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.