December/End of 2010

[sweet_sparrow]

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?!

Comments

[sweet_sparrow]

Yay! I'm glad it's behaving itself much better than the other book! ^-^

Huh, maybe she's using the more common names for them and that, somehow, creates the discrepancy? It does sound like it would be confusing, though, I agree!

It's alternative-earth, romantic, adventure fantasy, if memory serves. (It's been a while.) It's definitely different enough from most of the fantasy I've read to use the word 'different' to describe it, though! Which is a convoluted and possibly confusing sentence, but I mean it in a good way. ^-^

(Awww. Pity. Though I shouldn't speak. I spent yesterday making two stacks of books next to my bed to serve as 'go to' books and I still don't have any more space on my shelves than I had before I took them down. o_O)

[scifisentai]

It definitely is. :D It's been a long time since I read any Kellerman so it's a refreshing change.

I don't know, I tend to see Geoffrey of Anjou more. Actually, I don't think I've seen him referred to as Geoffroi anywhere, although admittedly I haven't read extensively in that time period. Margaret/Marguerite is different, that one does tend to go either way, but I would have expected her to stick with Marguerite if she wasn't Anglicising Geoffroi, so who knows. *shrugs*

*nods* Sounds about right. Definitely not something I've seen around much in fantasy, which is partly why I bit the bullet and picked them up. :)

(Heh, isn't that always how it works? ^.^)

[sweet_sparrow]

How very odd! Maybe she's taking the spellings she likes best instead? I hope it gets discussed somewhere in the book, though! I'd love to hear why the names used were chosen!

I'd say that it has more in common with adventure tv-shows and movies ala Jack Hunter, Indiana Jones and Relic Hunter, but then set in magical, alternate Victorian British Empire than the more well-known fantasy books. I hope you'll enjoy them anyhow! ^-^

(It is. And the weirdest part of all is that I haven't had any new books arrive in the house. You'd think moving things from one space to another would create more of it, but apparently not...)

[scifisentai]

I think there was a note about why she was using certain spellings but I don't have the book to hand to find out. :(

*nods* The fantasy genre seems to be expanding in some respects. Other forms of it are becoming more common - like steampunk, for example - and while they might not always be to my personal taste I'm really enjoying the diversity. And thank you, I'm sure I will. I've enjoyed what I've read of her short stories so hopefully I'll enjoy the novels as well.

(Nope. I tend to think of it in terms of Discworld's L-Space, books always managing to fit snugly in the spaces no matter how you rearrange them. Or something along those lines. >.>)

[sweet_sparrow]

But the note does exist! Makes me happy enough to know. ^-^

*nods* This is very, very true. I love the diversity that I'm (slowly) discovering, even if not everything it diversifies into is to my personal taste. I'm happy it exists because diversity is good! ^-^

(Hmmm... I think perhaps if I rearranged my shelves I'd discover some more space,but then I'd have to rearrange them again once I wanted to put the books back. Maybe they sort-of exist in two places at once!)

[scifisentai]

*nods* I think most tend to have some note, though, if only to clarify that they're using modern spellings for names or whatever the case may be. This is the book, by the way, if you're curious.

Definitely. :D And sometimes I surprise myself by enjoying something I hadn't thought I would. :)

(It would not surprise me. Books are tricksy things. ^.^)

[sweet_sparrow]

Notes are fun! ^-^
Oooh... It looks enticing!

That too! Though I can't think of any examples where I've done that right now. >> It's one of the best types of book to me, though. ^-^

(They are that. I should probably move the ones I've had in front of my window into some of the now-empty spaces...)

[scifisentai]

It's not long come out, though, so it's still only in hardback. Give it a few months and it should be out in paperback as well. :)

Agreed! It's a great feeling. :D

(That might make better light for reading by. *blinks innocently*)

[sweet_sparrow]

Oooooh! I like paperbacks! They're easier to carry. ^-^

(*rueful* Sadly not. My reading spot is too far from the window and it doesn't let enough light in nowadays anyhow. Stupid flat stealing my sunlight... *shakes fist at it*)

[scifisentai]

Oh, much easier, definitely. And kinder to the wrists as well. :)

(Ah, well. Worth a try, anyway? ^.^)

[sweet_sparrow]

There is that too. Though hardcovers do have their own appeal too. They're nicest for me when they're shorter books.

(True, true. It'd allow me to open the window better at any rate. Also important.)

[scifisentai]

I like being able to use the covers as bookmarks, especially if I don't have any to hand. :)

(Fresh air is important, too, yes. ^.^)

[sweet_sparrow]

They work as bookmarks? O_O

I make a point of opening my windows a lot, but I worry about my books when the weather is bad. They might get wet!

[scifisentai]

*nods* As long as the book isn't too thick and you have the hardbacks with the covers that slide off then they can double as bookmarks for me.

Ah, yeah, I see the problem with that. :) You definitely don't want books getting wet. :(

[sweet_sparrow]

I've never thought to use dustjackets like that before... But it makes sense to!

[scifisentai]

*grins* I'm just lazy that way. It's much easier than trying to figure out where my bookmark got to this time. :D

[sweet_sparrow]

Heh. You're a little like my mum in that. She's always losing her bookmarks. (Just how she manages it, I don't know.) So now she has a massive stack of my excess promotional bookmarks. ^-^

[scifisentai]

I put them down beside me and they end up vanishing under things. I don't even know how it happens either, it just does. ^.^