Posts Tagged ‘lists’

Telegraph’s 110 best books

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

Spotted in The Telegraph today - another attempt to come up with a definitive list of the 100 (plus ten this time, couldn’t they bring it in at a round figure?) books you should be displaying smugly to visitors, or shouldn’t reach retirement age without reading, or whatever it is this time around. Let a thousand flowers bloom, I say.

Still, it does make interesting reading - and I agree with a surprising amount of it, especially the enlightened inclusion of Douglas Adams, Daphne du Maurier, Patrick O’Brian, Arthur Ransome, William Gibson, Dashiell Hammett and Robert Graves. Although calling I, Claudius romantic fiction is going to lead a few people towards disappointment, I feel.

Here’s a link:

From classics and sci-fi to poetry, biographies and books that changed the world… we present the ultimate reading list.

Last 2007 post: books read during that year

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

Summary of books read in 2007 - arranged by genre (68):

* = standout books

Thrillers (8)
The Gardens of the Dead – William Brodrick (July)
The Body Farm – Patricia Cornwell (July)
Sleeper – Paul Adam (October)
The Wine of Angels – Phil Rickman (December) *
Modesty Blaise – Peter O’Donnell (December)
Sabre Tooth – Peter O’Donnell (December)
I, Lucifer - Peter O’Donnell (December)
A Taste for Death - Peter O’Donnell (December)

Crime/Noir/Roman Policier (15)
Darkness In My Hand – Frederic Lindsay (January)
Seeking Whom He May Devour – Fred Vargas (January)
Blacklist – Sara Paretsky (January)
Blue Shoes and Happiness – Alexander McCall Smith (February)
D is for Deadbeat – Sue Grafton (February)
The Endings Man – Frederic Lindsay (March)
The Three Evangelists – Fred Vargas (March) *
E is for Evidence – Sue Grafton (November)
F is for Fugitive – Sue Grafton (November)
G is for Gumshoe – Sue Grafton (November)
H is for Homicide – Sue Grafton (December)
I is for Innocent – Sue Grafton (December)
J is for Judgment – Sue Grafton (December)
K is for Killer – Sue Grafton (December)
The Lamorna Wink – Martha Grimes (December)

Non-fiction (16)
Elizabeth the Great – Elizabeth Jenkins (January)
The Quest for the Golden Hare - Bamber Gascoigne (Re-read) (March) *
Blood, Sweat and Tea: Real Life Adventures in an Inner-City Ambulance - Tom Reynolds (April)
Portrait of a Killer – Patricia Cornwell (April) *
Last Chance to See – Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine (April)
The Assassination of Princess Diana - Noel Botham (May)
Death’s Acre: Inside the legendary Body Farm – Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson (May)
Think On Your Feet: 10 steps to better decision-making and problem solving at work - Jeremy Kourdi (June)
The Ghost of Cock Lane: Murder, sex and haunting in Dr Johnson’s London – Paul Chambers (June) *
GPS for Dummies – Joel McNamara (June)
The Maul and the Pear Tree – PD James and TA Critchley (July) *
Freakonomics – Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner (July)
Love and War in the Apennines – Eric Newby (November) *
Fast Food Nation – Eric Schlosser (December)
An Inconvenient Truth – Al Gore (December)
God’s Englishman: Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution - Christopher Hill (December)

Graphic novels/Books about graphic novels (10)
The Sandman Companion – Hy Bender (January)
The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes – Neil Gaiman et al (March)
The Sandman: The Doll’s House – Neil Gaiman et al (May)
The Sandman: Dream Country (reread) (June)
The Sandman: Season of Mists (September) *
The Sandman: The Dream Hunters (October)
Modesty Blaise: The Gabriel Set-up - Peter O’Donnell and Jim Holdaway (December)
Transmetropolitan: Tales of Human Waste - Warren Ellis et al (December)
Alias - Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos et al (December)
Modesty Blaise: Mister Sun - Peter O’Donnell and Jim Holdaway (December)

Literature (4)
The Mysteries of Udolpho – Ann Radcliffe (April) *
Titus Groan – Mervyn Peake (September) *
Gormenghast – Mervyn Peake (October)
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen (November) *

Contemporary/Literary Fiction (11)
Tales of the City – Armistead Maupin (January) *
Close Range – Annie Proulx (February) *
44 Scotland Street – Alexander McCall Smith (February) *
The Sunday Philosophy Club – Alexander McCall Smith (March)
More Tales of the City – Armistead Maupin (March)
Espresso Tales – Alexander McCall Smith (March)
Further Tales of the City – Armistead Maupin (April)
Don’t Look Now and other stories – Daphne du Maurier (May)
An Instance of the Fingerpost – Iain Pears (August) *
Love Over Scotland – Alexander McCall Smith (September)
Two and a Half Pillars of Wisdom – Alexander McCall Smith (November)

Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Far-Fetched Fiction (3)
Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman (May) *
Farenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury (re-read) (June)
I, Robot – Isaac Asimov (June)

Children’s (1)
Masquerade – Kit Williams (re-read) (March) *