What Sho read in 2011
Created | Updated Jun 11, 2011
Updated on: 11 June 2011.
Carrying on from 2007, 2008, 2009
and
2010
here's what I've been reading in 2011.
And I'm blogging this year too!
The OCD reading list...
Nr | Title | Author | Started | Finished | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
?? | Book title | Author | ??.??.2011 | - | the blurb |
42 | Jeeves in the Offing | PG Wodehouse | 07.06.2011 | - | Ah. Jeeves. Sublime. |
41 | The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism | Naomi Klein | 07.06.2011 | - | How lust for profit drives international intervention. And not in a good way. |
40 | Stasiland: Stories from behind the Berlin wall | Anna Funder | 02.06.2011 | 05.06.2011 | What was it like for the everyday folk of the DDR? Well, some of it was like the stories recounted here. But the book leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Anna, unlike me, seems not to like Germany. She has also got completely the wrong end of the stick about the armbands worn by blind and deaf people (yellow with three black spots) which are there to advise people, not as a badge of their disability as she claims. And ther's too much about her smoking and drinking too much. But the stories - oh my. They made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and that is why it's worth reading. |
39 | The Talisman Ring | Georgette Heyer | 20.05.2011 | 02.06.2011 | Alongside Venitia and An Infamous Army, this book is the one that fans of Georgette Heyer are likely to recommend to anyone wanting to read one of hers and not sure where to try. |
38 | Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another | Philip Ball | 06.04.2011 | 29.05.2011 | What do you get if you cross statistical physics with social sciences? Yes. This. Brilliant. |
37 | The Secret Speech | Tom Rob Smith | 15.05.2011 | 18.05.2011 | A totally brilliant follow-up to Child 44. |
36 | Soul Music | Terry Pratchett | 01.05.2011 | 14.05.2011 | DEATH. My favouritte. But a bit strange, this one. |
35 | Monsieur Pamplemousse | Michael Bond | 13.05.2011 | 14.05.2011 | A re-read about an ex-policeman (from the Sureté) who is now an inspector with a restaurant guide. Featuring is faithful and trusty sidekick Pommes Frites. A retired-police bloodhound. |
34 | Soul Music | Terry Pratchett | 01.05.2011 | 13.05.2011 | Yaayy, DEATH is in this one. But not my favourite one with Death in it. | 33 | Broken | Karin Slaughter | 25.04.2011 | abandoned | Murder. Thriller. We'll see... no, I abandoned it due to rubbishness. |
32 | Let's Parler Franglais! | Miles Kington | 26.03.2011 | 18.04.2011 | A language course - with a difference! |
31 | America Unchained | Dave Gorman | 17.04.2011 | 24.04.2011 | The rationale for the trip was to discover whether it is possible to travel across the USA without ever patronising any corporate or chain-style businesses : i.e. The Man. Thus Dave ate, slept and filled his car in restaurants, hotels and petrol stations which were all independently owned. |
30 | Men at Arms | Terry Pratchett | 08.04.2011 | 17.04.2011 | And on to the next in the Discworld series - the Night Watch gets some new members... |
29 | Critical Mass (how one thing leads to another) | Philip Ball | 06.04.2011 | - | An attempt to show how we can apply the laws of physics to social science. |
28 | The 13th Hour | Richard Doetsch | 31.03.2011 | 08.04.2011 | It's a thriller which involves time-travel and it's told in reverse. And it's rubbish. I will say no more. |
27 | Wallanders Erster Fall | Henning Mankell | 18.03.2011 | 07.04.2011 | After writing 5 or so Wallander novels, Mankell went back and wrote 5 short stories about how Wallender became a detective. |
26 | The Magician's Nephew | CS Lewis | 15.03.2011 | 17.03.2011 | 6th in the Narnia series. Not my favourite. |
25 | Dragon in the Harbour | Rosemary Manning | 11.03.2011 | 14.03.2011 | The last in the series (of 4) about a friendly Cornish dragon. Yes, children's books. |
25 | Breakfast at Tiffanys | Truman Capote | 06.03.2011 | 10.03.2011 | I've read it before and not had any particular opinion on it. I'm trying to be a bit more critical this time. Oh dear. Awful pap. |
24 | The Double Comfort Safari Club | Alexander McCall Smith | 03.03.2011 | 05.03.2011 | The 10th or 11th in the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Most excellent. |
23 | British History for Dummies | Sean Lang | 07.02.2011 | 05.03.2011 | This book is a riotous, irreverent account of the people and events that have shaped Britain. |
22 | Lords and Ladies | Terry Pratchett | 01.03.2011 | 03.03.2011 | This particularly excellent example of Pratchett's Discworld tales tackles the subject of elves. These elves present the image of being cute only to deceive humans. In fact, they are about as agreeable as Hitler's SS. So when a bunch of them decides to crash an entire human kingdom and all its activities, problems arise. |
21 | The Faber Book of Greek Legends | Ed. Kathleen Lines | 23.02.2011 | 01.03.2011 | A collection of Greek myths and legends, written for children. Now I've finished the Percy Jackson series I thought I'd better read some "source material". |
20 | The Tales of Beadle the Bard | JK Rowling | 23.02.2011 | 23.02.2011 | Just a few "folk" tales the muggles didn't know about previously... |
19 | We Didn't Mean to go to Sea | Arthur Ransome | 18.02.2011 | 23.02.2011 | This time the Swallows are on holiday in Norfolk. But they end up sailing accross the North Sea to Holland. Totally spiffing! |
18 | We Need to Talk About Kelvin | Marcus Chown | 06.03.2011 | 20.03.2011 | Still on my Physics kick. and I loved the nod to the other book in this title so I couldn't resist. From the back of the book: Acclaimed popular science writer marcus Chown shows how our everyday world reveals profound truths about the ultimate nature of reality. |
17 | The Horse and His boy | CS Lewis | 15.02.2011 | 18.02.2011 | And the next Narnia book. Number 5 in publication order. |
16 | Endurance - Shakleton's Incredible Voyage | Alfred Lansing | 14.02.2011 | 18.02.2011 | "This fabulous account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's epic adventure re-creates one of the most astonishing feats of exploration and human courage ever recorded." Oh my. It is almost unbelievable what they attempted to do, let alone the fact that every one of them survived. |
15 | Max und Moritz | Wilhelm Busch | 12.02.2011 | 12.02.2011 | One of my books of Classic German Literature that I got for Christmas. It's a series of short poems about the very naughty Max & Moritz who came to a very sticky and final end. |
14 | Powder and Patch | Georgette Heyer | 09.02.2011 | 14.02.2011 | Rather alliteratively (and unsurprisingly given that it is what the author is famous for) it's a Regency Romance. Yayyy. |
13 | God is not Great | Christopher Hitchens | 02.02.2011 | 12.02.2011 | As an atheist I'm interested to see what other atheists have to say about the whole God and Religion theme. I'm reluctant to read Richard Dawkins at the moment because I find his brand of atheism a tad on the firebrand side - a bit, if I may say it 'evangelical'. I bought this with the Amazon gift certificate my workmates gave me. |
12 | Percy Jackson: The Last Olympian | Rick Riordan | 01.02.2011 | 08.02.2011 | The fifth and final installment of the Percy Jackson series where Percy and his friends prepare to do battle with the Titans and the Lord of Time. |
11 | Anansi Boys | Neil Gaimon | 28.01.2011 | 01.02.2011 | What happens to someone's life when their father dies and only then do they find out that he was the god of mischief? |
10 | Lady of Quality | Georgette Heyer | 25.01.2011 | 28.01.2011 | A Regency romance. What's not to like? It was almost unputdownable - only 'almost' because I resisted the temptation to read instead of going to work. It was a close run thing though and now I've ordered my next Georgette Heyer book. Regency Romances are my 'dirty little secret'. |
9 | Reckless | Cornelia Funke | 23.02.2011 | - | This time it's about a brother trying to rescue his younger brother from inside the looking glass. |
8 | Small Gods | Terry Pratchett | 15.01.2011 | 24.01.2011 | Slowly working my way though his output in publication order. I'm nostalgic about my copy of the book as I bought it on a second hand stall in London. This could end up as one of my very favourites of the Discworld novels. |
7 | Mother Tongue | Bill Bryson | 15.01.2011 | 22.01.2011 | I like the way Bryson writes his travel books, and I've heard he's a whizz with the English language so I thought I'd give it a go. This one is 20 years old and it does show. I don't agree with everything he said but it was a really interesting read. I'd like to see him update it now that Germany is reunited and the Internet has made world wide (web) travellers of us all. |
6 | One Day | David Nicholls | 09.01.2011 | 14.01.2011 | You can live your whole life not realising that what you're looking for is right in front of you. |
5 | Witches Abroad | Terry Pratchett | 06.01.2008 | 14.01.2011 | And the next in the Discworld series |
4 | Travels With My Donkey | Tim Moore | 29.12.2010 | 09.01.2011 | Another travel book - this time him, a donkey and the Way of Saint James (Jakobsweg, as I know it) to Santiago de Compostela. Great stuff. And having read that there are people who tackle this walk over a period of years, which is the only way I'm ever getting enough time to do it - I need to get my walking boots on and get practicing. |
3 | Winter Holiday | Arthur Ransome | 29.12.2010 | 05.01.2011 | Next of the Swallows & Amazons, and my favourite of the series. |
2 | Arabian Nights | unknown | 01.01.2008 | - | This was my emergency book in the car for ages, and I've been halfway through it for a couple of years because I've been pretty good about always having a book in my handbag. So I've decided it's time to finish it. I picked it up in the middle of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Pretty bloodthirsty, but good stories. And great for a bedtime book because you can read one little chunk, or a lot. |
1 | Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv Sein Tod | Bastian Sick | 26.12.2007 | - | Yes. It's a book about German grammar. It's fun. It's also currently lost which is why it's been on this page for about 3 years... |
