Annual Books Read Statistics for 2018, ROW80, and Insecure Writer's Support Group Day

ere it is, at long last: The Annual Books Read Statistics and Thoughts Post!





Here are the statistics for 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 (and the list), 2010, 2009 (and the list).
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Books Read: 289, including the following (roughly, and counting three Yorkshire dialect books as one and the Harry Potter series as one and the Postman Pat books as one, which evens out the single poems a bit; I’ve also lumped all my school reading into one, and the five or six back issues I read of Mythlore):
66 novels
133 board books, although these involve ongoing rereads, including the board books from previous years
27 essays and non-fiction and comics
14 short stories and scripts and plays
21 poems
23 YA/MG books


2017: 49 novels, 45 board books, although the railway books by Rev. Awry and the Beatrix Potter collection total 49 books (which involve ongoing rereads, including the board books from last year), 27 essays and non-fiction and comics, 24 short stories and scripts, counting the stories read in anthologies as one since I didn’t read all the stories, 17 poems, 13 YA/MG books
2016: 168 novels and MG/YA and essays, etc., 45 board books and over 30 books in the Folio Society collected works of Beatrix Potter, 28 short stories, and 25 poems; Journal of Inklings Studies and Tolkien Society’s Amon Hen and Mallorn issues (also counted as one)
2015: 91 novels and MG/YA and essays, etc., 29 board books, and 12 poems
2014: 111 novels and short stories (plus essay collections, comics, and poetry)
2013: 188 novels and short stories (plus poetry)
2012: 142
2011: 124
2010: 92
2009: 131
2008: 101
Note: Not counted every year: most beta reads, and thousands of words written and read for writers’ houseparties on Thelitforum.com, plus other forum writings, magazines, newspapers, etc.


Average over 52 Weeks: 289/52=5.6, or two books, two board books, an essay, and a poem, roughly. It’s actually more than last year despite being back at school and writing and editing my own stories more regularly. I think it’s because I’m finally reading more and more on the Kindle app. I also seem to have read nearly 100 more board books than last year!

2017 (all averages for this and earlier years are done over 50 weeks, usually not counting the poems): 175/50=3.5, or two books, two board books and a poem
2016: 4.8, or three books, four board books, and four short stories or essays
2015: 2.6, or two books and one short story and one board book
2014: 2.2, or two books and one short story
2013: 3.5, or three books and two short stories (one more than the previous couple of years)


Authors Read: 181, counting very many board books

2017: 100, give or take, counting many of the board books
2016: 130, but 103 without board books
2015: 91
2014: 61
2013: 88
2012: 105
2011: 89
2010: 63
2009: 57
2008: 69
Note: Not counted: Beta reads and anthologies


Most Books by One Author: Not counting authors appearing twice or thrice, or the eight Peppa Pig books, I read four works by Katherine Paterson, six works by John Scalzi, six works by Lynne Reid Banks, seven works by the Detection Club, eight works by JK Rowling/Robert Galbraith, eight novels by Kait Nolan, eight works by JRR Tolkien, and 13 Mr Men and Little Miss books (not counting the ones I keep rereading!)

2017: Robert Munsch (10 titles plus other rereads not noted!), Kait Nolan (seven titles!) and Monica Byrne (six titles!), followed by four each by J. R. R. Tolkien and Diana Gabaldon and Laura Bradbury, in addition to the Rev. Awry and Beatrix Potter.
2016: Louise Penny, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, followed by Kait Nolan and Monica Byrne, plus Neil Gaiman and Somerset Maugham
2015: tied between Tolkien and Gaiman (with second place tied between many authors (Agatha Christie, Walter de la Mare, Joel Dicker, Catherine McKenzie, Kait Nolan, Brenda Novak and Marilynne Robinson) and two board book authors, Sandra Boynton and Julia Donaldson (the creator of the Gruffalo and the Acorn Wood series))
2014: Tied between Louise Penny and J.K. Rowling (Gaiman and Tolkien come in a close second)
2013: Neil Gaiman (plus L.M. Montgomery, Josephine Tey, Tolkien, Brenda Novak, Stephen King, E. L. Konigsburg, and Budge Wilson)
2012: Tolkien and Stephen King, plus four Talli Roland books!
2011: I reread The Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion, Outlander, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Tales of Beedle the Bard (before seeing the last movie)
2010: I again reread the Anne of Green Gables series, including The Road To Yesterday
2009: Rereads included Rowling, Gabaldon, and Agatha Christie


Oldest Book: Oldest works were Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake (reread), the poem "An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog" by Oliver Goldsmith, and the poem "An Eclogue: Willie and Sandy" by Robert Fergusson

2017: The oldest stories were by Herman Melville and Leo Tolstoy, as well as the original Beauty and the Beast by Villeneuve and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe, and poems by Blake and Wordsworth
2016: The oldest physical copy is this impressive collection of Byron’s works from 1835. The oldest stories and poems and letters were by Shakespeare, John Evelyn, Sir Walter Raleigh, Robbie Burns, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley
2015: In Dubious Battle (Steinbeck), Absent in the Spring (Westmacott (Christie)), and Jim at the Corner (Farjeon), in physical copies. In reprints and new editions, there were many from the 1930s, but the oldest were Heidi and Wodehouse’s retelling of William Tell, plus the short story “Oh, Whistle, And I’ll Come To You, My Lad” by M. R. James, from 1904
2014: Childe Harold by Lord Byron and The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen
2013: Keats and Byron’s poetry, plus The Count of Monte Cristo and, considering stories and not publication date, Land of the Seal People by Duncan Williamson. Plus a John Clare poem and an old song from the Shetlands that I read on Kate Davies’ blog, and the short story “Why, Of Course” by James Edmond Casey, from 1912
2012: Cyrano de Bergerac and Voltaire were the oldest authors, and the oldest published books (not reprints) were the anthologies The Land of My Fathers – A Welsh Gift Book, and Princess Mary’s Gift Book, both from 1914, including stories and poems by Arthur Conan Doyle, Kipling, etc. Plus Ah King by Maugham, Shakespeare in London by Marchette Chute (reread), and Helena by Evelyn Waugh
2011: 14th Century Book of Good Love by Archpriest Juan Ruiz, though the translation was only a hundred years old. Plus the chapter on the Earl of Rochester from Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the Poets, and Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers, as well as Wodehouse
2010: Earl of Rochester, and Perreault’s fairy tales, plus Hours at the Glasgow Art Galleries by T. C. F. Brotchie, An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott and When the Going Was Good by Waugh.
2009: Shakespeare and a handful of books from pre-1950
2008: Oldest authors were Aesop and Pliny, and oldest original book was by Dorothy Sayers, followed by John Fante and Steinbeck


Newest Book: Books and stories published in 2018, including nine Forumites and blogging buddies (some of these might be from 2017):
Santa’s Lawyer by John Scalzi (short piece)
essays by Claire G and Melanie C
A Lot Like Christmas by Kait Nolan
Automated Customer Service by John Scalzi (short story)
Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny
Heart Full of Stars by Linda Govik
The Crimes of Grindelwald by JK Rowling
Fall (VIP book 3) by Kristen Callihan
Autumn anthology (Folio Society)
Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
Once Upon A Rescue by Kait Nolan
The Middle-earth Traveller by John Howe
The Fall of Gondolin by JRR Tolkien
Between the Cracks by Helena Hunting
You Were Meant for Me by Kait Nolan
Handywoman by Kate Davies
Foreword to The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta by Diana Gabaldon
The Hanover Square Affair (Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries Book 1) by Ashley Gardner
Second Chance Charmer by Brighton Walsh
Lost! by Terry Lynn Johnson
Beren and Luthien by J. R. R. Tolkien
Can't Take My Eyes Off You by Kait Nolan
Adsum by Monica Byrne (short)
Pulp Fiction by Lauren Beukes (short story)
Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth exhibition catalogue (and essays)
Splinter the Silence by Val McDermid
Real Man by A. S. Green (Dirty Bits from Carina Press)
Billionaire Boss by Tiffany Allee
Can't Stand the Rain by Kait Nolan
If I Didn't Care by Kait Nolan
Carpenter bee by Monica Byrne (poem)
Regarding Your Application Status by John Scalzi (short story)
Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide by J. K. Rowling
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists by J. K. Rowling
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies by J. K. Rowling
brief Harry Potter prequel by J. K. Rowling
Watch Over Me by Kait Nolan
The Good Liar by Catherine Mckenzie
The Only Story by Julian Barnes
I'll Keep You Safe by Peter May
Last Call by TL Watson
Brew Ha Ha books 1 and 2 by Bria Quinlan
Nice Girls Don't Ride by Roni Loren
Hard Wood by Jenika Snow (Dirty Bits from Carina Press)
Night Train to Madurai by Monica Byrne (short story)
prologue to Head On by John Scalzi
La Disparition de Stephanie Mailer by Joel Dicker
Color Me Gray by Rose Phillips
Cutting to the Chase by Rose Phillips
The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi
Baby, It's Cold Outside by Kait Nolan
Sharing His Bride by Faye Avalon (Dirty Bits from Carina Press)
Don't Live for Your Obituary by John Scalzi

2017: 31, including roughly six Forumites and blogging buddies, depending on how loosely I define them
2016: 41, including 10 Forumites and blogging buddies
2015: 11 less than 2014, which had exactly the same number (37) as in 2013! 7 Forumites in 2015, and 3 blogging buddies (not counting older books of blogging buddies that I caught up on reading!).
2014: 5 Forumites, as well as blogging buddies
2013: 4 Forumites, as well as blogging buddies, and the Cabinet of Curiosities authors, plus the 60th anniversary edition of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (with an introduction by Neil Gaiman)
2012: 36, including 9 Forumites
2011: 44
2010: 13 plus 10 Forumites
2009: Many more, including books by kc dyer, Hélène Boudreau, Linda Gerber and Diana Gabaldon -- Forumites all!
2008: 2, by Joanna Bourne and Marilynne Robinson


Stories/Authors I Didn’t Like: This is the category under which I hide some honesty. Some of the books that I feel obligated to read (for review purposes or because I received them as gifts) leave me cold. I try not to be mean when doing a review post, especially when sharing a review on Amazon.
There were three this year:
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, which was great fun to read; I simply think the last part should have been a long sequel instead
A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman, which was interesting but rather surface-y
Cosmos by Carl Sagan, which I couldn’t finish. Too bombastic

2017: Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow and Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, which I’ve read before. It always drives me crazy. (Not counting Sophie’s Choice by William Styron, which was not at all what I expected it to be like.)
2016: “The Bog Girl” by Karen Russell (short story) and Peanuts Volumes I to VI -- new strips written by random new authors!
2015 (see the 2015 post for my reasons): Two classic Little Golden Books: Colors Are Nice by Adelaide Holl and Leonard Shortall and The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey and Gustaf Tenggren; one new book: JaMaDu: Pippa et le crocodile; another kids’ book: Emily’s House by Niko Scharer and Joanne Fitzgerald; two war-time tales (WWI and WWII): Death of A Century: A Novel of the Lost Generation by Daniel Robinson, and Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear; a classic: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (I blogged about this Bradbury book here); an author I otherwise love: The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend; and What to Expect the First Year by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel
2014: 2 romances, and the short story collection The Progress of Love by Alice Munro
2013: 1 book I didn’t like but finished: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn; and 1 book I didn’t like and didn’t force myself to finish: Jenny Lawson’s semi-autobiographical memoir (I explained a bit about why on the Forum)
2012: No books I actively disliked, but 2 I felt “meh” about: Before Versailles, and Inkheart
2011: Jonathan Franzen, Philippa Gregory and Gillian Bagwell
2010: Libba Bray and Thomas Cobb
2009: Ilyas Halil
2008: 3 authors (Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ian McEwan and Ian Rankin) and 1 story (“Hairball” by Margaret Atwood)


Books That Made Me Cry: In the last few years I’ve tried to remember to keep track of this throughout the year because it’s not very accurate at year-end when I can’t remember.
But I forgot again!
Here are the ones I remember: White Fang by Jack London, Autumn Street by Lois Lowry, the Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker, The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien (always), and Color Me Gray and Cutting to the Chase by Rose Phillips

2017: Vera Brittain, and The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
2016: Louise Penny, Kait Nolan, and The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain
2015: The Lord of the Rings; Be Careful, It’s My Heart by Kait Nolan; The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne (reread); and Going Back by T.L. Watson

2014: The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny; The Lord of the Rings; Harry Potter series; The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer; Liza of Lambeth by Maugham; Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon; and How To Fall In Love and One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern
2013: Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi; The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien (reread); The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun by Tolkien; The Year of Shadows by Claire Legrand; The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows; and She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb (skimming reread) (it’s that last line (“Thayer, I saw her!” I yell. “I saw!”) that gets me. Every. Single. Time.
2012: Bag of Bones by Stephen King; Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury; The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman; All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque; The Fault In Our Stars by John Green; The Casual Vacancy by Rowling (because of Krystal); and Lunatic Heroes by C. Anthony Martignetti (if you haven’t yet, you have to listen to him reading the chapter The Swamp. Bullfrog.
2011: The Scottish Prisoner, and Outlander, both by Diana Gabaldon, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by Rowling, and The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien, all of which were rereads, but there was also Rowing in Eden by Barbara Rogan; The Only Alien on the Planet by Kristen Randle; This and That by Emily Carr; The Summer of Skinny Dipping by Amanda Howells (I bawled); Dancing Through the Snow by Jean Little; Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay; The Day of the Pelican by Katherine Paterson; and Fifteen by Beverly Cleary

Youngest Books: So many board books! Chicken Soup With Rice by Maurice Sendak is still one of my favourites. I also enjoyed Baby Farm Animals by Garth Williams (Little Golden Books) because the baby pig looks just like Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web.
I’ll do what I did last year, and highlight one with gorgeous illustrations:

The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

2017: Bear’s Adventure by Benedict Blathwayt
2016: Things That Go
2015: The Acorn Wood series by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler; Paddington Bear All Day and Paddington Bear Goes to Market by Michael Bond; The Going To Bed Book, Moo, Baa, La La La and But Not the Hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton; Chu’s Day and Chu’s Day at the Beach by Neil Gaiman; Each Peach Pear Plum by Allan Ahlberg and Janet Ahlberg; Emily’s Balloon by Komako Sakai; and The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Also these four board books: Pop-up Peekaboo! Farm by Dawn Sirett and Sarah Davis; Colors Are Nice by Adelaide Holl and Leonard Shortall (Little Golden Book); Baby’s Very First Touchy-Feely Book (Usborne) by Stella Baggott; and Baby’s Very First Touchy-Feely Colours Play Book (Usborne) by Fiona Watt and Stella Baggott
2014: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss (reread) (brought to you by Neil Gaiman) and Emil In the Soup Tureen by Astrid Lindgren, plus a few YAs and MGs. Not sure if Go the F*^$ To Sleep and You Have to F*%$ing Eat count
2013: Quite a few board books, just as in the last few years, including: two Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems; Chu’s Day by Neil Gaiman; The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish by Neil Gaiman; The Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman; Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman; To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street by Dr Seuss; Who’s A Pest? by Crosby Newell Bonsall; Star Trek Book of Opposites; Alligator Baby by Robert Munsch; and Rainy Days with Bear by Maureen Hull. Also quite a bit of YA and MG


Fluff but Fun Books: Mostly rereads, except for the graphic novel of The Hobbit:
Here Comes Snoopy by Charles Schultz (reread)
Come Home, Snoopy by Charles Schultz (reread)
You’re In Love, Charlie Brown! by Charles Schultz (reread)
The Hobbit graphic novel by Chuck Dixon
The Caliph’s Vacation by Goscinny (reread)
The Far Side Gallery 1 by Gary Larson

2017: Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson sample pages on the Kindle app and The Herman Treasury 1 by Jim Unger (reread).
2016: None! (not counting Peanuts not written by Schulz)
2015: None!
2014: The F*%#ing books, plus Tintin and Asterix and the Caliph
2013: Some more Andy Capp, the Far Side, and Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, the Music edition
2012: 2 issues of MAD
2011: Andy Capp, MAD, and an Archie; fewer than the past 3 years


Books/Authors I’d Recommend: Besides all the poets, here they are, without division into categories (or formatting):
Night by Elie Wiesel
Each Man’s Son by Hugh MacLennan
Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon
The Givenness of Things by Marilynne Robinson
The Duckling Gets A Cookie!? by Mo Willems
Over in the Meadow by Ezra Jack Keats
The Wishful series by Kait Nolan
Stick Man by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
We Are In A Book by Mo Willems
White Fang by Jack London
Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
The Fall of Gondolin by JRR Tolkien
Autumn Street by Lois Lowry
Two Is Lonely by Lynne Reid Banks
The Backward Shadow by Lynne Reid Banks
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie (reread)
The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham
Catalina by Somerset Maugham
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Dostoyevsky (short story)
The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
Handywoman by Kate Davies
Lost! by Terry Lynn Johnson
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
A Spring Harvest by Geoffrey Bache Smith
11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
Beren and Luthien by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Worry Week by Anne Lindbergh
Mr Bliss by J. R. R. Tolkien (reread)
The Pigeon Needs a Bath by Mo Willems
Blueberries for Sal
Caps for Sale
Reader's Digest June 1965
The Doubtful Guest by Edward Gorey
Blue Hat Green Hat by Sandra Boynton
Miss Nelson is Missing
Tiddler the Storytelling Fish by Julia Donaldson
The Voice in the Box by Paul Villiard (short story about the telephone; http://www.telephonetribute.com/a_true_story.html)
Time Twister by Ged Maybury
The Man Who Went Up In Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Caliph's Vacation by Goscinny
The Mystery of the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
The Secret of the Indian by Lynne Reid Banks
The Return of the Indian by Lynne Reid Banks
The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
The Ghost Road by Pat Barker
The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker
Regeneration by Pat Barker
The Only Story by Julian Barnes
My Brigadista Year by Katherine Paterson
The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid
Last Call by TL Watson
La Disparition de Stephanie Mailer by Joel Dicker
Color Me Gray by Rose Phillips
Cutting to the Chase by Rose Phillips
The Cat Who Wasn't There by Lilian Jackson Braun
Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit by Charles Bukowski
Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake
Iggie's House by Judy Blume
It's Not the End of the World by Judy Blume
Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume
Ten Little Pirates by M Bradshaw
Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats
Paddington at the Zoo by Michael Bond
The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak
Ask a Policeman, a Detection Club anthology
Six Against the Yard by the Detection Club
Scoop by the Detection Club
Behind the Screen by the Detection Club
Anatomy of Murder by the Detection Club
No Flowers by Request by the Detection Club
Crime on the Coast by the Detection Club
The Far Side Gallery 1 by Gary Larson

2017: Canadian YA authors: Kit Pearson, Terry Lynn Johnson, Tim Wynne-Jones, and Brian Doyle
Board books: Millicent and the Wind by Robert Munsch, The Hug by Lesley Simpson, There’s a Bear on My Chair by Ross Collins, The Mysterious Tadpole by Stephen Kellogg, and The Third Story Cat by Leslie Baker
War fiction: The Man From Berlin by Luke McCallin and The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck
Romance: Pregnant by the Colton Cowboy by Lara Lacombe, Managed by Kristen Callihan, and Beauty Like the Night by Joanna Bourne
Humour: The Fencepost Chronicles by W. P. Kinsella, Various Pets Alive and Dead by Marina Lewycka, and Dolly and the Starry Bird by Dorothy Dunnett
Autobiography or biography: A Priest in Gallipoli: The War Diary of Fr Hugh Cameron by John Watts; Reach for the Sky by Paul Brickhill (biography of Douglas Bader); A Girl From Yamhill and My Own Two Feet by Beverly Cleary, and Testament of Experience and Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
Non-fiction: Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth
2016: Besides the A.A. Milne and Louise Penny and Mo Willems and Marilynne Robinson I’ve recommended over the years, and all the poems, I would recommend the following: Classic books and authors that are classics for a reason: Up At the Villa by Somerset Maugham; The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro; The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street and 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff; Traitor’s Purse by Margery Allingham; Frankenstein by Mary Shelley; Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o; Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen; Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy; The Rose and the Yew Tree by Agatha Christie (Mary Westmacott); The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun by J.R.R. Tolkien; English People by Owen Barfield; The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes; A Woman in Arabia: The Writings of the Queen of the Desert Gertrude Bell (compiled by Georgina Howell); Kill Me Quick and The Mzungu Boy by Meja Mwangi; The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier
Newbery Medal winner: The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
New books: The Marble Collector by Cecilia Ahern; The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain; One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina; Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel; Who We Were Before by Leah Mercer; Some Kind of Happiness by Claire Legrand; Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor; All Fixed Up by Linda Grimes
Younger readers: The Creatures of Number 37 by John Watts (see my blog post on this); Strange Street by Ann Powell (see my tweet on this); Who’s A Pest, Mine’s the Best, and The Case of the Hungry Stranger by Crosby Newell Bonsall; A Pocket For Corduroy by Don Freeman; The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch;
Writers: The Story Toolkit: Your Step-by-Step Guide To Stories That Sell by Susan Bischoff
2015: All Forumites and blogger buddies, plus Kait Nolan, Catherine McKenzie, John Scalzi, Louise Penny, Agatha Christie, Tolkien, Robert Galbraith, Marilynne Robinson, and A.A. Milne, depending on your tastes. Also the following: Les dernieres jours de nos peres by Joel Dicker; La Verite sur l’affair Harry Quebert, and its sort-of sequel Le livre des Baltimore by Joel Dicker; Mr. Garden and Jim at the Corner by Eleanor Farjeon; The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck; The North Star is Nearer and Every Month Was May by Evelyn Eaton; Emily’s Balloon by Komako Sakai; The Wars by Timothy Findley; Flowers for Mrs Harris by Paul Gallico; Two Caravans by Monica Lewycka; Aunt Sass by P.L. Travers. Plus the following board books: Rabbit’s Nap: A Lift-the-flap Book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler; Each Peach Pear Plum by Allan Ahlberg and Janet Ahlberg; Paddington Bear Goes to Market by Michael Bond and R.W. Alley; The Going To Bed Book by Sandra Boynton; Moo, Baa, La La La by Sandra Boynton; But Not the Hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton; Chu’s Day by Neil Gaiman
2014: Louise Penny and The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer (non-fiction)
2013: Besides all Forumites and blogging buddies, all of Josephine Tey and E. L. Konigsburg, plus: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson; The Reader Over Your Shoulder by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge; A Calendar of Tales by Neil Gaiman; The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks; Esio Trot by Roald Dahl; The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows; A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka; A Dangerous Fiction by Barbara Rogan; and the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems
2012: The books that made me cry
2011: Forumites and old favourites, Tolkien et al.

Shortest Book: Not counting novellas or short stories or board books or YA/MG or poetry or plays or screenplays or essays, this leaves The Only Story by Julian Barnes

2017: A Daughter’s A Daughter by Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie)
2016: Black and White Ogre Country by Hilary Tolkien
2015: Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wootton Major by Tolkien; A Christmas Story by Richard Burton; and Aunt Sass by P.L. Travers
2014: The Tales of Beedle the Bard, same as in 2008, 2010 and 2011. Also the two lovely meet cutes by Kait Nolan, Once Upon an Heirloom and Once Upon a Snow Day
2013: I read a lot more essays and short stories in general, so it was hard to single out just one
2012: The Space Between, a long novella by Diana Gabaldon
2011: The Object Lesson by Edward Gorey (besides short stories, the youngest books, Andy Capp, Archie, and MAD)


Longest Book: Most of the novels I read were all of roughly the same length. If I have to isolate any, the longest are most likely Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, the Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker, The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien and La disparition de Stephanie Mailer by Joel Dicker

2017: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, as well as Laura Bradbury’s Grape series if counted as one, The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, if counted as one, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, and our two gargantuan writers’ houseparties on the Forum, which together ran close to 500,000 words
2016: Besides Tolkien and The Chronicles of Narnia, and the entire Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny, this would be English People by Owen Barfield, Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy, and Arthur and George by Julian Barnes
2015: Lots of Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings and books 8 and 9 in the History of Middle Earth series) and Joel Dicker. I suppose The Grapes of Wrath is longer than usual too
2014: Every year there’s a Tolkien or Gabaldon in there, and 2014 was no exception
2013: Series: Anne of Green Gables series; all of Josephine Tey’s books; and John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series. Also some long Stephen King: Under the Dome; the uncut The Stand; and 11/22/63. Plus The Count of Monte Cristo
2012: I had no long series that I could count as one book, so I decided to mention Neil Gaiman


Research Books: No non-fiction, except A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman, but a handful of novels and poetry I read for vocabulary and setting research (not counting the wartime books): Catalina by Somerset Maugham, the Blackhouse trilogy by Peter May, Sonnets to Orpheus, Part 1 by Rainer Maria Rilke, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stane by J. K Rowling, translated into Scots by Matthew Fitt

2017: Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, plus a couple of novels that could count as research.
2016: I enjoy learning about a specific time period, or exploring geography, and reading about explorers of various times. The closest book to all of that was A Woman in Arabia: The Writings of the Queen of the Desert Gertrude Bell (compiled by Georgina Howell), which was partly for research, along with the three writing craft books, particularly The Story Toolkit: Your Step-by-Step Guide To Stories That Sell by Susan Bischoff
2015: Hardly any non-fiction. Some of the fiction (anything set in or during the wars, along with writing from that time, especially Tolkien’s The Notion Club Papers) could count as research
2014: No non-fiction. Counted L.M. Montgomery and A Rose for the ANZAC Boys by Jackie French as research
2013: Some novels doubled as research. Loved Archaeology is Rubbish by Prof. Mick Aston and Tony Robinson. Skimmed the following: Medieval Civilisation by Jacques le Goff; The Great Explorers (Folio Society); Parragon’s Encyclopedia of Animals: a Family Reference Guide; and Celtic Myths and Legends by Mike Dixon-Kennedy
2011–2012: Various, including books on English history, poetry, Mediterranean flora, Ottoman history, and the Renaissance


Books From the 19th Century and Earlier:
The Shoemaker and Elves by the brothers Grimm (reread)
White Fang by Jack London
Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen
Sonnets to Orpheus, Part 1 by Rainer Maria Rilke
"An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog" by Oliver Goldsmith
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Dostoyevsky (short story)
An Eclogue: Willie and Sandy by Robert Fergusson (poem)
Later Days by WH Davies (skimmed)
A Foreigner at Home by Robert Louis Stevenson (essay)
Winter Evening by Archibald Lampman (poem)
various poems by Jock Tamsen
Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake (reread)

2017: Besides many of the poets, there was Melville, Tolstoy, the original Beauty and the Beast, and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe
2016: Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen; The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson; A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson; Three Men In A Boat by Jerome K Jerome; Frankenstein by Mary Shelley; Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy; “A Tradition of Eighteen Hundred and Four” by Thomas Hardy; “The Boy Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was” by the Brothers Grimm; “The Wedding Night” by Ida Craddock; extracts from the diary of John Evelyn; extracts from Lord Byron’s letters about Villa Diodati
Poems: The Darkling Thrush and The Oxen by Thomas Hardy (may be early 20th Century); Ode on Venice by Lord Byron; Bells by Edgar Allan Poe; Sonnet LXVI by Shakespeare; Sir Walter Raleigh to His Son; Fair Jenny, MacPherson’s Farewell, and Wert Thou In The Cauld Blast by Robbie Burns; Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats by Percy Bysshe Shelley; England and Switzerland, 1802, and extracts from Preludes by Wordsworth
2015: Only 1! The Nursery Rhyme Book by Andrew Lang. Also three poems, two of which were rereads: “The Fly” by William Blake; “Tyger, Tyger” by William Blake; “January Brings the Snow” by Sara Coleridge
2014: Only 2! Byron’s Childe Harold and Andersen’s The Snow Queen
2013: Only 1! Le Comte de Monte-Cristo par Alexandre Dumas. And a handful of poems. And the Grimm brothers’ story “The Blue Light”
2012: Only 1! The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley, plus poems by Longfellow and Browning, and “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe

Books from 1900 to 1960 (not formatted, sorry!):
Night by Elie Wiesel
Each Man's Son by Hugh MacLennan
Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon
Over in the Meadow by Ezra Jack Keats
Jennie's Hat by Ezra Jack Keats
Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel by Virginia Kee Burton
Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (Little Golden book)
A Tale of Tails illustrated by Garth Williams (Little Golden book)
The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss
Poem in October by Dylan Thomas
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas (reread)
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr Seuss
Two Is Lonely by Lynne Reid Banks
The Backward Shadow by Lynne Reid Banks
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie (reread)
The Spirit Medium by WB Yeats
Those Images by WB Yeats
The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham
Catalina by Somerset Maugham
Here Comes Snoopy by Schultz (reread)
Come Home, Snoopy by Schultz (reread)
You're In Love, Charlie Brown! by Schultz (reread)
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
Six Against the Yard by the Detection Club
A Spring Harvest by Geoffrey Bache Smith (poems)
Yorkshire humour and dialect books (3)
Scoop by the Detection Club
Behind the Screen by the Detection Club
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (facsimile first edition)
Madelineby Ludwig Bemelmans
The Worry Week by Anne Lindbergh
Anatomy of Murder by the Detection Club
Dragons by J. R. R. Tolkien (lecture)
Mr Bliss by J. R. R. Tolkien
No Flowers by Request by the Detection Club
Crime on the Coast by the Detection Club
From the many-willow'd margin of the immemorial Thames by J. R. R. Tolkien (poem)
Baby Farm Animals by Garth Williams (Little Golden Books)
Wonders of Nature (Little Golden Books)
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
Pluto (board book, c. 1950s)
Reader's Digest June 1965
The Jolly Barnyard (Little Golden Books)
Richard Scarry's Chipmunk's ABC (Little Golden Books)
Fire Engines (Little Golden Books)
Doctor Dan the Bandage Man (Little Golden Books)
The Gingerbread Man (Little Golden Books)
Madeline Goes to London
The Doubtful Guest by Edward Gorey
The Voice in the Box by Paul Villiard (short story about the telephone; http://www.telephonetribute.com/a_true_story.html)
The Man Who Went Up In Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
Ask a Policeman, a Detection Club anthology
The Caliph's Vacation by Goscinny
Emil and the Great Escape by Astrid Lindgren
One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish by Dr Seuss
A Hole is to Dig, illustrated by Maurice Sendak
Disney's Mother Goose (Little Golden Books)
Master Dog by Margaret Wise Brown
The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
The Colour Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown
Central Highlands travel guide from 1940s (chapter on Culloden)
The Oxford Book of Carols (1948)
Winter Evening by Archibald Lampman (poem)
various poems by Jock Tamsen
The Cat Who Wasn't There by Lilian Jackson Braun
Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit by Charles Bukowski
Iggie's House by Judy Blume
It's Not the End of the World by Judy Blume
Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume
Daisy Miller by Henry James
We Like Kindergarten (Little Golden Books)
Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats
Three Stories for Children by Isaac Bashevis Singer
The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham
Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak (reread)
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (reread)

2017: Besides the poetry, board books and non-fiction, there was Alistair MacLean, J. R. R. Tolkien, the Rev. Awry, Beatrix Potter, Astrid Lindgren, and Madeleine l’Engle, along with The Mistletoe and Sword by Anya Seton, The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck, and A Daughter’s A Daughter by Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie).
2016: All the Agatha Christie, Beatrix Potter, Milne, Maugham, Waugh, and G.K. Chesterton, all of the Inklings (Tolkien, Owen Barfield, C.S. Lewis, plus Dorothy Sayers), and the following (roughly up to 1962): Traitor’s Purse by Margery Allingham; Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o; Maigret Chez les Flamands by Georges Simenon; “That Hell-Bound Train” by Robert Bloch; “Homage to Switzerland” by Ernest Hemingway; A Woman in Arabia: The Writings of the Queen of the Desert Gertrude Bell (compiled by Georgina Howell); Humble Bundle Peanuts collection (strips by Charles Schulz); Walkabout by James Vance Marshall Dream Days by Kenneth Grahame
Poems: Dirge Without Music by Edna St. Vincent Millay; Career, and Human life in this century by Yevtushenko; Willow by Anna Akhmatova
Younger readers: Emily’s Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary; The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier; Winter Tree Birds by Lucy Ozone and John Hawkinson; Babar and his Family by Laurent de Brunhoff; Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag; Baby Animals (illustrated by Garth Williams), Scuffy the Tugboat, and The Saggy Baggy Elephant (Little Golden Books)
2015: Lots of Christie, Dahl, de la Mare, Eaton, Farjeon, Milne, Steinbeck, and Tolkien, as well as The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter; The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper; Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson; The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey and Gustaf Tenggren; The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf; Many Moons by James Thurber, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin; Heidi by Johanna Spyri; William Tell Told Again by P. G. Wodehouse; Peanuts Volume 1 by Charles Schulz; “Oh, Whistle, And I’ll Come To You, My Lad” by M. R. James (short story); First and Second Things by Lewis; The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury; Flowers for Mrs Harris by Paul Gallico; Aunt Sass by P.L. Travers; Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell; “Birds of Passage” by Peter McArthur (poem); and “The Mother” by Nettie Palmer (poem)
2014: The Tintin books, L.M. Montgomery, Tolkien, Maugham, Sayers, Christie (plus The Floating Admiral by the Detection Club, including Christie, Sayers, Chesterton, etc.), Wodehouse, Graves, Milne, and Tutankhamen’s Tomb by Howard Carter
2013: Lots of Tolkien, Josephine Tey and L.M. Montgomery, plus: Esio Trot by Roald Dahl; Poet’s Pub by Eric Linklater; The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (reread); To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street by Dr Seuss; The Magician’s Nephew by Lewis (reread); “Four Fables for Our Time” by James Thurber (short story) (reread); “You Should Have Seen the Mess” by Muriel Spark (short story) (reread); “Ha’penny” by Alan Paton (short story) (reread); The Screwtape Letters, Chapter 1 by Lewis (read by John Cleese) (reread); “Why, Of Course” by James Edmond Casey (short story); “Acquainted With the Night” by Robert Frost (poem); Medieval Civilisation by Jacques le Goff; All My Life Before Me: The Diary of C.S. Lewis; Stories in Words by Lewis; Emerson; and The Reader Over Your Shoulder by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge
2012: A lot (counting short stories), including all the Tolkien, plus Christie, Sayers, Milne, Bradbury, Waugh, Chute, Maugham, Remarque, Chesterton, and Bodies and Souls (1950s Dell Paperback of crime stories by Christie, Chesterton, etc.)2011: Only 12 novels and 2 short stories, plus The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
2010: 27
2009: 17
2008: c. 25


Beta Reads: 4

2017: 7
2016: 7
2015: 4
2014: 3
2013: 2
2012: 4


Forumites were at it again this year! Here are the latest releases that I read (though some may be from 2017!):
Fall (VIP book 3) by Kristen Callihan
essays by Claire G and Melanie C
Color Me Gray by Rose Phillips
Cutting to the Chase by Rose Phillips
Foreword to The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta by Diana Gabaldon
Last Call by TL Watson

Fellow bloggers and ROW80 members:
Heart Full of Stars by Linda Govik
Lost! by Terry Lynn Johnson
Billionaire Boss by Tiffany Allee

And the following by Kait Nolan:
Once Upon A Rescue
A Lot Like Christmas
Can't Take My Eyes Off You
Watch Over Me
Can't Stand the Rain
If I Didn't Care
Baby, It's Cold Outside
You Were Meant for Me


Most Surprising Book: Not exactly surprising, but really good reads that came at just the right times:
Two Is Lonely, The Backward Shadow, and The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks: so modern for their time
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Dostoyevsky (short story): Beautiful
Handywoman by Kate Davies: Inspiring
Six Against the Yard by the Detection Club
A Spring Harvest by Geoffrey Bache Smith
11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
The Worry Week by Anne Lindbergh
Reader's Digest June 1965 (reread)
Time Twister by Ged Maybury (reread)
The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid
La Disparition de Stephanie Mailer by Joel Dicker
(Also, Cosmos by Carl Sagan: A surprise, because I expected to like it and didn’t)

2017: Honourable mentions go to A Priest in Gallipoli: The War Diary of Fr Hugh Cameron by John Watts, and Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth, The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker, A Daughter's A Daughter by Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie), and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.
2016: The Rose and the Yew Tree by Agatha Christie (Mary Westmacott); The Rose on the Ash-Heap and English People by Owen Barfield; Up At the Villa and The Casuarina Tree by Somerset Maugham (novella); The Gustav Sonata and The Road Home by Rose Tremain; Arthur and George by Julian Barnes
Discovering new authors (including classics I’d never read before): Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel; The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro; Kill Me Quick and The Mzungu Boy by Meja Mwangi; Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor; Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o; One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina; Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen; Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Fun books and younger readers: The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street and 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff; The Creatures of Number 37 by John Watts; The Cybil War and The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars; Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems (Elephants Can’t Dance, Let’s Go For A Drive and There is a Bird on Your Head); Who’s A Pest, Mine’s the Best, and The Case of the Hungry Stranger by Crosby Newell Bonsall;
2015: Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wootton Major by Tolkien, My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl, Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie), and Many Moons by James Thurber, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin
2014: Louise Penny, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield, and The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
2013: Poet’s Pub by Eric Linklater, The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, and Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling
2012: World War Z by Max Brooks


Nationalities of Authors:
I was talking in 2015 about the books that have stayed with me, and maybe adding a category for favourite rereads, but instead in 2016 introduced something completely different -- a nationality list. Here are the nationalities of authors whose books I’ve read this year:
Australia
Austria
Canada
England
France
Ireland
New Zealand
Norway
Romania
Scotland
Sweden
Switzerland
United States
Wales

2017: Australia; Canada; England; France; Germany; Kenya; Russian Federation; Scotland; Sweden (in translation); United States
2016: Australia; Canada; France; Germany; Ireland; Kenya; Norway; Russian Federation; United Kingdom; United States


New category: My publications!
Yes, I have my own book to add to the list!
2017: Summer Fire by Deniz Bevan



Hope you enjoyed this recap!

There are two weeks left in this round of ROW80. Besides work and school, I was laid up for a while with a nasty cold, but I'm very very slowly starting edits on The Handful of Time, the sequel to The Charm of Time. I'm thinking of sending The Charm of Time out agent-hunting, too. Wish me luck!


Today is also Insecure Writer's Support Group Day!

OPTIONAL IWSG Day Question: Whose perspective do you like to write from best, the hero (protagonist) or the villain (antagonist)? And why?
 

This month's co-hosts are: Fundy Blue, Beverly Stowe McClure, Erika Beebe,  

and Lisa Buie-Collard

I prefer to write from the protagonist's perspective, because then I can write happy scenes as well as scenes full of angst and scenes that involve raising the stakes.
But I always write at least a few scenes from the point of view of the antagonist, even if they don't make it into the final novel, because it helps me to delve into the mind, motives, and backstory of the villains. Hopefully that makes them more well-rounded!


Here’s a quick photo reward for scrolling through endless text (followed by the full unedited list of 2018 books, and with apologies for the lack of formatting and proper annotation of authors' names this year)!

Night by Elie Wiesel Each Man's Son by Hugh MacLennan (reread) Studmuffin Santa by Tawna Fenske Boats by Byron Barton Le serpent affamé Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon The Givenness of Things by Marilynne Robinson Santa's Lawyer by John Scalzi (short piece) The Duckling Gets A Cookie!? by Mo Willems Over in the Meadow by Ezra Jack Keats Jennie's Hat by Ezra Jack Keats The Shoemaker and Elves by the brothers Grimm (reread) Stick Man by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel by __ We Are In A Book by Mo Willems The Smallest Cow in the World by Katherine Paterson Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (Little Golden book) A Tale of Tails illustrated by Garth Williams (Little Golden book) essays by Claire G and Melanie C White Fang by Jack London A Lot Like Christmas by Kait Nolan Automated Customer Service by John Scalzi (short story) Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny A Treasury of Christmas Classics Pippin the Christmas Pig by Jean Little (reread) Merry Christmas, Emily! (reread) Happy Hippo Angry Duck by Sandra Boynton Heart Full of Stars by Linda Govik Leather and Lies by __ The Crimes of Grindelwald by JK Rowling Fall (VIP book 3) by Kristen Callihan Autumn anthology (Folio Society) Mots gentil: Merci The Princess and the Frog by Jonathan Langley Lethal White by Robert Galbraith Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen A Merry Christmas by Katherine Paterson (essay) All I Said Was by Michael Morpurgo and __ Collins Fidelie et Annabelle secret beta read (J McC short story) Seveneves by Neal Stephenson Rabbit and Possum by __ The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss (reread) Moi quand je serais grand (Casterman) Comptes de Joujou (Haiti) Once Upon A Rescue by Kait Nolan Sonnets to Orpheus, Part 1 by Rainer Maria Rilke Possum Magic by ___ Josephine Wants to Dance by ___ Ed the Pup by __ New Baby Sister by __ Flashing Fire Engines by ___ Four Silly Skeletons by ___ The Middle-earth Traveller by John Howe Paw Patrol busy books George Catches a Cold (Peppa Pig) Le Magicien des Couleurs Emily's New Route (Thomas the Tank Engine) Poem in October by Dylan Thomas Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas (reread) The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien (annual reread) The Fall of Gondolin by JRR Tolkien Deep Snow by Robert Munsch Miffy and the Little Bird by Dick Bruna Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr Seuss Autumn Street by Lois Lowry Between the Cracks by Helena Hunting Two Is Lonely by Lynne Reid Banks The Backward Shadow by Lynne Reid Banks The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie (reread) The Spirit Medium by WB Yeats Those Images by WB Yeats Imagier mouillé Charlie and Lola: Look After Your Planet Goldsmith's Elegy The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham Catalina by Somerset Maugham You Were Meant for Me by Kait Nolan The Best Nest by PD Eastman Quand je m'habille by Sanchez and Barday 13 Gifts by Wendy Mass Here Comes Snoopy by Schultz (reread) Come Home, Snoopy by Schultz (reread) You're In Love, Charlie Brown! by Schultz (reread) The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster beta read! by CF Le Doudou Qui Parle C'est Moi L'Espion des autobus The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Dostoyevsky (short story) Little Miss Giggles Little Miss Contrary Little Miss Chatterbox Little Miss Greedy Booktime Book of Fantastic First Poems Mr Men Go Camping The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler This Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown Handywoman by Kate Davies Foreword to The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta by Diana Gabaldon short story by RM (beta) Cosmos by Carl Sagan (half) The Hanover Square Affair (Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries Book 1) by Ashley Gardner Second Chance Charmer by Brighton Walsh Ca A Commence Comme Ca by Angela Morelli Lost! by Terry Lynn Johnson Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith Six Against the Yard by the Detection Club A Spring Harvest by Geoffrey Bache Smith 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass Peppa's Birthday Paddington at Rainbow's End Fireman Sam: James and the Well (Pontypandy) Peppa Goes Ice Skating Yorkshire humour and dialect books (3) The Hobbit graphic novel Chickens Can't See in the Dark Beren and Luthien by J. R. R. Tolkien Scoop by the Detection Club Behind the Screen by the Detection Club Billy's Bucket by Kes Gray and Garry Parsons The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (facsimile first edition; reread) Madeline and her Dog Can't Take My Eyes Off You by Kait Nolan Larry Gets Lost in Seattle by John Skewes The Worry Week by Anne Lindbergh Adsum by Monica Byrne Pulp Fiction by Lauren Beukes (short story) back issues of Mythlore Anatomy of Murder by the Detection Club Dragons by J. R. R. Tolkien (lecture) Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth exhibition catalogue (and essays) Mr Bliss by J. R. R. Tolkien (reread) No Flowers by Request by the Detection Club Crime on the Coast by the Detection Club From the many-willow'd margin of the immemorial Thames by J. R. R. Tolkien (poem) Baby Farm Animals by Garth Williams (Little Golden Books) Wonders of Nature (Little Golden Books) Emily Miss Rumphius The Pigeon Needs a Bath by Mo Willems Little Miss Fickle Little Miss Bad Mr Messy Blueberries for Sal Caps for Sale various poetry by R. Wodaski beta read (SP B) Pluto (board book, c. 1950s) Reader's Digest June 1965 (reread) Reader's Digest February 1987 (reread) The Jolly Barnyard (Little Golden Books) Richard Scarry's Chipmunk's ABC (Little Golden Books) Fire Engines (Little Golden Books) Doctor Dan the Bandage Man (Little Golden Books) The Gingerbread Man (Little Golden Books) Madeline Goes to London Madeline Peppa’s First Pet Peppa Goes to the Library Peppa’s Washing Day The Doubtful Guest by Edward Gorey Blue Hat Green Hat by Sandra Boynton Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs by Sandra Boynton Miss Nelson Has a Field Day Miss Nelson is Missing (reread) Splinter the Silence by Val McDermid Postman Pat’s Treasure Hunt and other Postman Pat books, plus more from the library book sale The Berenstain Bears’ New Baby Tiddler the Storytelling Fish by Julia Donaldson More Poems to Read to the Very Young Poems to Read to the Very Young The Voice in the Box by Paul Villiard (short story about the telephone; http://www.telephonetribute.com/a_true_story.html) Time Twister by Ged Maybury (reread) Real Man by A. S. Green (Dirty Bits from Carina Press) The Man Who Went Up In Smoke by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö Billionaire Boss by Tiffany Allee Can't Stand the Rain by Kait Nolan If I Didn't Care by Kait Nolan A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman Ask a Policeman, a Detection Club anthology Fire Watch by Connie Willis (short story) The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis The Caliph's Vacation by Goscinny (reread) The Mystery of the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks The Secret of the Indian by Lynne Reid Banks The Return of the Indian by Lynne Reid Banks Emil and the Great Escape by Astrid Lindgren One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish by Dr Seuss I'm a Big Sister by Joanna Cole A Hole is to Dig, illustrated by Maurice Sendak Disney's Mother Goose (Little Golden Books) Master Dog by Margaret Wise Brown The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown The Colour Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown My New Baby by Rachel Fuller Storytime for 3 Year Olds Around the World with Peppa Peppa Plays Soccer Mr Snow by Roger Hargreaves Mr Bounce by Roger Hargreaves Albert the Alphabetical Elephant by Roger Hargreaves Upsy Daisy (board book) Carpenter bee by Monica Byrne (poem) Regarding Your Application Status by John Scalzi (short story) Never Have I Ever HP Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide by J. K. Rowling Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists by J. K. Rowling Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies by J. K. Rowling brief Harry Potter prequel by J. K. Rowling (reread) the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling (reread) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stane by J. K Rowling, translated into Scots by Matthew Fitt Watch Over Me by Kait Nolan The Lewis Man by Peter May The Ghost Road by Pat Barker The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker Regeneration by Pat Barker The Good Liar by Catherine Mckenzie The Only Story by Julian Barnes The Unexplained: A Haunted Canada anthology edited by Janet Lunn My Brigadista Year by Katherine Paterson I'll Keep You Safe by Peter May King's Equal by Katherine Paterson The Colour Thief Small Mouse Big City The Blackhouse by Peter May The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid The Ten Little Ostriches (Kenyan fairytale in A World Full of Animal Stories anthology) Thomas' Snowsuit by Robert Munsch Franklin in the Dark The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners Chu's First Day of School by Neil Gaiman I Dare You Not to Yawn by Helene Boudreau Jill and the Dragon Chickens Can't See in the Dark Chika Chika Boom Boom Last Call by TL Watson Brew Ha Ha books 1 and 2 by Bria Quinlan Nice Girls Don't Ride by Roni Loren Hard Wood by Jenika Snow Switzerland for Beginners by George Mikes Murph by Donald E. Byrne Jr. (poem) various essays, journal articles, book excerpts, etc. for school Mr Men at the Park by Adam Hargreaves Night Train to Madurai by Monica Byrne (short story) prologue to Head On by John Scalzi An Eclogue: Willie and Sandy by Robert Fergusson (poem) Later Days by WH Davies (skimmed) Central Highlands travel guide from 1940s (chapter on Culloden) A Foreigner at Home by Robert Louis Stevenson (essay) Scottish poets anthology (skimmed) The Oxford Book of Carols (1948) Mr Men and the Dinosaurs (Adam Hargreaves; in French) Peter Rabbit's first words (board book) The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett La Disparition de Stephanie Mailer by Joel Dicker Color Me Gray by Rose Phillips Cutting to the Chase by Rose Phillips The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn The Mitten by Jan Brett Baby, It's Cold Outside by Kait Nolan Winter Evening by Archibald Lampman (poem) various poems by Jock Tamsen The Cat Who Wasn't There by Lilian Jackson Braun Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit by Charles Bukowski (reread) Sharing His Bride by Faye Avalon Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake (reread) Don't Live for Your Obituary by John Scalzi The Chocolate Lover's Diet by Carole Matthews Iggie's House by Judy Blume It's Not the End of the World by Judy Blume Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume Daisy Miller by Henry James We Like Kindergarten (Little Golden Books) I Completely Love Winter (2 Charlie and Lola stories) Charlie Brown Christmas, TV tie in edition Ten Little Pirates by M Bradshaw Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats Paddington at the Zoo by Michael Bond Where's Wally Now The Cat Who Blew The Whistle by Lilian Jackson Braun Three Stories for Children by Isaac Bashevis Singer The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak (reread) Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (reread) Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman (reread) The Far Side Gallery 1 by Gary Larson