2007 in Reading

[desayunoencama]

I read 142 books in 2007.

Looking at the past half decade, this was more than last year (125) but less than 2005 (189). A bit less than 2004 (153) and 2003 (164), and almost exactly as many as in 2002 (143).

January was the month I read the most (35) whereas in October I didn't finish a single book, due to a mix of travel, mood, abandoning a few titles, etc. (I've gotten much "better" at giving up on books I'm just not responding to, and setting them aside or giving them away or whatever. Or maybe I'm just bouncing off of certain books or certain kinds of books more easily these days.)

The author I read the most by was Robert Barnard (8 books) with Rosamunde Pilcher next (7) and then Donald Westlake (6), Charlaine Harris (4), and Tamora Pierce (4). Plus lots of books by authors whose oeuvres I've pretty much read everything except the occasional new (or newly found) title, not to mention those authors who may have only published one or three books.

This year I haven't really discovered any new series authors it seems, not like 2005 when I binge read:

12 Charlotte MacLeod
11 Dorothy Gilman
8 Donald Westlake
7 Donna Leon
7 Octavia Butler
7 Holly Black
5 Henning Mankell
5 Sharon Shinn
4 Sara Paretsky
4 Elizabeth A. Lynn

or last year when I discovered Lindsey Davis, Peter Dickinson, Nancy Pickard (8 books), Peter Lovesey, Patricia Cornwell (8 books, and who I'm now thoroughly burned out on).

I wonder if I'll find any new series authors this year.

Comments

[seajay06.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this! Your question regarding new series made me think back (sometimes waaay back!) to some enjoyable binges in the past that in my opinion should not be missed. These would include:

A. E. Maxwell’s crime novels (“…a series of books about a couple named Fiddler and Fiora, all published under the name A.E. Maxwell. The University of California gave one of the books, The Frog and the Scorpion, a creative writing award. Time Magazine named Just Enough Light to Kill, one of the best crime novels of 1988.[4]” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Maxwell#As_A.E._Maxwell)

The Sime-Gyn series by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah (…a future world where humanity has been divided into two "larities"...Gens, who look like ordinary humans and produce excess quantities of a life energy called selyn, and Simes, who have tentacled arms and must take selyn from Gens in order to survive. The epic science fiction series follows the history of the struggle for Simes and Gens to learn to live together without killing one another,… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sime_-_Gen_Universe)

The Darkover Series by Marion Zimmer Bradley (and her novel “The Catch Trap” should not be missed!)

Robert Rimmer’s “The Harrad Experiment” (The recurring theme in all or almost all of Rimmer's writing was a criticism of the assumption of monogamy as a societal norm. All the protagonists in his novels discover that they are happier in arrangements which would nowadays be called "polyamorous" or "polyfidelitous." They explore various ways of organizing life, through laws or other means, to facilitate such relationships. Though the books clearly have a point of view and an agenda, they work because Rimmer knew how to tell a story in a way that holds a reader's interest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rimmer)

Helen Hooven Santmyer’s “…And Ladies of the Club” (The book spans decades in the lives of the women … between 1868 and 1932. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_ladies_of_the_club)

Congratulations on your marriage and many successes in 2007, and may 2008 bring you continued health and happiness!

Jessamine

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions, Jessamine. I have read all of Darkover, and my second professional sale was actually to one of Marion's Darkover anthologies. I've also read the Sime-Gen novels. I didn't know about the A.E. Maxwells, though, and will give them a look if I find a copy. Not sure how available the other titles will be here in Madrid...

Best wishes for the new year to you as well!

[annebrooke.livejournal.com]

Reginald Hill is always worth a go - I'm loving his latest! And the first two books of Susan Hill's Simon Serrailler series are good (though the latest one is rubbish).

A
xxx

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I hate starting a series where I know one of them is going to be garbage, and so soon in the series, it seems!

I did read and very much enjoy one Reginald Hill (comic novel about a black man whose aunt or mother is always trying to fix him up with divorced women from church, etc.), but haven't turned up more of them. I did buy one of his duo novels, but since it's late int eh series I've been waiting to find some earlier volumes....

I've also read only one Colin Dexter, which was fine but nothing special. I do have two more of them, though, in case they grow on me.

I read and enjoyed two of Andrew Taylor's Lydmoth mysteries, and would like to find the others at some point.

[annebrooke.livejournal.com]

Must admit to not liking the Lydmouth series, but most everything else Taylor does is fab! He's also a lovely man and gave me a wonderful review for "A Dangerous Man" (I'd first workshopped it with him, and he was happy to give a review)

:))

A
xxx

You have read Saylor, right?

[lantoniou.livejournal.com]

His Gordianus books of Roman Republican mysteries I find more enjoyable than Davis.

Re: You have read Saylor, right?

[lantoniou.livejournal.com]

Gah, and speaking of reading in chunks, this year's guilty pleasures were the books by Andrew Vachss, who writes cheap, sleazy "injured people go after killers, abusers and molesters and make them pay" crime/revenge novels. Ate 'em like candy; fast reads, very emotionally satisfying and almost completely without transfats.