2005 in books

Finally, here's the summary of reading for 2005.

Books read: 101
Total pages: 36,369
Average rating: 6.75
Pages per day: 99.7
Days per book: 3.61

I read seven more books this year than last year, and about 2,000 more pages. Other than that, 2005's reading looked very much like 2004 in quantity and pace. I'm almost at 100 pages a day. I think I'm going to keep aiming for 100 books a year; this seems to be a comfortable pace. (Although there are many more graphic novels that I want to read, and if I end up reading quite a few of those, that will increase the book count.)

The biggest accomplishment for the year was finishing reading all of the Hugo award winners for best novel. I think that may be why my average book rating is slightly down from last year; I pushed through reading some books that I wasn't as fond of. I'm not sure if I'm going to finish off another award series this year, but I might; the Nebulas or the Tiptrees are possibilities.

The best book I read last year was Lady of Mazes by Karl Schroeder, which is one of the best hard SF novels I've ever read. A close second is Vellum by Hal Duncan, an amazing debut novel and one that pulls off some techniques that should have made me hate the book and instead made me love it. Other notable and recommended books read last year are Thomas the Rhymer (Ellen Kushner), The Last Light of the Sun (Guy Gavriel Kay), Only Forward (Michael Marshall Smith), The Player of Games (Iain M. Banks), and Anansi Boys (Neil Gaiman). The mainstream novel find of the year was The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst, although I didn't read much mainstream. The non-fiction find was David Langford, whose collections of essays and reviews are very much worth reading.

Nearly all my reading this year, 83 books, was SF. Of those, 11 were recently published notable books and another 51 were genre classics of one variety or other (mostly award winners of some kind). I read 7 non-SF novels or short-story collections, 3 graphic novels, and 8 non-fiction books (3 of which were book review collections or writing about SF). As much as I like making my way through the award winners, I'd like to change that balance a little, reading more non-fiction and more non-SF (and probably more graphic novels as well).

Posted: 2006-01-06 20:07 — Why no comments?

100 pages per day works out to sound quite nice! Good job. I just finished a book that is hot off the press which I enjoyed and can't stop thinking about. The book is "The Fall of Lucifer", written by Wendy Alec. This book is fictional, but very intriguing. It was packed full with biblical truths, and explained them in a unique but penetrating way.

The book opens with the three Angelic brothers, Lucifer, Michael and Gabriel, in heaven before the fall. Over the course of the book, the essence of the angels is developed. The controversy arises when God created man to be higher than the angels, in that we are created in the image of God. Lucifer was embittered to the point of rebellion.

Various historical events are incorporated, and the plot offers the perspective of an angel into the events. The novel develops the beauty of heaven and the grotesque quality of hell, the depths of evil, and the beauty of grace. It communicates these themes through beautiful imagery and an intriguing plot. The beautiful imagery would make for amazing scenery!

This is a fast read, 300-page novel that is consuming to the imagination and penetrating to the heart. I hope they make this book into a movie. It would be amazing. If you have time, I hope you enjoy it!

Posted by Lin at 2006-01-11 00:19

Last spun 2022-02-06 from thread modified 2013-01-04