Deckchairs

Deckchairs

Quote

The true university these days is a collection of books.
-Thomas Carlyle

Thursday 1 January 2009

Looking back and looking forward...


It is the time of year that lists are compiled, resolutions, plans, and this blog is no exception as I recap 2008 and plan for 2009.
2008 was monumental in itself because I started this blog in May which has opened me up to a whole new world of fellow readers across the world. I also went to Hay-on Wye, the English Second Hand book capital, and also heard Simon Armitage live at the Liverpool Literary Festival.
2008 Acquisitions (the ones I've read are in blue to link to the review)
Hay-on-Wye - Bold
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
A Haiku Anthlogy
Won on 2 giveaways -
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski from Book Group Girl
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows from A Readers Respite
Bought from Reid of Liverpool-
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Rebbecca by Daphne du Maurier
Bought from The Amorous Cat-
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
Bought elsewhere-
Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier
Humourous Haiku
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Lent to me by friends-
We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Gathering by Anne Enright
Presents-
An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Inventing the Abbotts by Sue Miller
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini
The Memory Garden by Rachel Hove
Three Jacobean Witchcraft Plays
Favourite Books-
And so to 2009...
I am a very slow reader and would find it almost impossible to adequately attempt any of the challenges that other bloggers take part in. I am, however, going to try 2 personal challenges next year.
1) To finally read Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd which has been sitting unread on my shelf for over 20 years. I mentioned this in a previous blog post.
2) To read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. This is going to take a while, being a snails-pace reader, so I have calculated at just over 1000 pages long I need to read about 3 pages a day to finish it in a year. I intend to update about this about once a month, which brings me to...
3) To do a monthly roundup on the blog, acquisitions, wishlist etc
4) To read as much as possible from my TBR pile which now consists of over 50 titles. Gulp!
So that is about it, a whole year in a nutshell.
Here's wishing you all a healthy and prosperous 2009, surrounded by books!

4 comments:

lunarossa said...

Great book reading last year! I haven't counted how many books I read in 2008. Surely less than I wish I had. But I have started 2009 reading an excellent book, "El juego del angel" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (of Shadow of the Wind fame). It will be out in the UK in English next June. All the best. Ciao. Antonella

Leah said...

Thanks lunarossa, I am currently reading Shadow of the Wind.

Eva @ One Swede Read said...

Lots of great books there!!

Btw, by whom is the statue in the pic?? I just love it for a header of last/new year!!

Leah said...

Hi Bookoholic, thanks for dropping by. I can't remember exactly where the pic came from, I think I did a google search for Janus and I liked it.

Hay on Wye

Hay on Wye