Funnily, it had an endorsement from (of all people!) Stephenie Meyer on the cover, which normally would have been reason enough for me to never touch the book, if I hadn’t read so many good things about it elsewhere.

I found the story to be surprisingly fantastic. Surprisingly, because normally books that get so much praise rarely live up to that in my opinion. But this one definitely did. This is one of the rare stories where I caught myself thinking “damn, I wish I had written that!” all the time. And from a certain point on (I’d say around chapter 2 or so) I just couldn’t put it down anymore.

I already ordered the sequel on Amazon today and can’t wait for it to get delivered to my doorstep. And then starts the long wait for the third one, which is scheduled to be released in August.

The last time I was this excited about a trilogy was with Scott Westerfeld’s “Uglies” trilogy (which meanwhile consists of 4 books).

But going through the list I couldn’t help compiling some statistics:

No. of books not finished: 11

No. of bookrings and -rays through Bookcrossing: 16

No. of books I got from the library (I had to guess on that one, since I don’t write that down):  25

No. of books in german:  21 (most of those were non-fiction books and came from the library)

No. of non-fiction books: 34

No. of collections of short stories: 2

No. of audiobooks: 2 (both of whom I didn’t finish)

No. of graphic novels: 2

No. of YA and children’s books:  5

I find those numbers quite interesting and in come cases surprising. For one, I could have sworn I listened to more audiobooks last year, so either I forgot to list some of them or I am imagining things and hearing voices that aren’t there. Both possibilities are equal, I guess.

I also thought I would have read more YA lit and short stories. Since I am pretty sure that I never forgot to log an actual physical book that passed through my hands, I will have to accept that those numbers don’t lie.

As I said, picking favorites is not easy, even if I leave out re-reads and non-fiction books (an honorable mention has to go to “Catcher in the rye”, which I rediscovered by accident after loathing it with a passion – after re-reading it I now love it equally as passionately).

I went on a serious Preston & Child reading binge, thanks to my rediscovered love for Agent Pendergast. But the kinds of thrillers those two write are like fast food: fun to read, but not very filling. Same goes for Michael Chrichton, whom I gave a chance for the first time last year. His books are entertaining, but nothing that stays with me for long.

As always it is easier for me to pick the bad examples, the books that either bored me to tears or annoyed me or just generally seemed pointless. I call this one my Twilight-category.

Biggest disappointments 2009:

Mary Roach – Bonk

After loving “Stiff” so much I had high expectations for this one. Alas, although it is mildly funny, it didn’t really hold my interest and I ended up skimming the second half of the book just to get it over with. Maybe it was just the subject matter: I find rotting corpses endlessly more fascinating than human mating and sexual rituals, make of that what you want. *shrug*

JG Ballard – The Drought  + The Drowned World

I gave this guy 2 chances to impress me, but both times he failed miserably. Seldom have I read more boring books set in post-apocalyptic settings. Post-apo is normally my favorite genre, but Ballard’s other books got kicked off my wishlist after I tried to slug my way through those 2 meandering stories.

Julian Barnes – England, England + Love, etc.

I don’t remember why I ever put Julian Barnes’ books on my wishlist anyway (it must have been a recommendation from someone), but the two I tried to read bored me silly. That man has such an awful writing style that it turned reading his books into work. Definitely not an author I will ever give another chance.

Stephen King – Duma Key (audio)

The first Stephen King novel I absolutely could not finish. I found my attention wandering every five minutes and had to rewind to the start of the chapter a couple of times, because I couldn’t for the life of me remember what had happened.  I gave up 5 or so chapters in. Maybe audiobooks just aren’t my thing, but I doubt that this one is any better on paper.

Anita Diamant – The Last Days of Dogtown

Another instance of too high expectations. Loved “The Red Tent”, but this one, while not really bad, just left me cold.

Christopher Moore – Practical Demonkeeping

This is the second and in all probability the last book of this author I read. I can’t count the numbers of times I have read high praise for him and how hysterically funny he is supposed to be. I read “Fluke” the year before and now this one and I just don’t get it. Give me Carl Hiaasen and Christopher Brookmyre any day, but Moore is off my reading list.

Stieg Larsson – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

This one was easily the disappointment of the year for me, although I should have known better than to trust the hype. Again, not exactly a really bad book per sé, but I didn’t like it much at all and I completely fail to see what is supposed to make it such a hit. It went on for far longer than it had to, the female main character is fucking annoying, and half the story is about things that are completely irrelevant to the main plot (maybe they get relevant in the sequels, but I am not going to read them to find out).

Alice Walker – Now is the time to open your heart

I have no idea what this book was supposed to be about. I threw it aside after 50 pages or so.

Marina Lewycka – Two Caravans

Another one I just couldn’t bring myself to finish. Her first book was so great that I kept trying to enjoy this one, but it just didn’t work. The scenes with the chickens did it for me and that was it.

Margaret Forster – Keeping the World Away

Nothing much to say about this one. It was easily readable, but meandered along a bit pointlessly and was easily forgettable.

Iris Murdoch – The Message to the Planet

My first and last Iris Murdoch. No idea what this one is about either. It was so dense and hard to read that I ended up pondering single words or sentences and immediately forgot the plot – if, indeed, it has any.  Gave up after a couple tries, because I just couldn’t bring myself to pick it up again.

Top Ten of most enjoyable books 2009:

Christopher Brookmyre – One fine day in the middle of the night

He is a new discovery for me and I think I will have a lot of fun with his other books as well if this one is any indication.

Richard Russo – Straight Man

Ruso just never disappoints. I have read almost all of his books now and they are firmly in the “can be re-read anytime”-stack on my shelves.

Alan Moore – Watchmen

Who would have thought that I could enjoy graphic novels so much? Certainly not me. Usually the story arcs in graphic novels (or, as I still call them: comics) are too short for my taste and it hardly seems worth it to start reading them. But this one seemed to go on forever and had an actual, intricate story to tell. Once I was finished I’d have loved to start over again right away. Unfortunately I had to send it on its way, but I will get myself an own copy.

Michel Faber – Under The Skin

This one was quite a surprise. I picked it up in a secondhand shop in London, because the blurb sounded vaguely interesting. The story turned out to be something completely different from what I expected, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Eminem – The Way I Am

What can I say? I just love the guy. Not only his music, but him as a person. It was great to read his story in his own words and see all those rather private photos and his scribbled song lyrics. This is the only big format hardcover book I bought at full price in the last couple of years – and I don’t regret a Cent of it.

Allen Steele – Coyote

Judging from the reading list I did slide back into science fiction quite a bit last year. This is one of the books responsible for that. I had never heard of the guy before, but couldn’t put the book down after I started it. The 2 sequels are already waiting on my TBR shelf.

Larry Niven et. al. – Falling Angels

Another sci fi story. An enjoyable romp through science fiction fandom. Good story and frequent chuckles. Love it.

Neal Stephenson – Snow Crash

The first book of this author I read, but certainly not the last one. Mindbending ideas about the future of the internet, great characters and a plot that doesn’t let up. Awesome.

Joanne Harris – Runemarks

Tis is one of the YA books I read last year. Totally different from Joanne Harris’ other books, but just as enjoyable. Sometimes, when reading such books, I am a little bit sad not to have a daughter I could share them with.

Octavia E. Butler – Kindred

It is a tragedy that Ms. Butler died already. She was such a talented storyteller. This is the third of her books I have read and I enjoyed them all immensely. I am spacing out the other ones, because I still want to have something to look forward to from her.

All in all 2009 was not a bad reading year. 2010 is shaping up to be even better, I think. I am already on book #27 (Garth Nix – Sabriel) and even though many of them were gardening books, there were also some really good novels as well.

Amazon review:

Maddy Smith is a girl who has got it bad. Born with the runemark of the title on her hand, she is an oddball in her village, befriended only by a mysterious old man called One-Eye, who teaches her all she knows of magic. Unlike ordinary humans, Maddy can see goblins, and knows that where her friend’s glam (magic) is weak, hers is strong, though quite how strong she only discovers when she goes underground and meets a young man who calls himself Lucky. Before long Maddy is coping with the reawakened Sleepers, formerly Norse gods. Together with a pleasingly cynical oracular head called The Whisperer, who has plans of his own, she has to prevent the Nine Worlds from descending into Chaos.

This is Joanne Harris’ first children’s book. At least, it’s billed as one. I don’t know much about children’s books, but I know I enjoyed the story a lot when I read it recently.

Starting off with a brilliant first sentence it only got better along the way. Joanne Harris brings her usual descriptive and gripping writing style to this story and develops interesting and relatable characters, many of them taken from Norse mythology. Nevertheless I only read one or two chapters at a time – but not because I didn’t like it. On the contrary, I loved especially the old stories of the nordic gods that were mentioned in the context of this one and I wanted to savour this book slowly. But towards the end I just couldn’t put it down anymore.

I loved the ending, but I seriously doubt that the book is suited to young children. Seems a bit dark to me, but then again, so are most fairlytales, so what do I know? I’d rather give it to older children (teenagers) anyway.

On amazon the story was compared to Terry Pratchett’s – often unfavorably. Apart from the general genre (fantasy) I really can’t see all that many similarities to Pratchett. It did remind me quite a bit of Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” (which I also loved very much, even considering the fact that half the time I had no clue what he was talking about), only that here we have gods I have actually heard of before: Odin, Thor, Loki and lots of others.  Loki especially has always been my favorite, and he was again in this story. It certainly helps if you know your way around the old myths a bit (but I can’t say of myself to be an expert in that field either), but I wouldn’t say it’s a prerequisite.

Since I read this book through a bookring on Bookcrossing (for which I am very grateful, because otherwise I wouldn’t even have known Ms. Harris had writen a new one), I had to send the copy on to the next reader. But this is definitely a book I’d like to re-read at some point.

Yesterday was the first glimpse of better times to come. It was so warm and sunny that I could even work in just my t-shirt outside (still squishing through the mud, though). I even saw the first group of wild geese flying north, which for me is a sure sign that spring really is around the corner, no matter what the meteorologists say.

Anyway, I finally got around to cleaning up around our pond, cutting off the old, dried plants and checking for new growth (very sparse so far). Only one of the goldfish died this winter, which is a very good rate. I was especially happy to note that the last 2 of my colorful shubunkins survived. We used to have 6 of them, but they are a bit fragile and apparently even stupider than the normal goldfish, so two of them got snatched by magpies last year, one fell victim to the neighbour’s damn cat and one just up and died for no reason at all. *sigh* Well, I really hope the last 2 have learned their lesson and will make it through this summer, hopefully mating with some of the normal goldfish, so we will get a few more crazily colored ones next year.

Today the weather is already back in crappy mode (meaning: cold and overcast and just plain depressing), but I don’t care much, because of the other good thing that happened last weekend. On Saturday our mailman delivered 8 (!) big envelopes to our door. Poor guy was a bit put out, but I was understandably happy, because they were all for me and they all contained books!

So now almost all the books from the first round of ebay-madness have arrived. Needless to say I have already been back and won another 8 auctions so far.

Is there anything nicer than a whole desk full of new books to read? I can’t think of anything.

But the best thing is that I got all those books, which are almost all in brandnew condition, for only roughly 50 Euros. Had I ordered them from Amazon – even if I had found them relatively cheaply used – it would have cost me at least twice as much, because the shipping for the used books is so expensive.

Anyway, I am more than happy right now. My TBR shelf is packed again. Life is good.

But the idea appealed to me anyway, so I decided to have a look to see if anything had changed in the last 2 years. I found that english books are still mostly offered separately, but there are a lot more of them listed now than there used to be. Funnily, at the same time there seem to be even fewer buyers interested in english books (or the german ones, for that matter). So most of the books listed there didn’t have even one bid, even the ones that ended soon. With a starting price of 1,- Euro and shipping costs between 1,50 and 2,- Euros, things looked very interesting indeed, so I went through the whole listing, not once but twice within 4 days, and bid exactly 1,- Euro for any book that caught my eye.

Here’s the list of the ones that I won:

Kate Mosse – Labyrinth

Helen Forrester – A cuppa tea and an asprin

Alice Steinbach – Without Reservations

Julian Barnes – Love, etc.

Julian Barnes – England, England

Daniel Mason – The Piano Turner

Jeremy Clarkson – The World According to Clarkson

Kevin Brockmeier – A brief history of the dead

Scott Simon – Pretty Birds

Charles Stross – The Atrocity Archives

Brooks Hansen – The Chess Garden

Tony Parsons – Man and Boy

Stephen King – Nightmares & Dreamscapes

Yann Martel – Self

Deborah Ladbury – The Dinosaur Hunters

Constance Briscoe – Ugly

Patrick O’Brien – Master & Commander

Amitav Ghosh – The Glass Palace

Anita Diamant – The Last Days of Dogtown

Jeff Carlson – Plague Year

20 books for a total of about 50 Euros. That’s what I call a bargain. Looks like this could become a dangerous habit for me.

I’m actually pretty proud of myself that 4 of them were on my wishlist (well, one of my wishlists, since I have several). So, even though most of them were chosen just because the sounded or looked vaguely interesting, 4 of them are actually ones I have wanted to read for a while. Funnily, I only noticed that after I had bought them.

So far only 4 of them have arrived yet, but I expect the other ones in the next couple of days. Which means I have to make room on my TBR shelf, at least temporarily. I doubt that many of those books will remain in my keeper collection after I have read them.

Luckily there is a neat way to dispose of them (besides the obvious Bookmooch and Bookcrossing routes): last week I went to my local library again after almost a year and I was happy to notice that they have extended their collection of english language books quite a bit in the recent months. They even moved the whole thing to a much larger shelf section. So all the books I don’t intend to keep and that are not already registered on Bookcrossing will be donated to my library. And I really have to crank up my reading pace a bit, because with only 14 books finished this year I am way behind my usual schedule.

I’m lazy again and I haven’t got a lot of time, so again I give you a booklist. Or, rather an author list this time. And because I can’t be arsed to look them all up, there are no pictures of the covers today, nor links to the books on Amazon. But I’m sure you will be able to find them, if you should look for them.

13 new – to me – authors I discovered last year.

1. Ann Packer

Book: “The Dive from Clausen’s Pier”

I don’t remember where I heard of this book first, it was probably on Bookcrossing as usual. I received the book through Bookmooch and although it wasn’t exactly a life-changing experience to read it, it was still a nice read and I would pick up other books by Ann Packer if I should stumble on them.

2. Carl Hiaasen

Book: “Basket Case”

This one I picked up in the library in Leipzig during my ill-fated stay there at the first half of 2008. Loved it and found the story, the characters and the writing style so hilarious that I mooched 7 or 8 other books by Hiaasen from Bookmooch.

Unfortunately, even though I still enjoy his books and they are all quite entertaining, for me his particular style of quirkiness got old real fast and the other books turned out to be a bit repetitive. I still got 4 of them on Mt. TBR and I think they will stay there for the forseeable future. I still think “Basket Case” was the best of the bunch I read so far, but maybe that’s just because it was my first.

3. Jose Saramago

Book: “Blindness”

What a load of crap this book was. Both in the literal and in the figurative sense. I picked it up because it sounded like right up my alley, but it turned out to be a major disappointment. Definitely an author, whose books I will never ever pick up again.

4. John Banville

Book: “The Sea”

Saw this book mentioned in several blogs, and I think Banville won some award or other, didn’t he? Anyway, I got curious and read it on a whim.

I can’t say that I was bowled over, but it certainly has a strange kind of appeal. It’s not the kind of book I’d normally read, but it was a nice change. And Banville earned a place on my “ok to give another try”-list.

5. Markus Zusak

Book: “The Book Thief”

I had this book on my shelf for months before finally picking it up and actually reading it. Definitely not at all the kind of stuff I normally read. But I fell in love with Zusak’s writing style and with this story and it ended up being among my top 10 books I read last year.

I already joined a bookring on Bookcrossing for Zusak’s next book “I Am The Messenger”. Can’t wait to get my hands on it.

6. P.G. Wodehouse

Books: several

As I have mentioned before, I have Hugh Laurie to thank for my discovery of P.G. Wodehouse. I randomly ordered a 3-in-1 omnibus of Jeeves&Wooster stories from Amazon and I haven’t looked back. Pure comedic genius.

7. Sebastian Faulks

Book: “Human Traces”

I picked this one up in one of those used book stores in London on my last trip there, purely because I loved the cover. I have often been lucky with that strategy, but in this case: not so much. I don’t know if it was the book or the author in general, but this thing bored me to tears. I think I tossed it aside for good after about 70 pages or so. I didn’t actively hate it or anything, it was just not interesting at all. But for now Faulks still gets the benefit of the doubt from me and if I run into one of his other books I might give him another chance.

8. John Connolly

Book: “The Book of Lost Things”

Another bookring on Bookcrossing and a fantastic read. One of the rare instances where I wished I didn’t have to send the book on to the next reader and could just keep it to re-read it right away. Instead I put it on my wishlist on Bookmooch.

Every other of of his books I come across will definitely be devoured as well.

9. Michel Faber

Book: “The Crimson Petal and The White”

Another find from reading several bookblogs, who all wrote glowing reviews. Again, not my usual reading matter at all, but it turned out another very pleasant surprise. The 800 pages were way too short for my taste – it could have gone on for another 800 for all I cared.

Another author whose books I will pick up without any questions as to what they are about.

10. Christopher Moore

Book: “Fluke”

Moore was recommended to me as a very funny writer (can’t remember by whom, though). This one was another bookring. It was a nice read, but I can’t say I found it particularly funny. I didn’t, on the other hand, find it particularly awful either. Actually I felt pretty ho-hum about it. But since so many people rave about the funniness of this guy, I will give him another try. I am signed up for another one of his books and will make up my mind after I read that one.

11. Octavia E. Butler

Book: “Dawn”

Another one of the lucky finds last year. It’s a shame that she died so young, but her books are all on my wishlist and the two that I read already have moved straight to my keeper shelf. Absolut fantastic writer.

12. John Updike

Book: “The Afterlife and Other Stories”

Didn’t he die, too, recently? I picked up this book in my local library just because the title sounded halfway interesting, especially since I developed a taste for shortstories last year.

Now, I don’t wanna say anything bad about the recently departed, but it was a complete waste of time for me. If I remember correctly I didn’t even finish most of the stories. Not my taste at all, but I am toying with the idea of giving one of his novels a try. Some day.

13. Sophie Kinsella

Book: “Confessions of a Shopaholic”

Well, now this one is a bit embarrassing, because normally I don’t touch chick-lit. This book I got as a free extra when I mooched several other – real – books from a fellow Bookmoocher. Actually I had planned to directly offer it for a bookring or something, but I figured I might as well read it first. Took me all of one afternoon or so and all it did was reinforce my distaste for fluffy chick-lit. Ok, it wasn’t quite as bile-inducingly bad as I had feared, but it wasn’t in any way memorable or particularly interesting either. One author whose books I can skip in the future without a second glance – together with all the other ones who write the same stuff. No loss.

.

As usual, come over to the new Thursday Thirteen Headquarters to play along and visit other 13ers.

This week I had a bit of trouble coming up with a topic for my book list. Turns out I could make lots of lists about the books I read, but almost none of them would have 13 entries.  But with not taking the tpoic too literally I finally decided on this:

13 non-fiction books I read last year

1. Tim Ferriss – The 4 Hour Work Week

It took me a while to get around to this book after I read so much about it in dozens of blogs after it came out. In the end I opted for the audio version to be able to listen to it while driving. Ferriss propagates an interesting concept, which probably works for a few people, but I am definitely not one of them. Interesting book anyway.

2. David Allen – Getting Things Done

Another one of those bestsellers that turned into something of a bible for many people. Again, I chose the audio version and again I was impressed with the concept, but it’s not for me either. I am just not that organized and I don’t even want to be. My mind works differently and all these lists and folders and stuff just seem too rigid and, frankly, quite exhausting to maintain. But nevertheless I took some good advice on the more general aspects of getting organized away from this book.

3. Jeremy Rifkin – Das Ende der Arbeit/The End of Work

I stumbled upon this one in my local library (in german, of course). Had never heard of Rifkin before, although I gather he is a pretty well-known analyst and author. Not really my kind of topic normally, but since I am trying to decide what to do with the rest of my life right now, it grabbed my interest. Rifkin’s prognosis is not exactly comforting, but then again, neither is reality.

4. Hingston, Balfour – Home Office/Working from Home

Having been unemployed and unable to find a normal job for the past 4 years now I am starting to think about working from home and becoming self-employed. This is the first of several books I have read last year about this topic.

5. Holm Friebe, Sascha Lobo – Wir nennen es Arbeit

I don’t think this book is available in english yet. Literally translated, the title means “We call it work”. It’s about what the authors call the “digital bohéme” – freelancers, artists, whatever – who make their living outside of the traditional corporate structures. I don’t count myself as one of them, but since traditional jobs are kind of hard to come by nowadays, I will have to think at least into the general direction of such a lifestyle.

6. Andreas Lutz – Businessplan

Well, that one kind of explains itself. Our local library has quite a collection of such books and I have read a couple of them. Not sure if I am much closer to ever actually writing a viable businessplan. Not sure if I will ever need to, either. But it’s sure been interesting to learn how to.

But enough already about the business books.

7. Alan Weisman – The World Without Us

The premise of this book is: what would happen to the earth if human beings all vanished overnight?

Those who know me know that this scenario is my favorite daydream, so there was no chance in hell I could pass up this book once I learned of its existence. If you have ever watched the BBC documenatry “Life After People” you will have an inkling what Weisman writes about: the crumbling of every man-made structure, the decay of each and every trace of human life, the way nature takes over again, but also the lingering time-bombs we would leave behind. Wonderful reading to me, since if this really happens some day, I will by definition not be able to watch it personally and I find it nice to be able to quench my curiosity beforehand.

8. David Vise – The Google Story

Another library find. Even though I’m a big fan of Google products, I also have ambivalent feelings about the trustability of such a fast-growing company. They pretty much take over the internet nowadays, which can’t be a good thing. The book, even though it is not my usual reading choice, turned out to be quite fascinating. I’m not sure if my worries have been alleviated by it, but it sure was interesting to peek “behind the scenes” a bit.

9. Joyce Carol Oates – The Faith of a Writer

Funnily, I have never read any of Oates’s fiction, so I have no idea how good a writer she actually is, but I quite enjoyed her book about the craft of writing. But then again, I usually tend to enjoy books about writing, even if I don’t know the author’s own work. This one stands only as an example of 3 or 4 writing-themed books I read last year.

10. Randy Pausch – The Last Lecture

I have written before about how impressed and touched I was by Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture and the life-lessons he imparted with it. If you have seen the video, you won’t find all that much that’s new in this book – it’s essentially just a slightly expanded version of what he said in the lecture. But it is still worth reading it even if you know the video.

Well, and that brings us to the atheist reading section of this list. After I read Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion” last year (which I generally liked, even though I had a few problems with his overly preachy and zealous attitude), I tried a few other books that are often mentioned in the same context.

11. Christopher Hitchens – God is Not Great

Well, if you thought Dawkins is polemic and a bit over the top, you will probably be disgusted by Hitchens. He is a bit wearying with his attacks on religion in general and followers of any kind of faith. I really do agree with the central tenet that religion, especially organized religion, is not a good thing and mainly it’S all a big bag of lies and as such pathetic and dangerous, if taken to extremes. But I really don’t get why Dawkins and Hitchens have to be so fucking militant about it. Do they really think they will convince people of their theses by offending them and pretty much calling them morons for believing in something that is so blatantly stupid and unfounded and whatnot? I really don’t think so. Mainly they’re just preaching to the choir. I mean, as a fellow atheist it is nice to know that I am not alone in my incredulity, that there are more people out there who see religion as fairytales for grown-ups. But I had hoped for a more constructive approach to the discussion. This book is clearly not it.

12. Sam Harris – The End of Faith

Sam Harris’ writing is more what I had been looking for. Yes, he speaks basically the same truths as Dawkins and Hitchens, but he does so in a much more civil manner. He’s not just putting down everybody who honestly believes in religion, but instead opens up a discussion, underlining his opinions with facts and displaying an impressive kowledge of the Bible that is hard to argue with. I’m not saying he is perfect, because he can’t refrain from taking a few cheap shots either. But he is certainly less radical in his views than Hitchens or Dawkins. I know that many people who call themselves religious won’t want to hear what he has to say, but anybody who gives the book a fair chance has to admit that he at least makes sense. If you agree with his opinion or not is a different matter.

13. Sam Harris – Letter to a Christian Nation

This book, as I understand it, was written as a kind of follow-up for “The End of Faith”. He cites quite a few comments made on the first book here and goes on to refute them, aiming especially at Americans this time. Very entertaining, and in many parts enlightening, reading – if, that is, you’re not one of “them”.

That’s it with the 13 books I promised, but and as an added bonus I just have to mention:

Julia Sweeney – Letting go of God

This is not a book, but a show, of which I heard the audio version. And contrary to many of the male atheist authors, Julia Sweeney is not the least bit preachy, but brings her point across in a funny manner (well, ok, I take it this is a comedy show, so that’s probably not much of a surprise). The show is awesome and hilarious. I think, if the so-called “serious” atheist authors showed a bit more humor they would be able to convince many more people that religion is ridiculous and laughable than they do by their fervent sermons that point out that every believer is a fool. But maybe that’s just me.

But unfortunately we all know that SMeyer is not a good enough writer to be able to pull that one off…

I’m seriously thinking about ordering this t-shirt, though.

Just like I did last January for 2007, I’d like to showcase a few of the books I have read last year. And I might as well do it in the form of a T13.

I managed to read 122 books in 2008. That’s 25 less than 2007 and I can’t even say why. The fact that I spent the whole of November writing my own book might have something to do with it. Naturally, there were a few new authors I discovered, and also a few disappointments. If I haven’t miscounted there were only 9 books I didn’t bother to finish, which is quite a good ratio, considering how ruthless I am nowadays, if a book doesn’t manage to grab my attention within the first 50 – 70 pages.

This first part of my review I want to dedicate to the pleasant memories, so here you have

my favorite books of 2008:

(And even though I numbered them they are not in a particular order.)

13. Steph Swainston – No Present Like Time

This is the sequel to “The Year of Our War”, which I read last year. Very original and interesting fantasy. I can’t wait for the next installment in the series.

12. Connie Willis – Doomsday Book

Another all-time favorite author of mine. This is not my favorite book by her, but it’s still a fantastic read. Although I have to say, I am a bit disappointed in the boring cover design. Her books really deserve better.

11. Jasper Fforde – The Fourth Bear

It’s not the Thursday Next Series, but the Nursery Crime Division books at least take place in the same kind of world and are just as hilariously funny. Plus, I am always impressed with the strange and quirky ideas Fforde comes up with.

10. Octavia E. Butler – Wild Seed

I only discovered Octavia E. Butler’s books this year (“Dawn” was the first one I read) and shortly later heard that she had died. I am deeply impressed with her work and one of my goals for this year is to try to find her other books as well.

9. Walter M. Miller – A Canticle for Leibowitz

Well, dystopian fiction is still my favorite genre, and this is one of the classics. Contrary to other classics with this one I actually understand why it got that status.

8. Neil Gaiman – Neverwhere

With this book Neil Gaiman finally ascended into the Olymp of my all-time favorite writers. I continue to be amazed and impressed and in love with his books. The next one on my shopping list is “The Graveyard Book”, about which I have heard only good things as well.

7. Markus Zusak – The Book Thief

You know the hype there was about this book? For once it’s really justified. I normally hate books about World War II and Nazi Germany, but this one I love with all my heart. Can’t wait to get my hands on Zusak’s next book.

6. Michael Marshall Smith – One of Us

Just like Gaiman, Smith is one of my all-time favorites. The man can do no wrong in my eyes and this book again proved it. Fantastic read.

5. Scott Westerfeld – Pretties,  Specials

Part 2 and 3 of the Uglies-Trilogy, which is already a quartet, if I am informed correctly. Just as good as the first part. Westerfeld made it into my “I will read everything with his name on the cover”-category.

4. Michel Faber – The Crimson Petal and the White

Now this one was a surprise, considering all the praise I had heard about it before. I was prepared for a let-down, but I couldn’t put it down again. More than 800 pages of tiny script and I read it in two sittings, because it was just that good. I am very curious to check out Faber’s other books now.

3. John Connolly – The Book of Lost Things

Another surprise. I don’t remember why I signed up for the bookring on Bookcrossing, but I am very glad I did. A fairy-tale world that sucked me in right from the start.

2. P.G. Wodehouse – Right Ho, Jeeves (and others)

Well, talk about new discoveries. I don’t know how I went this long without a book by Wodehouse falling into my hands, but I definitely missed out on something. I picked this one up, because Hugh Laurie once mentioned his love for Wodehouse’s writing. As a big Hugh Laurie fan (and a fan of his writing) I decided I had to check Wodehouse out. Well, I’d like to thank Hugh Laurie for changing my life.

1. Margaret Atwood – Oryx and Crake

Dystopian fiction by a well-respected writer. You know, not just some science fiction hack that intellectual people don’t take seriously, but a real literary writer, whatever that means. Damn good reading in any case.

Since the original Thursday Thirteen site unfortunately is out of commission, come and play along at the new and shiny T13-headquarters. I’m glad somebody took it over, otherwise I would have felt like I had to.

I was already halfway ready to take down my T13 header collection, but since the folks at the new headquarters were nice enough to put a link to them in their sidebar, I guess I can still leave them were they are and might even make some new ones just for the hell of it.

A nice catch in today’s mail. Isn’t it great? Five books, three of them as good as brand new – and they didn’t cost me a penny, only a couple of points on Bookmooch. I just love it.

These are all books I requested from the same Bookmoocher, so naturally they all arrived together. A couple of days ago I got the bright idea to look through the list of books registered by german Moochers, since I had a few points to burn, and when I request books from my own country they cost me only 1 pt a piece (as opposed to 2 pts a piece from other countries). Since I am only interested in books written in english I was actually surprised to find quite a few of them. But I guess people have noticed that german books don’t move so well on an international site.

Can you spot the one that doesn’t fit in? Right, it’s the Kinsella. (Pink cover. *ugh*) Usually I don’t do chick lit. But the Bookmoocher I got the books from had a whole box of books that she really wanted to get rid of and so gave away for free, so I thought I might as well give it a try. I can always get rid of it through Bookcrossing later. But since I still have enough other books to read on my shelves this one will languish there for quite a while yet.

So, since this first haul did turn out to be quite a nice catch, and I still got 8 points left, I think I will go for another fishing expedition later tonight. You can never have too many books, right?