Sunday, February 07, 2016

Another year of books

So, these posts seem to get later every year.  Ah well.  If anyone was actually waiting for it, here's the list of books I consumed in 2015.  Pretty much every one a winner.


Amanda Palmer The Art Of Asking
Nick Catford Secret Underground London
Neil Gaiman The Sleeper And The Spindle
Randall Munroe What if?
Harriet Tuckey Everest: The First Ascent
Stuart Maconie Never Mind The Quantocks
George R.R. Martin A Feast For Crows
John Lanchester What We Talk About When We Talk About The Tube (The District Line)
Alistair Maclean The Way To Dusty Death
Phill Jupitus Good Morning Nantwich
George R.R. Martin A Dance With Dragons: Dreams And Dust
George R.R. Martin A Dance With Dragons: After The Feast
Lucy Wadham Heads And Straights (The Circle Line)
Jen Campbell The Bookshop Book
Alistair Maclean Breakheart Pass
Miranda July No One Belongs Here More Than You
Andy Frankham-Allen Companions: Fifty Years Of Doctor Who Assistants
Jasper Rees I Found My Horn
Kitty Ferguson Pythagoras
Simon Okotie Whatever Happened To Harold Absalon?
Sarah Henshaw The Bookshop That Floated Away
John O'Farrell A History Of Capitalism According To The Jubilee Line (The Jubilee Line)
Mark Forsyth The Unknown Unknown
Mike Gayle His 'N' Hers
Julie Gardiner The Blitz

Caught By The River On Nature
William Leith A Northern Line Minute (The Northern Line)
Deborah Cadbury Chocolate Wars
Genevieve Cogman The Invisible Library
Anna Hughes Eat Sleep Cycle: A Bike Ride Around The Coast Of Britain
Mick Conefrey How To Climb Mont Banc In A Skirt
Brian Viner Cream Teas, Traffic Jams And Sunburn - The Great British Holiday
Julian May The Many Coloured Land
Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen The Science Of Discworld IV: Judgement Day
J. B. Morrison Frank Derrick's Holiday Of A Lifetime
Sophie Neville The Making Of Swallows & Amazons
Dave Gorman Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure (Abridged)
Jon Ronson The Men Who Stare At Goats
Camila Batmanghelidjh & Kids Company Mind The Child (The Victoria Line)
Julian May The Golden Torc
Warren Elsmore Brick City: Lego For Grown Ups
Florence Williams Breasts. A Natural And Unnatural History
Melvyn Bragg The Book Of Books
Margalit Fox Riddle Of The Labyrinth: The Quest To Crack An Ancient Code
Dan Brown Inferno
Richard Mabey A Brush With Nature
Magnus Anderson & Rebecca Levene Grand Thieves & Tomb Raiders – How British Video Games Conquered The World
Philippe Parreno Drift (The Hammersmith & City Line)
Charles Schulz Waiting For The Great Pumpkin
Julian May The Non-Born King
Charles Schulz Snoopy's Thanksgiving
Magnus Mills A Cruel Bird Came To The Nest And Looked In
Jerry Brotton A History Of The World In Twelve Maps
Julian May The Adversary
Peter York The Blue Riband (The Piccadilly Line)

Lemmy with Janiss Garza White Line Fever
John Scalzi How I Proposed To My Wife: An Alien Sex Story
John Scalzi An Election


Probably not as much "diversity" as might have been hoped for after this post about attempting to widen out horizons, although things look better when you realise that Julian May is female...  The favourite of the year was Sophie Neville's account of the making of the Swallows and Amazons film - I have always loved the film as much as the books and so wish they had made more.  Hopefully the forthcoming new adaptation will lead to sequels (although I am not holding my breath, and am worried about plot changes I have seen bit of).  Oh, and although we got to meet Sophie at a screening of the film a few weeks after I read the book, it would still have been my favourite of the year.

I've still got one book left from the Penguin box set commemorating 150 years of the London Underground, and the second tranche of Julian May's Pliocene/Galactic Mileu saga to read but otherwise no plans for particular authors or subjects this year.  Just whatever is on the shelf and takes my fancy.  (Which can be interpreted as me trying not to buy too many new books this year and cut down on the unread ones I already own, but the chances of that working are slim).