mother of Plenty by Colin Greenland, The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe, Visions of Wonder ed. by David G. Hartwell, Thunderbirds Bumper Storybook by Dave Morris, The Two Faces of Islam by Stephen Schwartz, Radical Islams Rules by Paul Marshall, Analog 6 ed. by John W Campbell, Earth Logic by Laurie J. Marks, Untold Stories by Alan Bennett, Half-life of a Zealot by Swanee Hunt and The Space Opera Renaissance ed. by David G. Hartwell). Will report back when I have finished them.

One thought on “Unread books from 2005

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

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