2012 was the final year in which I continued to record my reading in the same beautiful notebook and, looking at what I have written, it was again a year in which I downloaded all sorts of books to my Kindle – books which I don’t think I would read now and which were very variable in their quality. I note that I read very little non-fiction in the year and that, as usual, most of my reading was crime or fantasy novels. I read 597 books in the year which is an insane number and suggests to me that many of them were very short.
The first book that I read in the year was Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. A deserved modern classic and a book that I have read several times. I also remember an excellent TV version of it which I think I saw when I was a teenager starring Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons.
The last book that I read in the year was The Naked Gardener by LS Gschwandtner. I had no recollection of this book at all so I looked it up on Amazon and found that I had reviewed it at the time and that I hadn’t found its message about female empowerment by connecting to nature to engage me. Even having read my review I can’t remember this story at all.
In addition to Brideshead Revisited I read a number of old favourites in the year. These were all books which I had read before and regarded as enjoyable reading – I still would. These include Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons which is witty and clever, Catch 22 by Joseph Heller which is witty and challenging, The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham which is clever and haunting, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling which has issues but is great fun to read, The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth which is gripping and clever, and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card which is truly enjoyable.
I also notice that in this year I read three books by Dan Brown – The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and The Lost Symbol. I regard his thrillers, which are laced with religious conspiracy theories, as truly enjoyable reading. A number of other authors have written similar books and in 2012 I also read The Hidden Oasis by Paul Sussman, The Sanctuary by Raymond Khoury and The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks. None of these books is great literature and they are all highly unbelievable but I do enjoy them occasionally.
This year I note that I also read the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy by EL James. These were loaned to me by a young friend who doesn’t normally read and wanted my opinion. I thought that they were books which glorified abuse and was very unhappy about their content but judging by their popularity I am in the minority. Other popular series I read included Twilight by Stephanie Meyer which I found hard going by the end because I disliked the heroine so muchand The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins which I enjoyed more.
It seems to have been a mixed year but I read for the first time a number of books which I now recommend to others and recommend to any of you reading now) – Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson which is a clever thriller, Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes (read a review here) which is a funny book about addiction, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows which is about living under German occupation and the importance of books, The Black House by Peter May (see my review here) which is a Scottish crime novel. Room by Emma Donoghue which is about a terrible crime and A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness which is a fantasy novel (see my review here).
Anne Is Reading 