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).

Dangerous Reading

Swallowdale
Originally uploaded by The original SimonB

We watched the first part of choir-master Gareth Malone's new TV series last night - the Dangerous School For Boys. A fairly laudible attempt to improve the literacy levels of primary school boys who are lagging behind the girls across the country. He has taken over the boys from two year groups at an Essex primary school and is attmpting to get them more engaged with each other and the contents of books, poems etc with the aim of boosting the overall reading age by six months in the space of 8 weeks.

It looked like an interesting project, and what he has done so far did appear to be helping towards self confidence and expression for most of the lads involved. There was some negativity from the teachers, but I do feel he will be hampered mostly by the parents of the boys if anyone is going to drag the work down.

Now I know that when I was that age there were only three tv channels and all we had in the way of a computer was a ZX81, which when compared to the amount and quality of distractions available today may as well not have even existed. But the few parental interviews we saw appeared to back up the theory expressed by the boys themselves that reading and writing is boring. My view at that age was the polar opposite.

The first time my Mum pushed me into town in the pram she called in at the Library and I got my first membership card at less than a month old, never looking back. I would read and read all the time from as soon as I could get through a book on my own. In fact our primary school had "infant" and "junior" libraries and I was into the junior one a year or more before being old enough.

Yes I still watched tv, yes I played about on the computer, but there was always a book waiting for me. From Thomas the Tank Engine through Arthur Ransome and on to WIllard Price and more I have no idea how many books I devoured and re-read countless times before the age of 11.

Maybe it was parents and teachers who encouraged me, maybe I was just naturally a reader, but that's what I did whenever I had a spare moment. Which is why although I will watch the rest of the series, I'm not sure I'll be able to fully understand why those youngsters don't read.

Left on the shelf

Left on the shelf
Originally uploaded by The original SimonB

As I have now found time to sort out the stats, here are the the surprising number of books I managed to get through last year. Those marked * were audio, which I get through on the way to work, when travelling to meetings or site visits etc which helps the total numbers no end!

A few comments to add along the way, and more on some of the others another day. Oh, and these are in order of finishing them which may go some way to explaining how there are groups of audio or paper together at random. Some weeks I just don't have time for one type or the other.

Ian Fleming - Goldfinger
David Eddings - Enchanter's End Game* (the series wrapped over the year break)
Gareth Roberts - Doctor Who: I Am A Dalek
Stuart Maconie - Pies And Prejudice
Martin Wainwright - Morris Minor: The Biography
David Eddings - Guardians Of The West*
J. K. Rowling - The Tales Of Beedle The Bard (I came to the Potter books after being talked into a group outing to see the first film and while I found the series quite derivative and the later books full of padding did enjoy them)
David Quantick - Grumpy Old Men On Holiday
Andy Summers - One Train Later (possibly the best music book I have yet encountered)
David Eddings - King Of The Murgos*
Ian Fleming - For Your Eyes Only
David Eddings - Demon Lord Of Karanda*
Bill Watterson - There's Treasure Everywhere (Calvin and Hobbes is the greatest comic strip ever created and while I applaud Watterson for dropping out rather than be mega-exploited I'd kill for some more)
Bill Bryson - Neither Here Nor There
David Eddings - Sorceress Of Darshiva*
David Eddings - Seeress Of Kell*
Bill Watterson - It's A Magical World
Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine - Last Chance To See* (Thought I had best re-visit this one before the Stephen Fry tv series aired)
Bram Stoker - Dracula (this was read in deliberate preparation for Paul Bibeau below)
David & Leigh Eddings - Belgarath The Sorcerer*
Andrew Collins - That's Me In The Corner
Mike Tucker - Doctor Who: The Nightmare Of Black Island (I have no problem with tv tie-ins if the story is gripping enough)
Mike Mullane - Riding Rockets
Ian Fleming - Thunderball (you may have picked up a pattern by now - more in a future post on this)
David & Leigh Eddings - Polgara The Sorceress*
Tim Fountain - Rude Britannia
David & Leigh Eddings - The Rivan Codex (Couldn't get this in audio so had to actually read it myself!)
Bob Kane et al - The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told Vol 2 (along with C&H I started to go back over comic collections as an alternative to magazines to accompany my breakfasts)
Paul Bibeau - Sundays With Vlad
Terry Brooks - First King Of Shannara*
Stephen Cole - Doctor Who: The Art Of Destruction
Nigel Slater - Toast
Ian Fleming - The Spy Who Loved Me
Jeremy Clarkson - Don't Stop Me Now
Terry Brooks - The Sword Of Shannara*
Terry Brooks - The Elfstones Of Shannara*
Bob Kane et al - Batman Vs The Riddler & Two-Face
Kim Stanley Robinson - The Years Of Rice & Salt (a hard slog but worth it)
Terry Brooks - The Wishsong Of Shannara*
Giles Chapman & Richard Porter - Top Gear: My Dad Had One Of Those (these were "Breakfast books" as well)
Don Hale - Mallard
Colin Brake - Doctor Who: The Price Of Paradise
Terry Pratchett - The Colour Of Magic*
Matt Master - Top Gear's Midlife Crisis Cars
Andrew Collins - Where Did It All Go Right?*
Terry Pratchett - The Light Fantastic*
Ben Fogle - The Teatime Islands
David Eddings - The Diamond Throne*
Ian Fleming - On Her Majesty's Secret Service
David Eddings - The Ruby Knight*
Bill Bryson - A Walk In The Woods
David Eddings - The Sapphire Rose*
Brian Augustyn et al - Batman: Gotham By Gaslight
Terry Pratchett - Equal Rites*
Peter Ashley - Pubs And Inns
Bruce Sterling - Schismatrix Plus
Terry Brooks - The Scions Of Shannara*
Terrance Dicks - Doctor Who: Made Of Steel
Terry Brooks - The Druid Of Shannara*
Richard Fortey - Dry Store Room No. 1
Terry Brooks - The Elf Queen Of Shannara*
Alan Witton - ECW Buses And Coaches (As made in Lowestoft, and a crying shame that the factory was replaced by a retail park)
Ian Fleming - You Only Live Twice
Tim Fitzhigham - In The Bath
Frank Miller et al - Batman: Year One
Mike Barr et al - Batman: Year Two
Terry Brooks - The Talismans Of Shannara*
Terry Pratchett - Mort*
Eric Clapton - The Autobiography* (read by Bill Nighy, who has the right sort of voice for the job, but I can't get the hang of something as personal as an autobiography not being read by the author!)
Jacquline Rayner - Doctor Who: The Last Dodo
Charlotte Morgan & Stan Fowler - The Little Book Of Camper Van
Richard Porter - Top Gear: Crap Cars
Simon Schama - A History of Britain I: At the Edge of the World? - 3000 BC-AD 1603*
Christopher Winn - I Never Knew That About London
Neil Oliver - Coast: From The Air
Dan Kieran & Ian Vince - Three Men In A Float (Lowestoft to Land's End in a milk float, absolutely hilarious!)
Simon Schama - A History of Britain II: British Wars 1603-1776*
Brian Minchin - Torchwood: The Sin Eaters* (I took an audio break for a month after this due to being in Canada and having no guaranteed listening time)
Ian Fleming - The Man With The Golden Gun (and so we end the year where we came in...)