52 Books in 52 Weeks

We have reached the end of the year and I feel pretty chuffed that I made it. It was a bit doubtful at times when I got distracted with the crafty stuff, but it is good to go out with a bit of literary high brow. I have enjoyed looking back to see what a huge variety of styles and subject matter I have got through during the year and hope I might have inspired a few passers by the try something new, it has certainly made me try a few new things.

I debated whether to pass opinion on which books were the best of the year and after some thought I came up with my top three: The Road, for intense atmosphere, Any Human Heart, for the most real character, and The Eyre Affair, for sheer imagination and creativity.

So here is the list of books I have read with links to the reviews (not all have been reviewed I confess) if you are interested in knowing a bit more about, or mainly just my vain opinions on them (and that took forever messing about with the links) or you can just click the 'book review' button in the link cloud and go through them all:

1. Johnny panic and the bible of dreams by Sylvia Plath
2. Hiroshima by John Hersey
3. The Double Tongue by William Golding
4. Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
5. Catching shellfish between the tides by Roslyn Chissick
6. Not to Disturb by Muriel Spark
7. Fragile things by Neil Gaimon
8. Any human Heart by William Boyd
9. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr Seuss
10. rape a love story by Joyce Carol Oates
11. Pedals and Petticoats by Mary Elsy
12. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
13. No one belongs here more than you by Miranda July
14. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
15. All Shall be Well... by Tod Wodicka
16. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
17. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
18. The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett (tape)
19. Eve Green by Susan Fletcher
20. Chocolat by Joanne Harris (tape)
21. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (tape)
22. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (tape)
23. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
24. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
25. The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
26. Far North by Marcel Theroux
27. Larry's party by Carol Shields
28. One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
29. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
30. Living the Creative Life by Rice Freeman-Zachary
31. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
32. We have always lived in the castle by Shirley Jackson
33. The philosopher and the wolf by Mark Rowlands
34. Raking the Ashes by Anne Fine
35. The Night Listener by Armistead Maupin
36. A Handspindle Treasury - 20 years of spinning wisdom from Spin-Off Magazine
37. The Republic of Love by Carol Sheilds
38. Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo (tape)
39. Mourning Ruby by Helen Dunmore
40. Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke
41. Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan
42. One Skein by Leigh Radford
43. A crime in the neighbourhood by Suzanne Berne
44. What was lost by Catherine O'Flynn
45. The Story of You by Julie Meyerson
46. The Newton Letter by John Banville
47. The Lollipop shoes by Joanne Harris
48. Creative spinning by Alison Daykin and Jane Deane
49. From A to X by John Berger
50. Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett (tape)
51. The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury
52. Weird Sisters by Terry Pratchett (tape)