books | December/End of 2010

December/End of 2010

Hi, all! I hope everyone's been having a good month and that those who celebrate anything this month have had a wonderful time with their respective feasts too! I also hope I'm not offending one with the phrasing here. Please let me know how to do it better?

I know it's not quite the end of December yet, but I won't be getting any more books finished before the end of the year. (At least I'm pretty sure of this. Any reading in these coming few days that I aim to do is The Tale of Genji and seeing how I'm not even half-way through that and getting this far took me almost the entire year... No way I'll finish before the end of 2010.)

What've you been reading in December? Have you had time to read? What have your favourites of the month or year been? (I was actually considering making another post for the best-of-2010 sometime in early January. Thoughts?) Do you think you'll finish another novel before 2011 and do you have any plans for next year's reading?

I'm still at least knee-deep in finishing my essays for university, but I got a surprising amount of reading done. Nineteen books or thereabouts! I've only managed to review six of them, though. I've also abandoned more books this single month than I've managed to do in the entire year, I think.

My favourite of December was After by Amy Efaw. It hit just the right note for me and I thought it was incredibly powerful. My biggest disappointment was A Concise Chinese-English Dictonary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo. I just didn't get along with the characters at all, so the story fell apart.

- Highway Robbery by Kate Thompson
– War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
– Beastly by Alex Flinn
– Bang, Bang, You’re Dead! by Narinder Dhami
- The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson (dnf)
- Another Faust by Daniel Nayeri & Dina Nayeri (dnf)
- Aurelia by Anne Osterlund (dnf)
- Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs (dnf)
- The Description of Wales by Geraldus Camenbrensis
- Fairest by Gail Carson Levine (dnf)
- Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (dnf)
- Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki
- The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
- They Called it Passchendaele by Lyn MacDonald
- Winter Rose by Patricia McKillip (reread)
- The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope (reread)
- An Earthly Knight by Janet McNaughton (reread)
- Dark Lord Seeks Friendship, Maybe More by Elisa Viperas (dnf)
- Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett

For 2011, I've made a stack (well, two) of books that I'd like to try and get read. We'll see how it goes. I'll probably get distracted, but the stack is there at any rate.

Lastly, is anyone interested in end-of-year book polls? I used to post them yearly on LJ when I could make polls there and had a blast with them. For those unfamiliar with the idea: you make a ticky box poll of all the books you've read in the year and see how many people you've never met have read the same books (at some point in their life or that year, but the former seems more popular). It's like a big, interactive meme basically. (Mine for this year is here if you'd like to see how the poll can work. Apologies for the mini-plug, but I've no idea how to give an example without it.^-^; ) If people are interested, we could perhaps either all share links to our polls or make a post that collects them all in the comments or some such?

Hope everyone is well and having a great time! Soon another year'll be over. O_O Where did it go?!

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What've you been reading in December?
^four queens: the provencal sisters who ruled europe by nancy bazelon goldstone
^the essential bond: the authorized guide to the world of 007 by l. pfeiffer & d. worrall
the family vault by charlotte macleod
^four seasons in rome by anthony doerr
^magical worlds of harry potter by david colbert
^the fossil trail: how we know what we think we know about human evolution by ian tattersall (gave up part-way through)
Have you had time to read?
yes
What have your favourites of the month or year been?
i'm leaning towards four seasons in rome
(I was actually considering making another post for the best-of-2010 sometime in early January. Thoughts?)
i say go ahead
Do you think you'll finish another novel before 2011 and do you have any plans for next year's reading?
no. i just started caesar's women by colleen mccullough, so unless i read for 24 hours a day it's not happening.
i won't be keeping track of my books next year like i did this year. too much of a bother.

Butting in, sorry, but how was Four Queens? I have it on my to-read list and I'm curious as to what you thought of it.

But- but- Conversation is good! ^-^ By all means butt in anywhere you like. ^-^

(And I have to say that book sounds quite interesting. *makes note*)

*grins* Agreed, but I sometimes feel awkward randomly asking questions of people I don't actually know, so I end up prefacing everything with apologies. :)

(It really does. :) It's a fascinating period of history to me anyway and I like reading around it, seeing another side to the period as opposed to focusing only what the kings were up to at the time. ^.^)

This is very true! (And I share the sentiment, actually.)

(Ooooh... My history lessons are... patchy, at best. It's not that I was bad at it, but just that it's so much facts and information to remember. I never got the hang of it. Every now and again, I read something to try and fill in some gaps again. ^-^)

It's awwwkward. Public posts in comms are one thing but initiating conversation with people is not something I'm always good at. >.>

Heh, I loved my history classes but I always found it frustrating that history lessons are so narrowly focused. :( Between the ages of 13-21 I studied the first and second world wars almost exclusively and I'm still irritated that I never got to study the English Civil War at university. So anything concerning, well, any other time period really is something you have to go look for yourself and some periods get more attention than others.

It iiiis! It's also scary as heck. (I'm still reeling of pride that I managed to actually speak up in class this semester.)

This is definitely true! We get a relatively decent coverage of historical periods in our schools. (I'm Dutch.) But it's a trade-off between a narrower focus with more depth and a wider focus and less depth. (Also, we still repeat the later periods several years in a row. They seem to be shifting focus towards that and it's such a shame...)

Edited (fixed silly typo. >>) 2010-12-30 21:49 (UTC)

Definitely. :D Although I keep telling myself I can't keep waiting for people to talk to me if I don't also make an effort, so. >.>

Hm, I think of the two I'd prefer the wider focus approach, because then you can always fill in the blanks, so to speak, whereas the narrower focus doesn't always reflect what else is out there. (Gah, I know that feeling. I think the last time I studied a time period that wasn't the 20th century was probably when I was in primary school. Well, aside from a couple of modules at university anyway, but that ratio sucks. -_-)

Such a conundrum. *offers hug* I always find it hard to make that effort. (I know it might not seem it at the moment.)

*nods* Definitely true. My favourite periods in history class were the prehistoric eras and the chapter we had on Chinese history. It was... like a plane-flight view rather than a bird's eye view of ancient China, but it was there! (T-T My secondary school final topics consisted of 'The Vietnam War' and 'The Industrial Revolution in Lancashire'. I kid you not. The module really was that specific. It branched out a little, but mostly it was Lancashire. Complete with topography!)

*takes the hug quite happily* I should probably make more effort though. I hardly post on lj anymore and I really need to branch out more over here on dw. :)

You got to do Chinese history? *is envious* None of my classes were anywhere near that interesting. The Industrial Revolution module makes me laugh, though. Was there anything specific about Lancashire that it was the sole focus?

I need to pluck up the courage to subscribe to people here...

Only for a few weeks, but we did. It was the most interesting history module we did, too. (Most of our own history got side-noted quite often in favour of the rest of the continent, too.)

If I remember right it was because it was the cradle of the whole Industrial Revolution, but my memory may exaggerate its importance. It did widen its focus at points, especially nearer the end, but mostly it was all about Lancashire. If I could get at the book, I'd check for you, but I've no idea where it is. :(

*grins* Me too. It doesn't help, I think, that my posts tend to be fandom-specific and those fandoms are fairly small so I generally think that people from outside them won't be interested.

*nods* I bet it was. :) And that sidelining must have been frustrating. :(

Oh, not a problem. :) But thank you, anyway. :)

And wow, I'm clearly overusing the emoticons now. Sorry.

I can see how that would be less than useful, yes. :( Which fandoms are they if I can ask? ^-^

Not particularly. Other countries have far more interesting histories attached to them and we covered pretty much anything that struck me as interesting at some point. (Patriotism, I have it not, no.)

^-^

Heh. I always overuse them. (I just edit some out whenever I notice.) No apologies necessary. ^-^

Japanese live action shows. The Super sentai series, Kamen Rider and Ultraman. The one I just finished watching being this one, which I loved madly because the characters between them hit pretty much every character kink I have. *grins* I have a weakness for pretty people saving the world, this probably partially explains why I love the scifi genre so much on tv, even though I don't watch it as much as I used to.

Heh, I think a lot of European history is a complete mess in terms of how alliances and so on were always shifting, but I'm more familiar with the English/Scottish/French/Spanish aspect than anywhere else, admittedly.

*grins* Okay, fair enough. :) I do try not to abuse them so much but I don't always succeed.

Heh. I don't watch enough Japanese live action shows myself. (But then I don't really watch a lot of tv anymore, period.)

It is, but we never really got much of that in our classes. (You'd despair, though, over how many of my tutoring students confuse the alliances in the modern era. It is... disheartening.)

It's so easy to abuse the poor things...

I don't watch tv much myself anymore, either. I have no patience for waiting week to week for episodes anymore, let alone seasons that end on cliffhangers so I tend to wait for the seasons to be over so I can marathon them at my leisure. :)

I can believe that. :( One of my friends is a teacher and some of the things she says about what the students don't know is depressing. :(

It really, really is. And now I'm going to have to call it a night, unfortunately. I'll reply to the rest in the morning. :)

It's so much more sensible an approach. ^-^

It really, really is depressing. (I've had kids tell me that the allied forces consisted of America, Britain and Germany. I just... Depressing is the right word for it.)

G'night! Sweet dreams! (I should be going to bed too, but I'm a compulsive replier...)

Oh definitely. :) I think there are things to be said in favour of watching as episodes air but for me they don't outweigh the negatives so marathoning it afterwards works much better for me. :)

*facepalms* And Germany? The mind, it boggles. o_O

(Heh, me too. :D)

True, true. I much prefer watching the episodes at my convenience, too.

To be fair, that's the exception rather than the rule. Usually, if they mix it up, they mix up the names of the alliances, not the countries in them.

*nods* It's better for me, but it probably doesn't help ratings much. :) Ah well, at least it helps on dvd sales instead? >.>

That's a little less depressing at least. :)

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sweet_sparrow - 2010-12-31 21:31 (UTC) - Expand

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scifisentai - 2010-12-31 21:34 (UTC) - Expand

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sweet_sparrow - 2010-12-31 21:44 (UTC) - Expand

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scifisentai - 2011-01-01 11:49 (UTC) - Expand

i liked it. it's interesting, i think, to see how women could influence history despite having little power themselves. if that makes ses.ne

*nods* That was why I bought it in the first place so I'm glad it's a good read. Thank you. :)

Sounds like a high focus on non-fiction. I hope you've enjoyed it and found them worth your time! ^-^

How've you been keeping track of your reading this year? I keep track in a spreadsheet myself. Or I try to anyway. ^-^

i was surprised that it ended up being mostly non-fiction this month, but that's how the reading pile worked out.

as for keeping track, nothing fancy. just added them to the list i had going on my journal when i was done.
http://archersangel.dreamwidth.org/22599.html

Sometimes it does that. ^-^

Ooooh. Nice little list! Though I can see how it might be troublesome to keep up throughout the year. *pokes her own list* I know I forgot to add books...

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