Paul C's 2016 Reading and Life - 25

I thought it opportune to ponder upon my diet. This is a well planned Persian diet for example!

OPENING LINES

Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel by William Trevor



William Trevor died last night and Ireland lost it's finest writer.

"I'm Ivy Eckdorf," said Mrs Eckdorf as the aeroplane rose from the ground.

RIP

READ FIRST QUARTER

JANUARY
1. Ru by Kim Thuy (2009) 153 pp
2. A Story I am in : Selected Poems by James Berry (2011) 208 pp
3. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (1983) 200 pp
4. Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis (2015) 159 pp
5. Clem Attlee by Francis Beckett (2015) 476 pp
6. The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Theriault (2005) 117 pp
7. 40 Sonnets by Don Paterson (2015) 44 pp
8. The Quality of Mercy by Barry Unsworth (2011) 294 pp
9. The Library of Unrequited Love by Sophie Divry (2010) 92 pp
10. A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (1993) 269 pp
11. Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen (1998) 104 pp
12. Coast to Coast by Jan Morris (1956) 238 pp
13. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler (1982) 314 pp
14. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (2014) 688 pp
15. The Perfect Stranger by P.J. Kavanagh (1966) 182 pp
16. The Manticore by Robertson Davies (1972) 255 pp

FEBRUARY
17. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (1934) 347 pp
18. The Zimmermann Telegram by Barbara Tuchman (1958) 200 pp
19. Coventry by Helen Humphreys (2008) 169 pp
20. Selected Poems by Cecil Day Lewis (1951) 158 pp
21. Return of a King : The Battle for Afghanistan by William Dalrymple (2013) 487 pp

MARCH
22. Assalamualaikum : Observations on the Islamisation of Malaysia by Zaid Ibrahim (2015) 200 pp
23. That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo (2009) 339 pp
24. How to be Both by Ali Smith (2014) 372 pp
25. Towards Asmara by Thomas Keneally (1989) 320 pp
26. New Selected Poems by Robert Minhinnick (2012) 185 pp
27. The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy (1986) 664 pp
28. Around the World ichael Palin (1989) 241 pp
29. Poems of the Past and the Present by Thomas Hardy (1901) 96 pp
30. The Boat Who Wouldn't Float by Farley Mowat (1969) 243 pp

BOOKS READ IN 2016

Second Quarter

APRIL
31. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (1991) 371 pp
32. What Work Is by Philip Levine (1991) 77 pp
33. Eventide by Kent Haruf (2004) 300 pp
34. A New Selected Poems by Galway Kinnell (2001) 179 pp
35. The Black Album by Hanif Kureishi (1995) 276 pp
36. Demelza by Winston Graham (1946) 521 pp
37. Geography III by Elizabethe Bishop (1976) 50 pp
38. The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1855) 142 pp
39. Why I am not a Christian by Bertrand Russell (1957) 259 pp

MAY
40. Belfast Confetti by Ciaran Carson (1989) 108 pp
41. Ruby by Cynthia Bond (2015) 330 pp
42. The Bird Artist by Howard Norman (1994) 289 pp
43. The Sea Runners by Ivan Doig (1982) 275 pp
44. Make Me by Lee Child (2015) 544 pp
45. Old Filth by Jane Gardam (2004) 290 pp
46. The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin (1964) 46 pp
47. Fault Line by Robert Goddard (2012) 509 pp
48. AWOPBOPALOOBOPALOPBAMBOOM by Nik Cohn (1972) 247 pp
49. Risk by C.K. Stead (2012) 267 pp

JUNE
50. Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey (2006) 46 pp
51. The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad (1917) 145 pp
52. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2014) 333 pp
53. Crow by Ted Hughes (1970) 89 pp
54. A Zoo in My Luggage by Gerald Durrell (1960) 173 pp
55. The Green Road by Anne Enright (2005) 310 pp
56. Famous Last Words by Timothy Findley (1981) 396 pp
57. Bird Cloud by Annie Proulx (2011) 234 pp
58. Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser (1969) 691 pp

BOOKS READ IN 2016

THIRD QUARTER

July

59. The Pearl by John Steinbeck (1948) 89 pp
60. The Sergeants' Tale by Bernice Rubens (2013) 217 pp
61. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895) 106 pp
62. The Orenda by Joseph Boyden (2013) 487 pp
63. The Battle for Scotland by Andrew Marr (1992) 240 pp
64. The Fifth Son by Elie Wiesel (1985) 220 pp
65. Holiday by Stanley Middleton (1974) 222 pp
66. Karl Doenitz and the Last Days of the Third Reich by Barry Turner (2015) 275 pp
67. Jeremy Poldark by Winston Graham (1950) 344 pp
68. The European Union : A Citizen's Guide by Chris Bickerton (2016) 230 pp
69. An Event in Autumn by Henning Mankell (2013) 169 pp
70. Bad History : How We Got the Past Wrong by Emma Marriott (2011) 173 pp

August

71. March by Geraldine Brooks (2005) 273 pp
72. The Sellout by Paul Beatty (2016) 289 pp
73. Rape : A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates (2003) 154 pp
74. Black Dogs by Ian McEwan (1992) 174 pp
75. Eileen : A Novel by Otessa Moshfegh (2016) 260 pp
76. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (1986) 429 pp
77. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout (2016) 191 pp
78. Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes (1984) 190 pp
79. Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeline Thien (2016) 466 pp

September
80. The North Water by Ian McGuire (2016) 255 pp
81. Selected Poems by Laurie Lee (1960) 80 pp
82. Blade of Light by Andrea Camilleri (2012) 271 pp
83. The World According to Garp by John Irving (1978) 596 pp
84. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (2015) 409 pp
85. The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing (1988) 133 pp
86. The Many by Wyl Menmuir (2016) 141 pp
87. Grief is the Thing with Feathers (2016) 114 pp
88. His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet (2016) 280 pp

BOOKS READ in 2016

FOURTH QUARTER

October
89. Who Runs Britain? by Robert Peston (2008) 348 pp
90. Hot Milk by Deborah Levy (2016) 218 pp
91. Rites of Passage by William Golding (1980) 278 pp
92. When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson (2008) 480 pp
93. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (1861) 432 pp
94. The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry ed. by Rita Dove (2011) 570 pp

November
95. Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1939) 143 pp
96. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (1918) 148 pp
97. Confabulations by John Berger (2016) 143 pp
98. Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney (1966) 44 pp
99. The Ipcress File by Len Deighton (1962) 342 pp
100. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (1979) 295 pp
101. Crime Story by Maurice Gee (1994) 272 pp
102. The Final Solution by Michael Chabon (2005) 127 pp
103. Cobra by Deon Meyer (2014) 367 pp

December
104. Military Blunders by Saul David (1997) 387 pp
105. The Maytrees by Annie Dillard (2007) 216 pp
106. The Innocence of Father Brown by GK Chesterton (1911) 263 pp
107. The Iron Woman by Ted Hughes (1993) 87 pp
108. Walking Away by Simon Armitage (2015) 271 pp
109. Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel by William Trevor (1969) 277 pp

Reading Plans and a little about me

Me?
I was 50 in September and have enough unread reading material on my shelves to take me safely into my seventies! I have lived in Malaysia since 1994 and have a long suffering (but never quietly) wife, Hani (sometimes referred to as SWMBO), three children Yasmyne (19), Kyran (17) and Belle (12), as well as a supporting cast which includes my book smuggling assistants Azim (also my driver and a part time bouncer who, despite his muscles, lives in almost as much fear of my wife as I do) and Erni (my housemaid, almost-little sister and the worlds greatest coffee maker). On this thread you'll probably read as much about the vagaries of life, book buying and group related statistics as you do about the actual books themselves.


clockwise from top left: Kyran, Paul, Hani, Yasmyne & Belle

2016 Reading

American Author Challenge - Mark (msf59) is on the third year of this great challenge where the task is to read a work by a featured US author each month.

Canadian Author Challenge - This is its inaugural year and I will try to read (and find books for!) as many of the 24 authors featured as I can.

ANZAC Challenge - Set up by Kerry this year. I will try to follow this one alternating between Oz/Nz

Pulitzer Challenge - Bill has created a challenge to read a Pulitzer winner each month in 2016

Chunkster Challenge - Also set up by Bill to take care of that small matter of books over 600 pages!

Non-Fiction Challenge - Suz (Chatterbox) has put this up and I will follow this one too

TIOLI Challenge - Surely needs no introduction!

1001 Books First Edition - I am working my way through these. So far at 262.

Booker Prize Winners - Another one I am wending my way through

Nobel Laureates - I am trying to read something by all the Laureates - so far have read 57 of the 112 winners.

Poetry - I will be trying to read a different collection/anthology each week and at the same time promote poetry in the group (tough one that) which will include my own occasion clumsy scribblings.

Series I have so many I follow Montalbano, Reacher, Hole, Banks, Davenport, Sejer, Allon, Lennox .....and I will be trying to read many of those as I can.

History Another favourite of mine

Political Biography - I am of the left in political terms so I prefer to read more from my heroes than my villains but sometimes it pays to check out what the opposition are up to!

I will try to combine challenges as much as I can to do something in each challenge each month.

BRITISH AUTHOR CHALLENGE 2016

December Thread : http://www.librarything.com/topic/242395

January : Susan Hill & Barry Unsworth
February : Agatha Christie & William Dalrymple
March : Ali Smith & Thomas Hardy
April : George Eliot & Hanif Kureishi
May : Jane Gardam & Robert Goddard
June : Lady Antonia Fraser & Joseph Conrad
July : Bernice Rubens & H.G. Wells
August : Diana Wynne-Jones & Ian McEwan
September : Doris Lessing & Laurie Lee
October : Kate Atkinson & William Golding
November : Rebecca West & Len Deighton
December : WEST YORKSHIRE writers
Wildcard : Rumer Godden and George Orwell

December Reading Plans

TIOLI - I am going to have a go at them this month and I have something to fit all the categories so far:
I also have a BAC which celebrates my home area of West Yorkshire.
I have AAC and Don DeLillo....grrr

1 TIOLI #1 Person you admire : Walking Away by Simon Armitage (BAC) COMPLETED
2 TIOLI #2 Colour & object: Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte (BAC, 1001)
3 TIOLI #3 Book to finish : The Innocence of Father Brown by GK Chesterton COMPLETED
4 TIOLI #4 Numbers in first sentence : Please Mr. Postman by Alan Johnson
5 TIOLI #5 Solstice challenge : The Silent Duchess by Dacia Maraini
6 TIOLI #6 Vehicle on cover : Drive by James Sallis
7 TIOLI #7 Two capitals in surname : The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney
8 TIOLI #8 A work of art : The Modigliani Scandal by Ken Follett
9 TIOLI #9 One or two repeated vowels : The Iron Woman by Ted Hughes (BAC) COMPLETED
10 TIOLI #10 William Trevor book : Mrs. Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel by William Trevor COMPLETED
11 TIOLI #11 Eve in the title : Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor
12 TIOLI #12 Starts with arriving : Mao II by Don DeLillo (AAC, 1001 books)
13 TIOLI #13 A 12 gifts word : The Maytrees by Annie Dillard COMPLETED
14 TIOLI #14 A chunkster : Angel Pavement by J.B. Priestley (BAC)
15 TIOLI #15 Sci-Fi/Fantasy on Earth : The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
16 TIOLI #16 Peace on Earth : Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
17 TIOLI #17 Not Christmasy : Military Blunders by Saul David COMPLETED
18 TIOLI #18 Scandi Book : Midwinter Sacrifice by Mons Kallentoft

If I can manage all of those I also have

19 BOWIE Books : The Outsider by Colin Wilson

as really 120 books should be a minimum for me in one year

Round up of Stats

1001 Books First Edition - Read 270 of 1001

Nobel Winners - Read something by 59 of the 112 Laureates

Pulitzer Fiction/Novel Winners - Read 14 of 88 outright winners

Booker Winners - Read 24 of the 51 winners

Bowie 100 Books - 22 read a further 21 owned

1000 Guardian Books - 316 / 998

I have been keeping records of my reading since coming to Malaysia in 1994. My best reading year in that time was 1995 when I read 179 books. Since joining LT and the 75ers in 2011 these are my reading stats.

2011 119
2012 100 (my lowest since I kept records)
2013 157
2014 146
2015 120
2016 107 (to date)

Since joining LT I have read 749 books over six years or 125 books on average with a month plus to go in 2016

RATIONALISED TBR FROM 1 JANUARY 2017

Fiction Works : 900

Pages : 314,921

Non Fiction Works : 180

Pages : 72,132

Target is to finish this TBR in six years!

BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

FICTION

The North Water by Ian McGuire
Crime Story by Maurice Gee
The Orenda by Joseph Boyden

Non-Fiction

Return of a King : The Battle for Afghanistan by William Dalrymple
Military Blunders by Saul David

Poetry
40 Sonnets by Don Paterson
The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry edited by Rita Dove

BOOKS ADDED SINCE 1 JANUARY 2016

1. Fifteen Dogs Andre Alexis (2015) 159 pp (Added 6 Jan) COMPLETED
2. Rain by Barney Campbell (2015) 362 pp (Added 6 Jan)
3. Coventry by Helen Humphreys (2008) 169 pp (Added 7 Jan -Secret Santa (Katie)) COMPLETED
4. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (2015) 362 pp (Added 14 Jan)
5. How Good We Can Be by Will Hutton (2015) 250 pp (Added 14 Jan)
6. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (1988) 641 pp (Added 14 Jan)
7. The Chimes by Anna Smaill (2015) 289 pp (Added 14 Jan)
8. Wild Swans by Jung Chang (1991) 669 pp (Added 14 Jan)
9. The Black Moon by Winston Graham (1973) 546 PP (Added 14 Jan)
10. Let Me Be Frank With You by Richard Ford (2014) 238 pp (Added 22 Jan)
11. Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker (1992) 270 pp (Added 22 Jan)
12. Cat and Mouse by Gunter Grass (1961) 191 pp (Added 22 Jan)
13. The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino (1969) 129 pp (Added 22 Jan)
14. The Enigma of Arrival by VS Naipaul (1987) 387 pp (Added 22 Jan)
15. Mao II by Don DeLillo (1991) 241 pp (Added 22 Jan)
16. A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham (1990) 343 pp (Added 22 Jan)
17. Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe (1958) 189 pp (Added 22 Jan)
18. Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord by Louis de Bernieres (1991) 280 pp (Added 22 Jan)
19. Spring Flowers, Spring Frost by Ismail Kadare (2000) 182 pp (Added 22 Jan)
20. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (1972) 172 pp (Added 22 Jan)
21. Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts (2014) (Added 29 Jan)
22. March by Geraldine Brooks (Added 29 Jan) COMPLETED
23. The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen (1935) (added 29 Jan)
24. Mary Barton by Mary Gaskell (1848) (added 29 Jan)
25. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (1990) (added 29 Jan)

26. White Crocodile by KT Medina (2014) 374 pp (added 8 Feb)
27. A Brief Stop on the Road From Auschwitz by Goran Rosenberg (2012) 331 pp (added 13 Feb)
28. Martin Dressler by Steven Millhauser (1996) 274 pp (added 13 Feb)
29. The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien (1967) 199 pp (added 20 Feb)
30. The End : Germany 1944-45 by Ian Kershaw (2011) 400 pp (added 20 Feb)
31. In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman (2014) 555 pp (added 20 Feb)
32. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (1929) 293 pp (added 20 Feb)
33. Peacemakers : Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan (2001) 500 pp (added 20 Feb)
34. My Life as a Foreign Country by Brian Turner (2014) 224 pp (added 20 Feb)
35. Astragal by Albertine Sarrazin (1965) 190 pp (added 20 Feb)
36. If He Hollers Let Him Go by Chester Himes (1945) 259 pp (added 20 Feb)
37. The Seven Madmen by Roberto Arlt (1929) 304 pp (added 20 Feb)
38. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (2012) 331 pp (added 20 Feb)
39. Six Days : How the 1967 War Shaped the Middle East by Jeremy Bowen (2003) 373 pp (added 22 Feb)
40. I, The Jury by Mickey Spillane (1947) 164 pp (added 22 Feb)
41. The Life of Elves by Muriel Barbery (2015) 258 pp (added 22 Feb)
42. Ostland by David Thomas (2013) 430 pp (added 22 Feb)
43. Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz (2015) 310 pp (added 26 Feb)
44. The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon (2016) 321 pp (added 26 Feb)
45. Assalamualaikum, May Peace Be Upon You: Observations on the Islamisation of Malaysia by Zaid Ibrahim (2015) 200 pp (added 27 Feb) COMPLETED
46. The Illuminations by Andrew O'Hagan (2015) 293 pp (added 27 Feb)
47. The Children Who Stayed Behind by Bruce Carter (1958) 216 pp (added 27 Feb)
48. Armada by Ernest Cline (2015) 349 pp (added 28 Feb)
49. The Walk and Other Stories by Robert Walser (1957) 197 pp (added 28 Feb)
50. Fatale by Jean-Patrick Manchette (1977) 98 pp (added 28 Feb)
51. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout (2016) 191 pp (added 28 Feb) COMPLETED
52. The Civil War : A History by Harry Hansen (1961) 655 pp (added 28 Feb)
53. The Invisible Guardian by Dolores Redondo (2013) 420 pp (added 28 Feb)
54. Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg (1998) 562 pp (added 28 Feb)
55. The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World by Edward Shepherd Creasy (1851) 380 pp (added 28 Feb)
56. Hitler's Spy by James Hayward (2012) 278 pp (added 28 Feb)

57. A Cautious Approach by Stanley Middleton (2010) 220 pp (added 2 March)
58. Incandescence by Craig Nova (1979) 297 pp (added 2 March)
59. Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid (2014) 343 pp (added 2 March)
60. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (1977) 337 pp (added 2 March)
61. Love in Winter by Storm Jameson (1935) 407 pp (added 2 March)
62. How I Became a Holy Mother by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1976) 363 pp (added 2 March)
63. On Horseback and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant (1877) 130 pp (added 2 March)
64. Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski (2007) 349 pp (added 2 March)
65. Anything but the Law by Tommy Thomas (2016) 334 pp (added 4 March)
66. The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker (2011) 841 pp (added 4 March)
67. Why the West Rules by Ian Morris (2010) 645 pp (added 4 March)
68. Out of Africa by Karen Blixen (1937) 330 pp (added 4 March)
69. Make Me by Lee Child (2015) 544 pp (added 4 March) COMPLETED
70. The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall (2015) 432 pp (added 4 March)
71. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936) 984 pp (added 4 March)
72. The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy (1986) 664 pp (added 7 March) COMPLETED
73. From Restoration to Reform by Jonathan Clarke (2014) 299 pp (added 7 March)
74. Josephine : Desire, Ambitions, Napoleon by Kate Williams (2013) 303 pp (added 7 March)
75. Britain's Royal Families : The Complete Genealogy by Alison Weir (2008) 331 pp (added 7 March)
76. A Brief History of Indonesia by Tim Hannigan (2015) 277 pp (added 12 March)
77. Max Havelaar by Multatuli (1860) 320 pp (added 12 March)
78. Jernigan by David Gates (1991) 339 pp (added 12 March)
79. Private Life by Jane Smiley (2010) 480 pp (added 12 March)
80. Betrayal : The Crisis in the Catholic Church by Matt Carroll (and others) (2002) 265 pp (added 12 March)
81. The Green Road by Anne Enright (2015) 310 pp (added 12 March) COMPLETED
82. When I was Old by Georges Simenon (1970) 452 pp (added 15 March)
83. The Full Catastrophe : Inside the Greek Crisis by James Angelos (2015) 292 pp (added 15 March)
84. No Highway by Nevil Shute (1948) 325 pp (added 19 March)
85. The Italian Girl by Iris Murdoch (1964) 171 pp (added 19 March)
86. Diary of a Mad Old Man by Junichiro Tanizaki (1961) 177 pp (added 19 March)
87. Most Secret by Nevil Shute (1945) 346 pp (added 19 March)
88. Kathleen and Frank by Christopher Isherwood (1971) 510 pp (added 19 March)
89. The Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin (1980) 101 pp (added 19 March)
90. The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen (1948) 330 pp (added 19 March)
91. Sarah Thornhill by Kate Grenville (2011) 304 pp (added 19 March)
92. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn (1980) 688 pp (added 27 March)
93. Home : A Time Traveller's Tales from Britain's Pre-History by Francis Pryor (2014) 290 pp (added 27 March)
94. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing (1962) 576 pp (added 27 March)
95. Ultimate Questions by Bryan Magee (2016) 127 pp (added 31 March)
96. The Four Books by Yan Lianke (2015) 338 pp (added 31 March)
97. Find Me by Laura Van Den Berg (2015) 278 pp (added 31 March)
98. A Reunion of Ghosts by Judith Claire Mitchell (2015) 371 pp (added 31 March)
99. The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1855) 142 pp (added 31 March) COMPLETED
100. The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) 168 pp (added 31 March)

Books bought second quarter

101 The Carpathians by Janet Frame (1988) 196 pp (Added 2 April)
102 Georgy Girl by Margaret Forster (1965) 171 pp (Added 2 April)
103 Great Apes by Will Self (1997) 404 pp (Added 2 April)
104 The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (Added 14 April)
105 My Son, My Son by Howard Spring (Added 14 April)
106 A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin (Added 14 April)
107 Cogan's Trade by George V. Higgins (Added 14 April)
108 The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma (Added 15 April)
109 Common Ground by Andrew Cowan (Added 15 April)
110 The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard (Added 18 April)
111 AWOPBOPALOOBOPALOPBAMBOOM by Nik Cohn (Added 18 April) COMPLETED
112 Montalbano's First Case by Andrea Camilleri (Added 18 April)
113 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad (Added 18 April)
114 I am Radar by Reif Larsen (2015) (Added 18 April)
115Ruby by Cynthia Bond (2015) (Added 18 April) COMPLETED
116 The Faithful Couple by A.D. Miller (Added 18 April)
117 A Strangeness in my Mind by Orhan Pamuk (Added 18 April)
118 The Trial of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens (Added 18 April)
119 How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup by JL Carr (Added 18 April)
120 The Outsider by Colin Wilson (Added 20 April)
121 Puckoon by Spike Milligan (Added 20 April)
122 Why I Am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russell (Added 20 April) COMPLETED
123 Arcadia by Iain Pears (Added 22 April)
124 The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney (Added 22 April)
125 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Added 24 April)
126 A Whole Life : A Novel by Robert Seethaler (Added 24 April)
127 The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild (Added 24 April)
128 The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie (Added 24 April)
129 The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (Added 24 April)
130 The Bird Artist by Howard Norman (Added 27 April) COMPLETED
131 The Edge of the World : How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are by Michael Pye (Added 27 April)
132 A Heart so White by Javier Marias (Added 14 April)

133 Silas Marner by George Eliot (added 3 May)
134 The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley (added 13 May)
135 Girl at War by Sara Novic (added 13 May)
136 Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh (added 13 May)
137 I Saw a Man by Owen Sheers (added 13 May)
138 The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir (added 20 May)
139 Unknown Soldiers by Vaino Linna (added 20 May)
140 Stop Time by Frank Conroy (added 20 May)
141 What Is Left the Daughter by Howard Norman (added 25 May)
142 Black Dogs by Ian McEwan (added 25 May) COMPLETED
143 S. : A Novel about the Balkans by Slavenka Drakulic (added 25 May)
144 The Angry Tide by Winston Graham (added 25 May)
145 The Master by Colm Toibin (added 25 May)
146 Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf (added 25 May)
147 The Secret History of Las Vegas by Chris Abani (added 25 May)
148 Love and Obstacles by Aleksandr Hemon (June 16)
149 The Book of Memory by Pettina Gappah (June 16)
150 The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu (June 16)
151 The Four Swans by Winston Graham (June 16)
152 Three Tales by Gustave Flaubert (June 16)
153 The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (June 16) COMPLETED
154 SPQR : A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard (June 16)
155 The Sympathizer by Viet Tanh Nguyen (June 16)
156 Black Earth : The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder (June 16)
157 The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry edited by Ruth Dove (June 16) COMPLETED
158 The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen (June 16)
159 The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni (June 16)
160 Laurus by Eugene Vodolazin (June 16)

Books Added Third Quarter
July
161. The European Union : A Citizen's Guide by Chris Bickerton COMPLETED
162. Dust by Elizabeth Bear
163. King John : Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta by Marc Morris
164. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
165. Butcher's Crossing by John Williams
166. Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young
167. The Foundation Pit by Andrey Platonov
168. One Man Against the World : The Tragedy of Richard Nixon by Tim Weiner
169. The House of Ulloa by Emilio Pardo Bazan
170. Sweet Caress by William Boyd
171. Vermilion Sands by J.G. Ballard
172. The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
173. The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton COMPLETED
174. The Orphan Train by Christina Bake Kline
175. The Aerodrome by Rex Warner
176. Karl Doenitz and the Last Days of the Third Reich by Barry Turner COMPLETED
177. The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy
178. Hadji Murat by Leo Tolstoy
179. Bad History : How We Got the Past Wrong by Emma Marriott COMPLETED
180. One Bloody Thing After Another by Jacob F. Field
181. The Ends of the Earth : The Wide World by Robert Goddard
182. Morning Sea by Margaret Mazzantini
183. London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins
184. Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby
185. Eileen : A Novel by Otessa Moshfegh COMPLETED
186. Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien COMPLETED
187. The Sellout by Paul Beatty COMPLETED
188. All That Man Is by David Szalay
August
189. Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson
190. Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood
191. In the Dark by Mai Jia
192. The South by Colm Toibin
193. Extraordinary People a.k.a Dry Bones by Peter May
194. Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel
195. A Proper Marriage by Doris Lessing
196. Don't Trust, Don't Fear, Don't Beg by Ben Stewart
197. Questions About Angels by Billy Collins
198. The Dead and the Living by Sharon Olds
199. Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal
200. The Caliphate by Hugh Kennedy
201. Wanderlust : A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit
202. Serious Sweet by A.L. Kennedy
203. Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison
204. Save the Last Dance : Poems by Gerald Stern
205. The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela
206. How Many Miles to Babylon by Jennifer Johnston
207. Embers by Sandor Marai
208. Walking Away by Simon Armitage
209. In the Land of Giants by Max Adams
210. A Change of World by Adrienne Rich
211. The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu
212. Written Lives by Javier Marias
213. The North Water by Ian McGuire COMPLETED
214. Hystopia by David Means
215. Victim Without a Face by Stefan Ahnhem
216. The History of Modern France by Jonathan Fenby
September
217. Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado (1966) 550 pp
218. Unity by Michael Arditti (2005) 369 pp
219. Ted Hughes : The Unauthorised Life by Jonathan Bate (2015) 566 pp
220. Now is the Time by Melvyn Bragg (2015) 357 pp
221. His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet (2015) 280 pp COMPLETED
222. The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati (1939) 265 pp
223. Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter (1964) 308 pp
224. Outlaws by Javier Cercas (2012) 367 pp
225. The Death of Grass by John Christopher (1956) 195 pp
226. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg (2015) 293 pp
227. The Schooldays of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee (2016) 260 pp
228. Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink by Elvis Costello (2015) 670 pp
229. Father and Son by Edmund Gosse (1907) 251 pp
230. Like Dreamers : The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation by Yossi Klein Halevi (2013) 538 pp
231. Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney (1966) 44 pp
232. Slow Horses by Mick Herron (2010) 328 pp
233. Hot Milk by Deborah Levy (2016) 218 pp COMPLETED
234. The Outrun by Amy Liptrot (2016) 280 pp
235. Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (2009) 427 pp
236. The Assistant by Bernard Malamud (1957) 339 pp
237. The Silent Duchess by Dacia Maraini (1990) 319 pp
238. The Many by Wyl Menmuir (2016) 141 pp COMPLETED
239. Horse Latitudes by Paul Muldoon (2006) 106 pp
240. Homesick by Eshkol Nevo (2004) 374 pp
241. At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien (1939) 218 pp
242. Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter (2015) 114 pp COMPLETED
243. Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves (2016) 260 pp
244. The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens (1969) 224 pp
245. The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon (1956) 139 pp
246. Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo (1923) 437 pp

BOOKS ADDED Q4

October
247. Submission by Michel Houellebecq (2015) 250 pp
248. 1916 : A Global History by Keith Jeffrey (2015) 377 pp
249. Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas (2001) 213 pp
250. The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart (1971) 543 pp
251. The History of a Town by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (1870) 287 pp
252. Mindstar Rising by Peter F. Hamilton (1993) 467 pp
253. Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger (1920) 296 pp
254. Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekback (2015) 405 pp
255. Don't Look Now by Daphne du Maurier (1971) 305 pp
256. Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1939) 143 pp COMPLETED
257. The Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russel Wallace (1869) 728 pp
258. Maestra by L.S. Hilton (2016) 394 pp
259. Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue (2013) 261 pp
260. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (1977) 243 pp
261. A Country Road, A Tree by Jo Baker (2016) 289 pp
262. Fellside by M.R. Carey (2016) 486 pp
263. A General Theory of Oblivion by Jose Eduardo Agualusa (2012) 243 pp
264. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (1979) 295 pp COMPLETED
265. Connectography: Mapping the Global Network Revolution by Parag Khanna (2016) 402 pp

November
266. Northmen by John Haywood (2015) 351 pp
267. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann (1966) 417 pp
268. The Silent Cry by Kenzaburo Oe (1967) 274 pp
269. Beatlebone by Kevin Barry (2015) 263 pp
270. Words Under the Words by Naomi Shihab Nye (1995) 157 pp
271. The Final Solution by Michael Chabon (2005) 127 pp Completed
272. The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks (2015) 370 pp
273. Small Town by Rehman Rashid (2016) 64 pp
274. Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson (2015) 315 pp
275. Encounters at the Heart of the World (2014) 336 pp
276. Confabulations by John Berger (2016) 143 pp Completed
277. Icarus by Deon Meyer (2015) 360 pp
278. A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) 319 pp
279. Out in the Midday Sun by Margaret Shennan (2000) 471 pp
280. Pacific by Simon Winchester (2015) 444 pp
281. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (1944) 227 pp
282. Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov (1933) 197 pp
283. Ten Days That Shook the World by John Reed (1919) 414 pp
284. Monkey by Wu Cheng-en (c 1560) 388 pp
285. Grass by Sheri S. Tepper (1989) 540 pp
286. The Presence by Eve Bunting (2003) 195 pp
287. The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West (1956) 432 pp
288. Deep South by Paul Theroux (2015) 441 pp
289. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin (1998) 873 pp
290. The Establishment by Owen Jones (2014) 313 pp
291. The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers (2010) 467 pp
292. Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson (1936) 299 pp
293. Social Class in the 21st Century by Mike Savage (2016) 411 pp
294. The English & Their History by Robert Tombs (2014) 891 pp
295. Confessions : An Innocent Life in Communist China by Kang Zhegguo (2004) 443 pp
296. Hiding in Plain Sight by Nuruddin Farah (2014) 339 pp
297. Northern Lights by Tim O'Brien (1975) 363 pp
298. The Lotus and the Storm by Lan Cao (2014) 386 pp
299. Mood Indigo by Boris Vian (1947) 214 pp
300. Hell and Good Company by Richard Rhodes (2015) 239 pp
301. The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (2014) 460 pp
302. Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant (2009) 461 pp
303. The Jaguar Smile by Salman Rushdie (1987) 137 pp
304. A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft (1792) 296 pp
305. Last in the Tin Bath by David Lloyd (2015) 291 pp
306. The Odessans by Irina Ratushinskaya (1996) 408 pp
307. The Lost by Jonathan Aycliffe (1996) 248 pp
308. Travels in the Interior of Africa by Mungo Park (1805) 388 pp
309. The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence (1964) 301 pp

December
310. Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler (2003) 214 pp
311. Horror in the East by Laurence Rees (2001) 265 pp
312. Natural History by Neil Cross (2007) 279 pp
313. The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1960) 225 pp
314. The Trembling Hills by Phyllis Whitney (1956) 312 pp
315. Someone by Alice McDermott (2013) 232 pp
316. A Company of Planters by John Dodd (2007) 336 pp
317. Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham (2012) 377 pp

BRITISH AUTHOR CHALLENGE

THEME OPTIONS

JANUARY : IRISH BRITONS - ELIZABETH BOWEN & BRIAN MOORE

FEBRUARY : SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY - MARY STEWART & TERRY PRATCHETT

MARCH : A DECADE OF BRITISH NOVELS : The 1960s - 10 Novels by Men; 10 Novels by Women

APRIL: SOUTH YORKSHIRE AUTHORS : AS BYATT & BRUCE CHATWIN

MAY : BEFORE QUEEN VIC : 10 Novels written prior to 1837

JUNE : THE HISTORIANS (Historical Fiction / Historians) GEORGETTE HEYER & SIMON SCHAMA

JULY : SCOTTISH AUTHORS : D.E. STEVENSON and R.L. STEVENSON

AUGUST : BRITAIN BETWEEN THE WARS (Writers active 1918-1939) WINIFRED HOLTBY & ROBERT GRAVES

SEPTEMBER : THE NEW MILLENNIUM (Great Books Since 2000) A novel chosen from each year of the new century

OCTOBER : WELSH AUTHORS (Born in or associated with Wales) : JO WALTON & ROALD DAHL

NOVEMBER : POET LAUREATES : British laureates, children's laureate, National Poets

DECEMBER : WILDCARD (Chosen via a vote) : ELIZABETH GASKELL & NEIL GAIMAN

CURRENTLY READING

The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton



Military Blunders by Saul David



The Maytrees by Annie Dillard

BRITISH AUTHOR CHALLENGE DECEMBER 2017

The results of the vote (with no last minute rush of votes)

Elizabeth Gaskell



&

Neil Gaiman

NEXT IS YOURS

Ha, tried to sneak this one in when everyone was sleeping didn't you Paul? Happy new thread.

>21 Familyhistorian: I guess some of you just never go to sleep Meg! Happy you're first because you are next but one up on my alphabetical rounds today. xx

>22 PaulCranswick: Sleep, it isn't even 10:30 yet. I just live in the part of the world which lags behind everywhere else!

>23 Familyhistorian: I suppose I judge by my own somewhat vampiric standards, Meg!

Happy New Thread. I'm a big fan of Persian cuisine, love their use of herbs.

>25 avatiakh: Hani loves Persian food and I have many Iranian friends most of them sort of exiled and some families divided over here.
She loves their barberry rice whilst I savour a meat stew called ghormeh sabzi

Yes, I love the herbal stews too. My husband's best friend is a Persian Jew and my best memories of Israel are of the Friday night dinners at his friend's home and his mother's cooking. I love their rice cooked with the crunchy bottom layer, yum. Most Israeli - Persian Jews are exiles too. When I learnt Hebrew, many of my fellow classmates were from Iran and told harrowing stories about their journey into exile over mountain passes.

>27 avatiakh: It makes one realise just how confoundedly bad governments are at bringing peoples together doesn't it, Kerry? I find that basically we all want the same things and hold similar values. Food is something that brings all together - and good food without fail! What a currency of love the best cuisines can be. xx

eta Hani loves the crunchy rice at the bottom, too!

I haven't heard of The Maytrees, by Annie Dillard. Loved her autobiographical childhood story though!

And I have no doubt that you can carry out any resolution (new years or other) that you set your mind to!

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread.

Happy new thread, Paul, you look good, even without beard ;-)

>9 PaulCranswick: Good luck with your TIOLI sweep!

Happy New Thread, Paul! It is 1:30 am here, but it Saturday night, not that we have done anything special. And Dave has to work tomorrow. Yummy looking foods, Paul.

Happy new one, Paul. I checked the BAC 2017 with my local library. I'll be in but not with too many books due to not being available for me.

I love vegetarian Persian food. What a wonderful opening gambit to your thread Paul. You will make us hungry at every visit.

I'm scratching my head at TIOLI? It needs introduction for this nit wit hehe.

>29 LovingLit: It is a little folksy and the heroine of the book is simply too nice to properly savour it! The Maytrees was shortlisted for the PENFaulkner award in 2008 and is definitely well written. It sort of reminds me of Anne Tyler.

>30 amanda4242: Thanks Amanda. You are one of my buddies that have definitely contributed to my rattling through to 25 threads this year and I love the company of all my great friends here.

>31 paulstalder: Thanks Paul. You are of course the original Paul of the group and still, I reckon, the groups star book adder. I probably spend the most in the group on books (or did!) but you have consistently outdone me in actual numbers added being smart enough to pick 'em up by the box load!

>32 FAMeulstee: You are too kind, Anita. I normally wear the beard as a disguise! I cannot disguise up top though my consternation at being faced with so much food.

>33 vancouverdeb: It is great when you don't need to work tomorrow isn't it? I have another busy week ahead but I am, for a change, looking forward to the challenge. All my best to Dave.

>34 Ameise1: Barbara - I thought this year's list was slightly more difficult to track down in terms of having something to read than the one mooted for 2017. I hope you can join in often, Barbara as I always welcome your comments.

>35 Caroline_McElwee: Caroline, TIOLI is Take It Or Leave It, a monthly reading challenge in the group where categories are chosen and books read to fit each challenge. I am pants at it to be honest.

The dish in the foreground which looks like beef is actually made of aubergines and is delicious.

104.

Military Blunders by Saul David

Date of Publication : 1997
Pages : 387
Non-Fiction Challenge

Good start to December with this book by the Welsh historian dissecting a large number of military cock-ups in a very entertaining manner.

Incompetent generals, meddling ministers, overconfidence, poor planning, poor fighting performance - all these are the respective sections and he gives some great examples of each. Of course the fall of Singapore and Crete were for me particularly difficult to read about but I did enjoy reading as to how and why we thrashed the French at Crecy.

I would heartily recommend this narrative form of history which informs but does not get too bogged down.

8/10

Happy new thread Paul. Interesting choices for the BAC.
Love the food - now tempted to find a Persian cookbook.

>39 charl08: Persian food will be my treat when we meet up......presuming we can find, erm, Persian food of course.

>39 charl08: I can recommend Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour. I've not trialed as much as I'd have liked yet, but the recipes I have cooked have been a success.

>39 charl08: - A new cookbook that is getting a lot of buzz here lately is called Taste of Persia http://www.librarything.com/work/18178402 by a local writer named Naomi Duguid. Here is a link:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28440201-taste-of-persia. The comments here are good, too

I heard her interviewed and have browsed through the photos (she is the photographer, too) at the bookstore and it really does make you drool. As does your table, up there, Paul!!

Happy New Thread, Paul! That meal topper looks fantastic. I am sure you enjoyed it. I hope you put in some R & R this weekend

>41 Caroline_McElwee: Are there good Persian restaurants in London we could perhaps sample next time I am over and after we have relieved the stores of most of their poetry collections?

>42 jessibud2: Thanks for that Shelley.

Given a choice, I think I prefer Thai cuisine to Persian. Here was the spread last Sunday when Hani and I decided to 'snack'.

Hi Paul! Excellent start to your 25th thread! I love the topper with you looking over all those lovely choices. And the snack choices just above are just as delectable looking.

I thought the name Saul David looked familiar and realize that I have his The Prince of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency on my shelves. I started it but don't remember why I put it down.

It was so much easier to find a variety of cuisines when I lived in Los Angeles. I was more adventuresome food-wise then, too. Here, in the wilds of central North Carolina, there's nothing closer than 45 minutes except for one 'Asian fusion' restaurant, which only opened up a year ago. At least they have Thai options!

edited to fix 25th thread, not 24th!

>45 karenmarie: You made me go up top and check, Karen; this is #25!
Kuala Lumpur is brilliantly served by restaurants and still comparatively inexpensive ones at that. If you ever make it over here you will feast alongside Hani and I to your heart's content. xx

>46 PaulCranswick: Sorry - fixed my thread above. 25th it is.

What a temptation. Visit a friend, meet his lovely wife, and feast to our heart's content. Don't hold your breath, but who's to say? *smile*

^Did you miss me up there? The Postie with the Mostie?

Question: Can you supply me with a couple Must Read, West Yorkshire authors? I will also check the latest BAC thread.

Wow! That food looks delish! I'm very jealous.

Gained two cookbooks for the wishlist - thanks! Liverpool is going through a great time for restaurants with lots of new independent little places to try.

>43 msf59: & >48 msf59: Sorry mate we cross posted which is why I missed you first time around.

West Yorkshire authors

Classics

George Gissing
Charlotte Bronte
Arthur Ransome
J.B. Priestley

Modern Classics

David Storey
John Braine
Stan Barstow
Keith Waterhouse

Modern Novels

David Peace
Caryl Phillips
Ross Raisin
Lindsay Clarke

Thrillers

Peter Robinson
John Connor
Reg Gadney
Patricia Hall

Sci-Fi /Fantasy

Nicola Griffith
Charles Stross

Plays

Alan Bennett
John Godber

Poetry

Ted Hughes
Tony Harrison
Simon Armitage
Alfred Austin

Not a cop-out buddy, but there is something to suit all tastes here.

Try In a Dry Season by Peter Robinson
The Damned United by David Peace
or
This Sporting Life by David Storey

as three titles that pretty much have place written all over them.

I would also recommend to you the poems of Simon Armitage; his Paper Aeroplane is a good selection of his work to 2014.

>47 karenmarie: You never know, Karen. xx

>49 The_Hibernator: I didn't get to my peculiar shape without the greatest of provocations, Rachel!

>50 charl08: We enjoyed visiting the Docklands area where the Beatles museum is, Charlotte. A lot of spirit in that city. Hope to be there later this month or early the next one.

Happy new thread, Paul! Oh my goodness, all the scrumptious food talk and amazing photos have me salivating and somehow the cinnamon rolls I made this morning from scratch are just not cutting it. :0(

Happy new thread, sir!

>53 Carmenere: Oooh I don't know; Lynda, I am very partial to cinnamon rolls.

>54 scaifea: Thank you kind lady. xx

>50 charl08: - Are you in London? Isn't there a restaurant there owned and operated by Yotam Ottolenghi? I have one of his cookbooks. Rather elaborate but he is known for his Middle eastern influences (he is Israeli by birth and background). The pictures alone in his cookbooks will make your stomach growl.

>56 jessibud2: I will let Charlotte answer herself, Shelley, but I know her to be a lady of the English North West. I am familiar with the restaurants of Leeds and Manchester which are both well endowed with a variety of cuisines. I know of a couple of pretty good, if unpretentious Iranian restaurants in Leeds; Safran and Haftsin restaurants are both pretty good.

>51 PaulCranswick: Thank you so much for this. Sorry, if I was being lazy. I might try Swallows and Amazons if I can find it. I usually do not like to read a crime series out of order, so would the Robinson work anyway?

And I will see if I can request the Armitage. I had not heard of him.

>58 msf59: Then for Robinson you should start with Gallows View. Warning though......he becomes a bit addictive.

I think you would like Armitage. He has some of the attributes of Ted Hughes without being anywhere near as dark. He is one of the most popular poets currently writing in England.

>57 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul. Yay for Lancashire! (Controversial...)

Re great northern eating- Have you ever had a curry in Bradford? Some of the best meals I've ever eaten in my life.

Walking Home: A Poet's Journey sounds interesting too. Kind of a British A Walk in the Woods.

Unfortunately the Armitage poetry collections are not available. I will ask for a deeper search, when I go to the library later today.

Have you read the Ransome?

>60 charl08: OMG don't get me started on the Curries of West Yorkshire. Chicken Tikka Massala ddidn't become a national dish by accident. Wakefield has some excellent Indian restaurants but there are a couple in Huddersfield and Bradford that are simply knock-out.

I am pro-Lancastrian having worked for a company based in Altrincham with offices in Ashton-Under-Lyne and on Cheetham Hill Road in the centre of Manchester in the shadow of that Victorian monstrosity Strangeways Jail. I do think our restaurants in Yorkshire win out although the Chinese restaurants of Manchester Chinatown are worthy of the renown they have attained.

>61 msf59: I haven't read Swallows and Amazons, Mark, but Ransome was some character by all accounts and operated as a spy (some felt as a double-agent) in the Russia of the immediate Revolution period.

This is Armitage's poem I am Very Bothered

I am very bothered when I think
of the bad things I have done in my life.
Not least that time in the chemistry lab
when I held a pair of scissors by the blades
and played the handles
in the naked lilac flame of the Bunsen burner;
then called your name, and handed them over.

O the unrivalled stench of branded skin
as you slipped your thumb and middle finger in,
then couldn't shake off the two burning rings. Marked,
the doctor said, for eternity.

Don't believe me, please, if I say
that was just my butterfingered way, at thirteen,
of asking you if you would marry me.

Wicked little poem, Paul. I like it. Interesting about Ransome.

>64 msf59: He is a very subversive poet, Mark. Ransome knew the famous Reilly Ace of Spies and some believe he played a part in his discovery by the Russians.

Oh, Paul, I am drooling here ... Persian and then Thai. Some snack, hehe!

>66 lit_chick: Some snack to survive
Just snack to stay alive
Some feast, feast their eyes
And if they don't they're telling lies.

Nice to see here, Nancy.

105.

The Maytrees by Annie Dillard

Date of Publication : 2007
Pages : 2016
American Author Challenge : November

***SPOILER ALERT***

I saw what happened to my mother in the aftermath of my Father's philandering. There are no accommodations, no 'just good friends'; just tears and snot and recriminations.

In the Maytrees there is just such an act of treachery as Maytree runs off with his wife's best friend. Now I am not saying the wife's reaction is unbelievable but Dillard created someone both saint like as well as pretty one-dimensional.

Well written in a sort of Anne Tyler homespun style befitting not perhaps to the subject matter but to the subject's reaction to what matters.

7/10

Feasting with eyes is all to the good
Like tasting the scents, if only I would
Limit the portions just like I should--
Ah, lovely fantasy. If only I could!

Good morning, Paul!

Love the food photos! My favorite Persian dish is orange chicken.

I am going to start Lucy Gault today I think.

Happy new thread Paul, hope you have had a good weekend and I see that your team is having a really good run at the moment so that should please Cellino especially as he was not impressed at first but Monk is proving his worth and maybe Swansea might be regretting getting shut of him.

>69 ronincats: Touche dear Roni!

>70 banjo123: And I am starting Mrs Eckdorf, Rhonda.

>71 johnsimpson: Gary Monk is doing really well, John. Let's hope we make the EPL for next season.

Did a good one hour walk this morning before work. Now I have to go and find the charger for my fitbit.

>71 johnsimpson: I love these conversations between you and John, Paul. I know it's English, but I generally don't understand a word of it--guy sports talk goes way over my head. ;)

>74 kac522: Well Kathy at least we were talking about the relatively comprehensible soccer rather than our usual dose of cricket.

>9 PaulCranswick: Oh Paul, I hate to be the bearer of unfortunate tidings, but there have been more challenges added to the December TIOLI's! I think there are 18 challenges now, but that should be it as no more can be added after today.

I do love your opening picture, that food looks fantastic!

>76 DeltaQueen50: Well 18 is a little more daunting. The only time I have ever done a sweep was 27 so I will give it a good go.

>36 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul, for the honors. Well, you're right, I am more in the cataloguing department of LT and you are more present at the communication part, which is good. You give many good inputs (outputs?) for reading interesting authors and books - and lists. Thank you for all your effort you're putting into LT.

>42 jessibud2: Just a little help for those who struggle with the touchstones:
If you add the number shown at the URL of a LT work to the title in square brackets, it will lead to the correct work. Regard the round brackets below () as square brackets
(Taste of Persia) can lead to different works. Look at the URL of the work:
http://www.librarything.com/work/18178402
Now copy that number after /work/ - 18178402 - into the brackets before the title and add two colons:
Taste of Persia = (18178402::Taste of Persia)

106

The Innocence of Father Brown by GK Chesterton

Date of Publication : 1911
Pages : 263

This was the first outing in collected form for the reluctant sleuth and world weary Priest, Father Brown. These 12 stories are enjoyable although they start to have a similar feel to them towards the end as Brown's method is predictable to the reader by this stage.

I enjoyed the second story, "The Secret Garden" the most with our villain/hero Flambeau, the great French detective Valentin and the stubby, understated cleric all featuring along with copious post-prandials and several guillotined heads.

Good light entertainment.

7/10

>78 paulstalder: Well in fairness Paul I buy more than I catalogue(!) and I must bring that up to speed soon.

Thanks for the assistance and tutorial with the touchstones - very instructive~!

Currently Reading:

Walking Away by Simon Armitage

Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel by William Trevor

The Iron Woman by Ted Hughes

>78 paulstalder: - Thank you for that. But my totally non-techie brain must ask, how do I even find the right URL in the first place? The formula you show me makes sense and looks easy enough but if the touchstone leads me to the wrong book connection in the first place, how would I know what the correct URL would be? I honestly have no clue how these things work; feels like the best I can do is just note and mention that the touchstone isn't correct.

(Can I just copy that link right now into my original post to correct the wrong touchstone?)

edited to add that I just tried it and I think that's the best I can do. It doesn't show the title the way a correct touchstone does but I added that separately.

Hi Paul!

An easy to find the right touchstone is to click on the (others) link when you see the incorrect book in the Touchstones at the right of your message as you're typing it. Using Taste of Persia as the example, if you don't want the book by Najmieh Batmanglij, click (others) and you'll see



Click on the second book listed, by Naomi Duguid, and it will use that work within your touchstone.

Edited to add: I just discovered that you cannot get BOTH touchstones to work in the same message.

>82 jessibud2: I see. You put the whole URL in the place of the title. It suffices to add the number into the square brackets only.

I work usually with two tabs or windows. then I copy-paste the number from the work page and switch to the other window/tab where I insert the number.

If you want to to know more, you can send me a private message (click on my name above and write into the 'Post to paulstalder's wall').

>83 karenmarie: Thank you, that's a good hint. But it doesn't work when cataloguing a work for the first time or have a short title which is often used like Cosmos - looking for the exhibition book from the Montreal Museum .... a bit tiresome.

>82 jessibud2: Shelley, I sort of half followed the comments by Paul. You look to have followed them about three-quarters!

>83 karenmarie: That is the route I always take, Karen. I suppose it becomes an issue on those rare occasions that the book you are looking for isn't an option.

>84 paulstalder: I don't really use it for cataloguing as for identifying it on my thread. You can find most books this way in fairness to Karen and yours looks hugely complicated to the more simple minded like myself.

>85 PaulCranswick: Oh, sorry, I didn't mean cataloguing, but when catalogued for the first time... (if I want to list the newly acquired book into my add-on lists :) )

Thanks, Paul, for letting us talk shop here.

>86 paulstalder: It is fascinating Paul and shows that there is more than one road to the same destination.

Happy New Thread, mate.

Looking like you're having very healthy vittles up there in >1 PaulCranswick:.

That's quite an Armitage poem up in >63 PaulCranswick:. Ah, yes, I remember the days of bumbling love. "Love hurts" - it sure does in that one.

>88 jnwelch: Thanks Joe. I love that word - "vittles".

Armitage can be a subversive son of a gun.

I went to several of Armitages readings when he started out. I saw a lot of him and of Paul Muldoon.

Vittles ha, puts me to sea, be there pirates?

>83 karenmarie:, >84 paulstalder: - Thanks, both of you. I am heading out for the day and will play around with it later on, when I can spend more time. And hopefully, more patience, too, if I'm honest. ;-) I love that there is always someone here to help out who understands more than I do (which is to say, pretty much anyone! )

I think it would be difficult to find Persian food in my area of the Midwest that specializes in fried chicken! It looks delicious, though, and will try to sample it on my next trip to Denver.

I totally failed at my challenges this year, Paul. I do like having all those categories and suggested authors to choose from. I will continue to list the challenges on my thread next year and hopscotch my way through them! I plan to go back a few months and read Cider With Rosie since it is one of your favorites and I was lucky enough to find a good copy at our library's autumn book sale.

>90 Caroline_McElwee: Ah! Muldoon; another of my favourites. There is no dearth of quality in poetry nowadays, it is merely knowing where to look with so much stuff being put out there.

>91 jessibud2: Paul S certainly does appear to know his stuff when it comes to all the tech-ie stuff.

>92 Donna828: I think the various challenges are great at providing good reading options - I do tend to look at as many as possible - AAC, BAC, CAC, ANZAC, Doorstopper challenge, Pulitzer, Non-Fiction Challenge. I cannot get a full house in all these challenges but I do so enjoy seeing which ones I can fit in.
Cider with Rosie is a real favourite of mine, Donna, it is amongst the most poetic of prose works I can think of.

107.

The Iron Woman by Ted Hughes

Date of Publication : 1993
Pages : 87
British Author Challenge December

Ted Hughes was poet laureate, a hero of mine with the pen and the right starting point for me for the British Author Challenge this month celebrating as it does the writers from my home area.

Hughes' poetry celebrates the natural world, its barbarous ways its obvious trenchant bestiality and man's impact upon and place in it. It does so with a visceral rawness that has impacted me more than that of any poet writing after the second world war.

So far so good. This however was pretty lousy fare. It was an attempt at Hughes' writing a story for children that both would leave them afeared and would also have them thinking about the environment and pollution. Serious subjects certainly but Hughes should have stuck to the medium he excelled in. This was turgid stuff and I wouldn't recommend it to even his most ardent of followers.

5/10

Have you read his The Iron Man, Paul? Our teacher read that to us in primary school. Would guess it is better from your comments about the sequel.

>95 charl08: I haven't read it Charlotte but it was hailed upon its release wasn't it? The Iron Man makes a cameo appearance here but doesn't save it at all.

There is an animated movie based on The Iron Man called The Iron Giant, and it is excellent.

I managed to sneak in a little more book buying yesterday and thankfully all were heavily discounted and one given me by a client. One addition is directly as a result of the BAC 2017 discussions and specifically the good press put up for Harry Bingham.

312. Natural History by Neil Cross (2007) 279 pp
313. The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1960) 225 pp
314. The Trembling Hills by Phyllis Whitney (1956) 312 pp
315. Someone by Alice McDermott (2013) 232 pp
316. A Company of Planters by John Dodd (2007) 336 pp
317. Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham (2012) 377 pp

Neil Cross is a writer whose books have often been recommended to me as a sort of hybrid between literary fiction and thrillers. Singer is a favourite author. The Phyllis Whitney is part of a Hodder series of modern classics and I'll admit to never having heard of it. Alice McDermott has been nominated for literary prizes on numerous occasions in the US. The book on the Planter was given to me by Mr. Kenneth Fisher of Ayrshire who works with me on the Spirit Aerosystems projects and who spends more time discussing history with me than production spaces. The Harry Bingham is the obvious starting point for his work.

>97 ursula: I have heard tell of its excellence too, Ursula. I wanted to like the sequel (not having or having read the original) and was so disappointed not to. I think if it were you and I trying to get that published the rejection letters would have been as terse as they would have been predictable.

>179 PaulCranswick: Paul, have you seen any of the BBC "Father Brown" TV series? It stars Mark Williams as Father Brown and is set in the 1950s. The best episodes are the ones with Flambeau, where Father Brown & Flambeau have dueling barbs about ethics, theology & the Church.

>100 kac522: I haven't seen that version Kathy, but I have seen the ones with Kenneth More in the role and enjoyed them.

Paul--Love your photo topper. If I had that for dinner, I would be a blimp!! Your metabolism must be better than mine. Oh! Then you threw in pictures of more food! >26 PaulCranswick: >44 PaulCranswick:. Dang. Now I am hungry. And it is late at night here. So, I am angry. No, hangry! And then there is the poem in >63 PaulCranswick:. "I Am Bothered." That sums it up. LOL

Just kidding you. Congrats on the new thread. Hugs.

>102 Berly: Reasonable and accurate summation of the first third of thread #25 (first fifth if you're Peggy). Nice to see you as always Kimmers!

All that food talk is making me grateful its after 10pm so can't be too tempted ......

Paul see your football team could make the jump next year .... but will they sabotage themselves???

>104 roundballnz: Our teams song is "Marching on Together" - we have made a pretty poor fist of doing that over the last 14 years or so. I am hopeful that our young and quite vibrant side is on the up but I have said as much on numerous previous occasions only to be disappointed.

Interesting haul Paul - I've not heard of any of them! Amazing how many books there are out there...

Mr Kenneth Fisher sounds like a great colleague to have.

>106 charl08: Kenny is a great guy, Charlotte. His father was a Seargent of some description in the war tasked as a look out at Kuantan on Malaysia's East Coast. When he telegraphed about the Japanese air incursions the officer on station at Singapore thought he was drunk on duty! He spent the war as a guest of the Japanese military in Java and had, according to Mr. Fisher, no fondness for either the Japanese or the colonial stiff upper lips who so crassly denigrated Britain's martial glory in Singapore and Malaya.

I just had to skip 3 full threads to get here, and had to skim-read this one as well. I've been a terrible follower, but I promise already that I'll try again next year!! (can't promise I'll be better, but I'll be here)

That food in the thread topper looks SO delicious, especially that colorful rice(?) and veggie bowl in the middle. Didn't have enough lunch, so your thread makes me quite hungry. :)

Have a lovely week!

>108 Deern: Plenty of really tasty vegetarian food from Persia, Nathalie. I can't keep up with myself half the time so I am always surprised that you would be surprised at my being surprised about the travails of keeping up. I am glad to have you along whenever you fancy dropping by - there is no need to try and keep up. xx

Quite proud of my brother today as he turned away an order for his company as the Procurement Manager of a prospective client made a very inappropriate remark to a female member of his marketing team along the lines of what he expected from her for Christmas.

Speaking of highly inappropriate........

The pharmacy has announced that Tampax will be replacing their normal strings for tinsel. Apparently it only relates to the Christmas period. (Sorry!).

Speaking of food, I have to say Hani has been a fantastic teacher and mentor to our wonderful maid and the world's finest coffee maker, Erni. When she arrived on our doorstep 15 years ago as a 15 year old girl (with a passport declaring she was 26!!) she had not a word of English and we were more worried about looking after her than she was of looking after us.

Fifteen years on and she is very much part of our family, speaks good english and is a wonderful cook to boot. How many young ladies from a small fisherman's island as part of the Indonesian Riau Islands can cook Shepherd's Pie like any Yorkshire lady would be proud of?:

>110 PaulCranswick: Lovely story, and how lucky she was to fall into your lives and be helped along the way. And now I'm hungry!

Agreed. Lovely story re Erni, Paul.

>111 lunacat: Both sides got a good deal, I think Jenny. I think I got the best deal of all as I am typing with one of her fantastic coffees beside me.

>112 jnwelch: Thanks Joe. She got a pay rise today so she is pretty pumped too.

Happy new thread, Paul, even if I am late enough that 100+ posts have already come and gone. In response to your comments in your last thread, I definitely think the amount of posting on others' threads affects the amount of posting on one's own. I can barely keep up reading the threads I follow, and post less frequently than some, but I definitely see an uptick in comments on my thread when I've been posting more often.

It's always fun to see the AAC, BAC and other challenges come together even though I've not been a participant. Due to the amount of reading I already do for work - approximately 36 books a year for various book groups - I don't expect that to change anytime soon but it's fun to follow everyone exploring one author.

Hi Paul. Two and a half threads worked their way along during my absence. I see that the BAC has taken good shape for 2017. I will have it on my radar although I will, as usual, be an occasional rather than a puritan participant. :-)

I need to read more William Trevor. You introduced me to him a few years ago and there is still much to be appreciated there.

I hope you're doing well. I will try to keep up a bit better now that I'm caught up with my own thread! Heh.

>114 bell7: There is a definite co-efficient between visiting and being visited, Mary. What that is exactly I cannot quite determine. In the earlier days of the group Stasia, Richard, Linda, Kath were great visitors around the threads and I suppose it is human nature to pay the courtesy of return visits.
The British Author Challenge is tailored to be able to be dipped in and out of.

>115 EBT1002: Lovely to see you as always, Ellen.
William Trevor was quite prolific so there is a fair old body of work to go at, particularly his excellent short stories. The book of his I am reading right now is a very quirky affair and one is easily drawn in.

Shepherds pie looks wonderful Paul. Compliments to the chef!

I had a wander into one of the local second hand shops on my way home today, picked up The Ministry of Pain. I'm grnerally surprised what turns up in a second hand shop...

>117 charl08: I miss second hand shops here, Charlotte. There is one used book store in an old mall not too far from my home but it seems to be closed more often than not and the selection suffers from a very slow turn around.

Shepherd's Pie is a favourite of mine and I am still marvelling at the burned top layer of skin in the roof of my mouth which invariably results from my haste is sampling it!

Hello Paul! I hope all is well with you. I admit that every time I see William Trevor, I think of Trevor Howard. Oh well. I looked into WT's works and landed on the title Silence in the Garden. Have you read this one? If so, what did you think?

>119 brodiew2: No Brodie, that is not one I have had the pleasure of yet. It is one of his that is not so regularly in print but I am hopeful that his publisher will be generous to us and release all his back catalogue so that I can finally get them all collected.

>110 PaulCranswick: that looks gooooood!!!

Shepherd's Pie. YUM.

>121 ChelleBearss: It was excellent, Chelle.

>122 EBT1002: Today it will be toad-in-the-hole but using chicken sausages instead of pork.

>123 PaulCranswick: Huh, I've always wondered what toad-in-the-hole is. Judging by the photo, it's sausage in a pastry?

>124 amanda4242: It is actually sausage cooked in Yorkshire pudding to be exact and a staple of my home area. Served with mashed potatoes and onion gravy and you have a dish fit for a Prince.

>125 PaulCranswick: Ahh! Thank you for enlightening me!

That shepherds pie looks just delicious Paul!Oh I want some! I've never had toad in the hole, but you have me drooling. Seriously, is tampax going to use tinsel over the holidays? Say it's not so, Paul ;)

Shepherds pie & Toad in the hole .... you are making me wish it was not summer so I can devour such feasts ......

>110 PaulCranswick: lovely story. I only eat shepherd-less pie though :-)

Oh, gosh, Shepherd's Pie and Yorkshire Pudding are two of my favorite things. So delicious!

>1 PaulCranswick:. That is a very big portion for one, Paul!

>123 PaulCranswick:. Cue the "why did the chicken sit in the hole" jokes.

Hi, Paul! Hope the work week is going well for you. I also need to read more Trevor. I have a story collection I have to bookhorn in.

>126 amanda4242: And delicious it was too!

>127 vancouverdeb: I would have to say it is not so, Deb! I don't really see it as a cool marketing tool as it is hardly likely to be put up for display!

>128 roundballnz: I would agree that it is a better cold weather food than a warm climate one, but it is hardly arctic conditions here and I still enjoyed it well enough.

>129 Caroline_McElwee: I have had a version of it cooked with lentils that was almost the equal of the traditional recipe, Caroline.

>130 scaifea: Food, books and friends are a perfect combination, Amber and I have all three in the group. xx

>131 sirfurboy: Hahaha Sir F, I would admit to being a tad on the greedy side but that was for sharing! Hani and Kyran both had some. I hope you will enlighten us about the poor chicken!

>132 msf59: Working week shows a fair bit of promise so far. Busy as always though.

Hi Paul, so Jennings will make his debut tomorrow as Cook's new opening Partner but the top six are going to have to come to the party when we bat to mount a decent score and hopefully the bowlers will be able to take wickets and keep things tight. Well I can wish for this to happen and asking Santa will be too late ha ha.

>135 johnsimpson: I wish him well, John. Personally I don't think the top order needed another left hander but he has had a good year and I suppose deserves his chance. I would have preferred Bell-Drummond but fingers crossed for him. I noticed that Leach ran straight through the opposition in the unofficial ODI in the UAE. Why on earth Dawson was sent when we needed someone who could support Rashid and get wickets.

>136 PaulCranswick:, It used to be that to get the eye of the selectors you needed runs, wickets or catches and stumpings in domestic cricket to get into the national side, Leach did that in spades and nothing happened. Dawson has been in international cricket so they go to him yet he hasn't done much yet Jennings has done what needed to be done, doesn't square up. On the reverse as soon as you are on a bad run you are dropped which is correct, think they need to sort out the criteria for picking and dropping so that the likes of me and you can understand their picks, don't think that will happen.

>137 johnsimpson: I also think what county you play for counts. I would like to get back to a dumping of the central contracts. A county game with one division and three limited overs competitions that make sense. A fifty over competition (although personally I preferred 60 overs a side) and a long overdue return of the Sunday League 40 over a side. The knock-about stuff of the 20/20 should replace the old Benson and Hedges.
So 17 county games. All players available for selection unless they are actually playing for England.
Sunday League and other competitions ditto.

I also liked the idea of a Probables against Possibles start to the season.

Possibles :

Bell-Drummond, Westley, Gubbins, Hildreth, Foakes, Curran, Barker, Overton, Rayner, Leach, Brooks

>26 PaulCranswick: I made ghormeh sabzi yesterday, just left out the kidney beans. I used this recipe.

>139 avatiakh: If I am not mistaken Kerry that is the one that Hani uses. I think you have helped me decide my menu for this evening!

We all loved it, I've made it before but not for a long time. Well, one of my sons ate part of a dried lime thinking it was a mushroom so he wasn't as impressed as the rest of us.
I'm a fan of the blog, one of several food blogs that I try to keep up with.

>141 avatiakh: I am sure if the group had a pot-pourri evening where each member brought their own dishes it would be a rip-roaring success. I would of course have to rely on my back-up team to keep me in the game!

I actually like the dried limes!

News out of Ghana is mixed. The Government there seems to have been soundly beaten at the polls. Our partner is the Defence Industry Holdings Company of Ghana (the Army, basically) so that won't matter too much but I am sad for the High Commissioner of Ghana to Malaysia who will be replaced and it will definitely hurt our plans to build and develop their new Embassy building in Malaysia. It is also sad to see the Foreign Minister lose her seat as she is a very impressive lady and her sister is a close personal friend of mine.

108.

Walking Away by Simon Armitage

Date of Publication : 2015
Pages : 271
British Author Challenge December 2016

This is a companion piece to his Walking Home which documented his trudging the Pennine Way and living off the proceeds of his takings from poetry readings along the way.

There is a lot to admire here as Huddersfield poet Armitage wends his way along the South West coastal pathways from Somerset to the tip of Cornwall. The descriptions of his surroundings are lyrical as you would expect but tend to pall a little as one place seamlessly runs into the other. Where the book excels is when he talks about writing and writers and people and legends. He takes tea with Margaret Drabble, reminisces on the death of Heaney as his walk coincides with that sad occurrence, passes the home of John Le Carre and follows in the footsteps of Clare, Coleridge, Tennyson and somewhat grudgingly of Betjeman.

Enjoyed it. Enjoyed his humour and enjoyed the fact that Armitage is in so many ways an ordinary bloke but one with an above-ordinary talent.

8/10

>144 PaulCranswick: Nice review, Paul. Sounds intriguing. I need to read more of his poetry.

>138 PaulCranswick:, I agree with everything you have written, I would love to go back to this and I think there would be good crowds. I was really chuffed for Jennings with his maiden Test ton on debut even though he had a life before he scored and then he made that Indian error pay with a ton. Just what was Ali doing and Jonny will be kicking himself, hopefully Stokes and Buttler can get a good start in the morning and build our score into something that can be worked with.

I wonder what Cellino is going to do now that he has been banned for eighteen months and fine a quarter of a million, hope it doesn't affect the squad and they continue the good work Monk has them playing.

>145 jnwelch: I suppose if my own area was to have a Laureate it would be Simon Armitage, Joe. His insights into the writing process are subtle in the book but they are there.

>146 johnsimpson: Yes mate, the ECB don't seem to give a hoot about the likes and desires of the cricketing public. Everyone I know mourns the loss of the Sunday League so why aren't they listening. We also had the farce of Bairstow being prevented by that Wally Strauss from playing against his own county in the Championship decider. It may not have mattered but we'll never know. This would be prevented without the central contracts.

I was pleased for Jennings too and I hope he kicks on. Stokes and Buttler will both want to bash the ball around so they may not be out there long. Let's hope we can get to 400.

I do think that the FA and FL single out Cellino. A very minor infraction with an agent which has been done by every club owner in the country and he is the one they throw the book at. I have personal knowledge (because I attended a meeting with him) that the CEO of the Football League, Shaun Harvey, tried to sell the club out from under him and the whole thing is a disgrace. If they were even handed it would be ok. Look at West Ham and Tevez. They play him when his transfer broke every rule in the book and he kept them up. The sanctions were minimal and no West Ham owner got banned.

>148 PaulCranswick:, The ECB are a disgrace to be honest and will ruin our game rather than help it, the only bright spot is to make sure all England players will be available for the Day/Night Pink ball round of Championship matches and I am looking forward to it. Last week after Rob let me know he would be away and couldn't go to see Kiss in Birmingham so it will be a Father/Daughter time at the gig but he asked me if I wanted to go with him to the Yorkshire V Surrey Day/Night Championship game and I said yes so it will be a Father/Son day there. Nice to have quality time with the kids even if they are 27 and 29.

>149 johnsimpson: I bet that will be fun John. I am not against innovation and day/night matches will entertain but I really don't understand why the ECB doesn't listen because the England team would be stronger with a healthier domestic game.

Great to see the Armitage review Paul. I like this one the best:

And if it snowed and snow covered the drive
he took a spade and tossed it to one side.
And always tucked his daughter up at night
And slippered her the one time that she lied.
And every week he tipped up half his wage.
And what he didn't spend each week he saved.
And praised his wife for every meal she made.
And once, for laughing, punched her in the face.

And for his mum he hired a private nurse.
And every Sunday taxied her to church.
And he blubbed when she went from bad to worse.
And twice he lifted ten quid from her purse.

Here's how they rated him when they looked back:
sometimes he did this, sometimes he did that.

by Simon Armitage

>151 charl08: Yeo, Charlotte, Armitage does have a wicked sense of humour and I hesitate, a Northern one at that.

He does a fine job with almost rhymes too.

>123 PaulCranswick: "...but using chicken sausages instead of pork." Much healthier.

>123 PaulCranswick: Well there is that, Ellen, I suppose but I don't take pork so the traditional toad-in-the-hole is out.

>151 charl08: I've always loved that poem. It's so human. It always makes me remember that there is a lot more to everyone than just a 'good' or a 'bad' person.

>155 lunacat: I think you often get that with Simon Armitage, Jenny. He has a clear voice and one which accepts the rough with the smooth and the foibles with the virtues.

Well guys The Big Bad Wolf Book sale hit town today and I thought to do my utmost to rein in my proclivities. I succeeded up to a point. 2014 I added 200 books at the sale and last year more than a hundred.

This is the last little bit of Cranswickian behaviour you will see for a while, I hazard:

318. The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp (1968) 222pp
319. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi (2003) 347 pp
320. Longitude by Dava Sobel (1995) 176 pp
321. The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger (1997) 233 pp
322. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby (1997) 139 pp
323. Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh (1997) 309 pp
324. Stuart : A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters (2005) 292 pp
325. In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick (2000) 238 pp
326. Bad Blood : A Memoir by Lorna Sage (2000) 281 pp
327. Sea-Biscuit by Laura Hillenbrand (2001) 399 pp

These ten books are collected in a series called "stranger than" by Harper and I couldn't resist them even though I have the Philbrick already in a less attractive cover:

328. The Bradshaw Variations by Rachel Cusk (2009) 249 pp
329. A Brief History of How the Industrial Revolution Changed the World by Thomas Crump (2010) 330 pp
330. Misspent Youth by Peter F Hamilton (2002) 439 pp
331. Great North Road by Peter F Hamilton (2012) 1,087 pp
332. Owning the Earth by Andro Linklater (2013) 399 pp
333. The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami (1993) 327 pp
334. The North (And Almost Everything in it) by Paul Morley (2013) 552 pp
335. Napoleon by Alan Forrest (2011) 331 pp
336. Dirt Music by Tim Winton (2001) 461 pp
337. The Amalgamation Polka by Stephen Wright (2006) 323 pp

Of this ten I managed to snaffle a couple of Peter F Hamilton's to keep my Kiwi pals Kerry and Alex happy in the efforts of conversion. In particular I was pleased to track down "North Road" as that has been plugged quite mercilessly ~ just glad I had Azim there to help me carry the monster.
There are a few history, biography and socio economic books in this little lot too and I want to read more on French history coming soon.
The Winton I read more than 12 years ago but I think I want to re-read some of his key work over the next months as I think he is the best writer out of Oz just now.

That makes 20 books added. I got another 20 and they will be the stars of my next post.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a small book but utterly heart-breaking. I think it was made into a movie but I haven't seen it, only read the book.

Nice haul there, my friend!

Big Bad Wolf Sale Part 2/2 - AKA Forty Books is Restraint for Some of Us Unfortunately.

338. A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz (2003) 538 pp
339. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton (1991) 431 pp
340. Maiden Castle by John Cowper Powys (1934) 484 pp
341. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (2007) 228 pp
342. The Silver Darlings by Neil M. Gunn (1941) 584 pp
343. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (2011) 391 pp
344. Long Way Home by Michael Morpurgo (1975) 149 pp
345. Hunting Season by Andrea Camilleri (1992) 180 pp
346. So Many Ways to Begin by Jon McGregor (2006) 373 pp
347. The Terror of Living by Urban Waite (2011) 304 pp

This ten has some hidden or lost gems with the difficult to find Cowper Powys and the Scottish literature classic by Gunn. A non-Montalba Camilleri excites and Winton, Oz, Patchett and McGregor are all strong literary personalities.

348. Pandorama by Ian Duhig (2010) 55 pp
349. The Whole & Rain-domed Universe by Colette Bryce (2014) 49 pp
350. Pluto by Glyn Maxwell (2013) 54 pp
351. There Will Be No More Nonsense by Lorraine Mariner (2014) 56 pp
352 The Other Country by Carol Ann Duffy (1990) 53 pp

Five volumes of poetry, I managed to unearth. I am familiar with Duhig, Maxwell and Duffy. The other two are young poets whose work has been heavily praised.

353. Jake's Long Shadow by Alan Duff (2002) 239 pp
354. The Outlaw Album by Daniel Woodrell (2011) 167 pp
355. To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild (2011) 377 pp
356. The Promise by Ann Weisgarber (2013) 306 pp
357. Overlord : D-Day and the Battle for Normandy (1984) 418 pp

Cowboys, Maoris, Soldiers and Farmers people the last five of my additions today.

>158 jessibud2: Thanks Shelley. That series of 10 books looks fascinating. Some I had heard of but others, including that one, were much less familiar to me.

I am also pleased to note and extremely gratified that my thread has past 7,000 posts this year. I am not at my 9000+ levels of 2012/3 but I am happy. A big thank you to everyone who has visited to this kinetic soup of a thread in 2016. xx

Wow. 7000 posts! Congrats!

>162 The_Hibernator: Fourth past the mark this year. I had reduced in post numbers in successive years since 2012 so I am pleased to see my numbers up a bit on last year.

Since I started keeping the posting stats in 2012; four threads have past 30,000 posts :

Myself 39,545
Mark 38,390
Joe 33,050
Amber 31,329

Nice book haul, feels like you're back to the good old bad days.

Another booklist for you: http://ideas.ted.com/required-reading-the-books-that-students-read-in-28-countri...

Such restraint at the Big Bad Wolf sale! So does that mean some of the books you already have out will have to be boxed up or did you allow for acquisitions in your new system?

I love Morpurgo. I've read several but he is so prolific, it's hard to keep up.

>159 PaulCranswick: I love that 40 new books constitutes restraint.

>158 jessibud2: The movie for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is terrific, and well worth tracking down. I need to read the book now!

>165 avatiakh: What a great list, Kerry. I have a few of the obvious ones and have read the Marquez, Andric and Lee books. Sub Terra, and Under the Yoke particularly appeal.

>166 Familyhistorian: No I never plan things so well. I will do a little juggling and nudge some out and put some of these in. I am hoping to read more than my target which will allow me to catch a few more.

>167 jessibud2: Reliable Morpurgo, isn't he, Shelley?

>168 Oberon: I suppose things are relative Erik and I am relatively, figuratively and actually a total spend thrift when it comes to the taking of tomes.

>169 jnwelch: I really like that they had packaged up all 10 books in a series - all brand spanking new and sold en-bloc for the equivalent of $20 for the lot. The Diving Bell is #5 in that series, Joe.

>157 PaulCranswick: I'm so prejudiced against books like Fermat's Last Theorem now, thanks to Morgan. People used to always give him these books about math, but it's the last thing he wants to read about when he's not working. And I suppose even moreso in that sort of format - ie, not written for PhDs. Sometimes I wonder if I should read some of them to give me vague ideas about important mathy things, but I imagine I'll probably stick to my current method, which is asking him to explain things that I'm curious about and ignoring the rest. :)

>172 ursula: I am an arithmetic man, Ursula and i love numbers. This comes out in my stats I suppose but my mental arithmetic is also, I believe, quite a way above the average. That said I dislike dry maths, calculus, formulae and all that jazz whilst having inordinate admiration of those who really "get" that stuff.

Hej paul. That was a good wolfish book haul (without the bad,i say). There are some intetesting titles which you will read with gain, i am sure (when you will habe that time). Enjoy the new books!

Wow 30,000 posts! I was proud of my 1000.

Good morning, Paul! I hope all is well with you.

Great haul Paul, as usual. I loved Bad Blood, hope you get a chance to read it.

Hi Paul - Listening to State of Wonder right now (narrated by Hope Davis) and after a slow start it's really good. Have a wonderful weekend.

>174 paulstalder: Thanks Paul. It would of course be very difficult for you to caution me against acquisition!

>175 The_Hibernator: Well in fairness Rachel that is over almost 5 years (21 days and it will be 5 years). In this time you have 4,987 posts and will more than likely bring up your 5,000 post milestone this weekend. This year is your second best tally - in 2012 you notched up 1,887 posts.

>176 brodiew2: Nice to see you here Brodie. I am swell and looking forward to no work on Monday.

>177 charl08: I knew that I would add a few before the year end but I had half convinced myself not to go to the book sale. Now I have to rethink about how to squeeze in my additions of yesterday into my 6 year reading plan as some of them certainly cry out to me not to wait over long.

>178 ctpress: I had only seen it locally in very unattractive or oversized versions so I was pleased to come across a very eye-catching edition yesterday, Carsten.

Going down to Johor Bahru to visit the in-laws. Safely away from the lure of book sales!

I am really going to have to slow down my typing or at least read it before I click send with my emails.

I was writing an e-mail to General Ando reaffirming our commitment to work together in Ghana following the win for the opposition in the General Election there. At the same time I waxed lyrical about a new technology we have taken an interest in which involves micro-encapsulation into materials in the manufacturing process and can maintain and fragrance or shield from mosquitoes etc.
What I actually typed was that "it had proven record when used as an incest repellant"!!!

I await his reply with interest.

Oops Paul.

I do love fancy tech like that mosquito repellent. I have a few shirts that claim to do the same thing. Watching The Gadget Show test supposedly 'unbreakable' tech this week - some did break, but thought the data storage in particular would be handy in West Africa with all the electrical shortages. Was also watching an amazing show where the BBC got engineers and software designers together to try and solve challenges for communities and individuals with disabilities. Just wonderful, inspiring stuff as they developed a watch type device to counter tremors for a young woman with Parkinson's. But the one that (again) sounded like it would be great in west Africa was the 'meshed potato', designed to help get rural communities online in South Africa. Just genius (and with open source software, I found from their website, which is even better). Love it.

Nice to some Winton on your mini haul up there. He is also on my Wishlist of Authors to read .... Enjoy your 'conversion' tomes as we'll:)

>182 PaulCranswick: living dangerously there .... :D

>144 PaulCranswick: This one sounds very good, Paul. I will have to try Armitage.

>151 charl08: I like the poem. Thanks for sharing.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend. When do you head south?

>179 PaulCranswick: Those numbers in 2012 come from unemployment. Lol

>173 PaulCranswick: I am an arithmetic man, Ursula and i love numbers.

I think I need anoher cup of coffee. When I first read that sentence I thought it said asthmatic, not arithmetic, and for a half second I wondered why people with asthma would love numbers (although I'm a numbers loving asthmatic as well).

Hello, Paul! Happy weekend!

>187 kidzdoc: hahahaha ... maybe there is something there :)

>183 charl08: The technology is, for once, a British one, Charlotte. Two extremely talented ladies in Essex are behind the product and one of my business partners here has the rights to certain countries - including Ghana with ourselves.
It is fascinating and really works.

>184 roundballnz: Well at least, Alex, I found the only General in the Ghanaian army who is shorter than I am! No reply from him yet!

>185 msf59: I am already "South" Mark and at a Starbucks near the folks' place. They don't have internet in their kampung (village) home.

>186 The_Hibernator: Well Rachel, I wouldn't want you to get your numbers up that way!

>187 kidzdoc: I would fit both descriptions Darryl as you well know! I am an asthmatic, arithmetic man and I love numbers and inhalers.

>188 scaifea: Thank you Amber, dear. I will try to get around the threads either before I go back to KL or straight after.

>189 roundballnz: Wouldn't that be a wheeze, Alex?

Hi Paul - I've been exceedingly awol but trying to pick up threads again. Hope all is well with you? Love the topper pick - would love to tuck into all that!

Just a quick hello and Happy Sunday, Paul.

>182 PaulCranswick: ROFLMAO, not least as I'm prone to the odd such snaffoo myself. It's got worse since texting/emailing I have to say.

>157 PaulCranswick: >159 PaulCranswick: some fine reads in there Paul. I read most of Quentin Crisp in my teens and twenties, endlessly entertaining. I also got to see him live a year or so before he died, still on form. I'm a fan of Lorna Sage.

Glad the Armitage was good, as I have both, the first quite near the top of the pile.

Hi Mate, how good is Kohli and a breath of fresh air to Test cricket especially in India. Geoff Boycott has got it spot on with his comments about how stupid Bayliss and Cook have been in picking four seamers when the spinners are taking wickets for fun. Or at least the Indian spinners are for a lot less runs conceded. What is the point of having Anderson in the side when you wait 49.2 overs before taking the new ball. I can only hope that Jonny gets a century before our inevitable defeat tomorrow.

Hope you have had a good weekend.

I hope your week-end was good!

Well, you can always blame auto-correct for the snafu's. I always do. :-)

LOL! Good luck on your reply from the General in Ghana. I havea bad habit of not re-reading what I send via email. That has not landed me in any hot water, just guffaws from my sons: " Are you sure that English is your first Language." One time I dashed off a bit of a nasty email to a friend of mine re some demands from my sister in law - 13 years ago or so, and I accidentally sent it to my sister in law! Ah Oh! My brother intercepted it and sent me a return email telling me to be more careful and " Let that be a lesson to you". My brother and I and my sister in law still all get along just fine.

Nearly finished Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin . I had seen him around as an author, but your Scottish author challenge for next year got me to pick up a book by Ian Rankin. I think I 'm hooked! :)

Paul - You'll like this, the new NZ PM, Bill English (He has a degree in Eng Lit as well as one in commerce) quoted from a poem at his first press conference. Quite a good poem too, Lead, written by Selina Tusitala Marsh for Pasifika leaders. If you scroll down the page I've linked to you can read the poem.
http://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/12-12-2016/prime-minister-startles-nation-by-qu...

>192 BekkaJo: Bekka! My favourite Channel Islander returns to the fray! Have missed you around for the last few months.

>193 Ameise1: Lovely to see you as always, Barbara, dear.

>194 Caroline_McElwee: Considering the amount of correspondence I actually get through and the importance of some of it, I really ought to have been more careful, Caroline. Our little General, whose driver incidentally is wonderfully Christened as Napoleon, has still to reply but I am trusting that it is both the weekend and the hectic nature of a regime change that is keeping him occupied.

>195 johnsimpson: That makes it three double centuries in the year for Kohli - what a player! The captain and his selectors are frankly useless. Ali and Batty and Dawson are not going to get enough wickets against these players. Jack Leach and Ollie Rayner are palpably better spinners and ought to be playing here.

>196 streamsong: I think I would be stretching credibility to pass incest from insect as an auto-correct, Janet! One of the few occasions when it would be beneficial for my correspondent to have a touch of dyslexia!

>197 vancouverdeb: Lovely story Deb. That must have been excruciatingly uncomfortable! I am pretty careful with who gets the messages at least possibly because I am a tad useless with the technology of it all. One thing that does concern is when emails get strung together and you forward one of the mails to an external party for their information with a snide comment attached. I usually send it off to one of my other emails first to make sure that all parties can't see the whole email trail.

>198 avatiakh: Kerry, I noticed on the BBC this morning that you had a new PM. Erudition will be wonderful for you all so long as it is matched with competence. xx

I got back to Kuala Lumpur at about 3.30 a.m. Monday morning. Halfway home (it is about a 200 mile drive) I surrendered the wheel to my good lady wife as I was bushwhacked. She proceeded to scare Kyran, Belle, Yabo (my SIL) and myself with her version of the Indy 500 for the rest of the way home.

The weekend would have been interesting to many of you from a cultural point of view as we were attending a kenduri or prayer gathering with a feast as we would call it in celebration of the circumcision of my young nephew, Firdaus, who is 8 years old.

Seeing the poor little fellow limp around wearing a tented out piece of cloth brought me onto the subject of the ill-advisedness of having children endure this rite of passage. Kyran, like his father, was circumcised at the age of a couple of days old and I see the merit in the procedure but there is no necessity to wait for the boy (or sometimes young man) to get to an age when the whole thing is going to be painful and traumatic. I was kidding Firdaus most of the weekend that I had been tasked with the job of taking him to the clinic to have the rest cut-off!

I feel a great deal of affection and perhaps sympathy for my two neices and my nephew who are the children of my Brother-in-law, Andi. He has been in trouble numerous times for drug abuse (not the really heavy stuff thank God) and has not been able to support his young family. This doesn't stop him cavorting with his pals every day and getting his long-suffering wife pregnant yet again (due in February). The kids are increasingly close to me and had gotten themselves a "toys-r-us" catalogue which they had marked with a sort of wish-list that Uncle Paul might take an interest in! It is now in my possession so I will trade some book purchases for some of the items on their list. I will stop at the drum-kit that the youngest girl, Aulia, has as one of her three top choices as I think it will drive the grandparents (whom they live with) to the point of no return!

Further to my additions this month I have rejigged again my cropped TBR

It is now :

900 works of fiction
180 works of Non-Fiction

target completion period still six years

>202 PaulCranswick: Does this mean that you won't buy any new books until you finish the ones on your cropped TBR, Paul?

Talk about book lust! I just finished reading the New York Times Travel section from Sunday, Dec. 11- the theme is books, and book stores all over the world!

>204 torontoc: Ooh. I didn't read the Sunday NYT yesterday. I'll have to do so today or tomorrow.

>203 kidzdoc: No but I will have to be on schedule in order to justify any purchases which would then be immediately read.

>204 torontoc: Lust is of course one of the seven deadly sins and when it comes to books I am utterly sinful, Cyrel.

>205 kidzdoc: Off myself to look up the online version.

>206 PaulCranswick: Ha! I thought not.

>207 kidzdoc: Darryl, how would I be able to maintain a thread if I am not allowed to buy any books?!

>208 PaulCranswick: You would have no problem maintaining a vibrant and very enjoyable thread without your prodigious book purchases, IMO, although we couldn't tease you nearly as much!

>209 kidzdoc: Lists and stats would doubtless prevail mate which I am sure would pall eventually.

Speaking of which I did also update my latest take on my 100 favourite novels with only 1 novel allowed per author.

I noticed that my reading is still British biased as 50 of the books selected were by British authors.
Twenty were by US authors and there were 20 countries represented in total.

Here are the first 20 in alphabetical order by author

1 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
2 Watership Down by Richard Adams
3 Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4 Jack Sheppard by William Harrison Ainsworth
5 Brick Lane by Monica Ali
6 Journey into Fear by Eric Ambler
7 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
8 Another Country by James Baldwin
9 The Black Sheep by Honore de Balzac
10 The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett
11 Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
12 The Orenda by Joseph Boyden
13 The Hired Man by Melvyn Bragg
14 Rumours of Rain by Andre Brink
15 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
16 Wuthering heights by Emily Bronte
17 The 39-Steps by John Buchan
18 The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
19 Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
20 The Plague by Albert Camus

21-40

21 Jack Maggs Peter Carey
22 My Antonia Willa Cather
23 The Riddle of the Sands Erskine Childers
24 To Serve Them All My Days RF Delderfield
25 A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
26 Ragtime EL Doctorow
27 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky
28 A Study in Scarlet Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle
29 Justine Lawrence Durrell
30 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
31 Moonfleet J Meade Falkner
32 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks
33 Magician Raymond Feist
34 A Passage to India EM Forster
35 French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles
36 Crime Story Maurice Gee
37 A Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh
38 I, Claudius Robert Graves
39 The Quiet American Graham Greene
40 The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy

Hmm, now you have me thinking, my top 100....

41-60

41 Plainsong Kent Haruf
42 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway
43 Les Miserables Victor Hugo
44 Malice Aforethought Francis Iles
45 A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving
46 Mister Pip Lloyd Jones
47 The Dictator's Last Night Yasmina Khadra
48 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler
49 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera
50 Sons and Lovers DH Lawrence
51 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold John Le Carre
52 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
53 The Grass is Singing Doris Lessing
54 If Not Now, When? Primo Levi
55 How Green Was My Valley Richard Llewellyn
56 Palace Walk Naguib Mahfouz
57 The Fixer Bernard Malmud
58 Faceless Killers Henning Mankell
59 A Place of Greater Safety Hilary Mantel
60 The Moon and Sixpence W Somerset Maugham

61-80

61 Bel-Ami Guy de Maupassant
62 The North Water Ian McGuire
63 Docherty William McIllvanney
64 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry
65 The Redundancy of Courage Timothy Mo
66 The Colour of Blood Brian Moore
67 The Bell Iris Murdoch
68 A House for Mr. Biswas VS Naipaul
69 The Financial Expert RK Narayan
70 The Sunne in Splendour Sharon Penman
71 In the Memory of the Forest Charles T Powers
72 The Yellow Birds Kevin Powers
73 The Shipping News Annie Proulx
74 Les Noces Barbares Yann Quefflec
75 Shame Salman Rushdie
76 Rob Roy Walter Scott
77 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Alan Sillitoe
78 The Mandelbaum Gate Muriel Spark
79 Fame is the Spur Howard Spring
80 In Dubious Battle John Steinbeck

81-100

81 Saville David Storey
82 Sophie's Choice William Styron
83 Waterland Graham Swift
84 The Gift of Rain Tan Twan Eng
85 The Secret History Donna Tartt
86 The Heather Blazing Colm Toibin
87 Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien
88 The Road Home Rose Tremain
89 The Ragged trousered Philanthropists Robert Tressell
90 The Children of Dynmouth William Trevor
91 Breathing Lessons Anne Tyler
92 A Morality Play Barry Unsworth
93 The In-Between World of Vikram Lall MG Vassanji
94 Tooth and Claw Jo Walton
95 Fingersmith Sarah Waters
96 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton
97 Night Elie Wiesel
98 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
99 The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon
100 Germinal Emile Zola

>212 Caroline_McElwee: I would be interested to see how many shared ones would be on your list Caroline.

Some of the authors :

Maugham, Greene, Dickens, Steinbeck, Zola especially have a number of books I am extremely fond of but I had to choose 1.

Well I'll cheat for now, as I have a category of 'Read thrice or more' and it must therefore have my top 53 say, I can see some duplication in a couple of instances where I've read different editions.

https://www.librarything.com/catalog/Caroline_McElwee/thriceormore

I would have to think a long, long time before coming up with a list of top 100.

Great list, Paul. Lots to think about there. Mark was telling me I should read some Joseph Boyden. I got him mixed up with William Boyd, who I have read.

>217 Caroline_McElwee: Off to peruse and get some book bullets, Caroline. One of the things I noted from my Profile page is that you and I have the most shared books on a weighted basis amongst all my friends so what you like there is a good chance.........

>218 The_Hibernator: It is the work of a while to be fair Rachel and a fair bit of updating.

>219 jnwelch: Boyd himself just missed out on my list, Joe. I really like his A Good Man in Africa.

Wow, that's a list. I've only read 7 of those, and heard about that many again. But since they are your favorites, its a list to aspire to.

>201 PaulCranswick: Oh that poor boy! I can't imagine such a ceremony. A few young boys that I know of had to be circumcised later in life ( as in age 5 - 8 ) owing to problems with err - things being too " tight " and painful to the child. In that case the circumcision is done in a hospital as day procedure and I am quite sure they use a general anesthetic. One of my son's friends was quite keen to show off his " operation" - he was just 5 years old , whereas my nephew did not want anyone to know. In Canada, there has been quite a backlash against circumcision as unnecessary ( by the MD's). I think the pendulum is swinging back to the mid point. When I had my eldest , the doctor gave me such a song and dance about the pain, cruelty and risk of infection with a circumcision that I finally collapsed in tears and told them " don't bother " and get me and my kid out of the hospital. A bad time to hassle the poor mom, a day after the birth. I consulted with my husband and dad, and though both were circumcised , I think because I was so upset , they both told, oh don't worry about it.

Anyway, so enjoying my time in Edinburgh, via Ian Rankin.

So good of you re your two nieces and nephew. Sad situation , that.

>221 mahsdad: Thanks Jeff. I know the list is only as good as my latest reading! 18 of the books are books I have read since being part of the group.

>222 vancouverdeb: I don't know for sure but I guess I was one of the kids with issues as I was circumcised very young and can't remember it whilst my twin was not. I have always joked that my mum, worried that we'd be identical twins, wanted a surefire way of telling which one was which!
I get all the hygiene issues etc, but I do concur that it is surely better to have the thing done when it is not likely to impinge on one's memory or leave one hobbling around like a duck. Of course the issue of female circumcision is a different kettle of fish - still secretly practiced by many Malays and which I was, of course, not prepared to countenance and thankfully Hani's family are modern enough that it wasn't an issue between us.

I am hoping to enjoy Edinburgh in the flesh so to speak very soon but Rankin isn't a bad way to do it by proxy. xx

I remember my nieces and nephews being scared to death about their white uncle but over time they have gotten closer and closer to me. They are sweet little kids and it tears at my heart that their own dad is, frankly, such a waste of space. He went AWOL during the prayers for his son on Sunday and his wife was particularly upset. My MIL has always made him her favourite and he is a lucky chap to have her in his corner otherwise I wouldn't have paid his way out of trouble a time or six.

Oh dear. I come back from a long absence to find...
A list of 100 Favorites
Another list of 53 Favorites.

Swamped now by thinking about favorite books, and wondering how many we share. Many authors, clearly.

I'm hoping to return to posting next year. This year all I could manage was to list books read.

Wonderful to see that you're going strong, Paul.

Paul, I am pleased to have contributed to your 7000+ posts this year and your 30,000+ since 2012. Congratulations on being so prolific, my friend!

I love your top 100 list(s), too. I've never read Watership Down. Hmm...

Some shared loves:
Things Fall Apart, The Orenda, To Kill a Mockingbird, Ethan Frome, The Shipping News, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Invisible Man, The Gift of Rain, The Road Home, My Antonia, The Gift of Rain....

>224 Matke: Gail what a lovely surprise! You know Christmas sometimes does come early. I look forward to seeing more of you in 2017. xx

>225 EBT1002: Like me Ellen, you must have enjoyed The Gift of Rain overly for you to list it twice!
My threads would be a much poorer place without the presence on it of my friends and I am privileged to be able to count you as being firmly amongst that number my dear. xx

>217 Caroline_McElwee: One or two on there that I have read and loved too - The Railway Children, The Reader, In Custody etc and a fair few that I have jotted down with a view to adding to my TBR (not, ahem, that I intend to buy too many more.......but there are one or two that are obviously essential).

What a nifty top one hundred books list!

It's definitely a thought to start accumulating it during this next year. I see a new spreadsheet or two in my future for sure.

>228 streamsong: I am thinking of a non-fiction list that includes poetry, history, biography, philosophy, travel, economics etc.

Tougher 100, I think.

>210 PaulCranswick: Hi, Paul! That is a helluva list, mate! I have not read many of them, so I better get crackin', eh?

I am not sure, I would even attempt a list like that. It would take me days, maybe weeks.

Nearly done with A Spy Among Friends. What an amazing tale. Philby was quite a piece of work, wasn't he?

Interesting to see your top 100. I have read some of them, although most of that group would not make it onto my own top list. It seems like a daunting idea to try to put something like that together, but I might give it a shot.

I've only read 12 of your list, Paul, and as others have said, quite an undertaking to compile such a list!

>201 PaulCranswick: As a parent to a young child I agree that skipping the drum kit is probably best!
Chloe's Great Grandmother bought her a dancing, singing snowman for Christmas. It is cute the first 100 times you hear the song and after that it is much less cute!

>230 msf59: Well Mark a little bit difficult thinking what to leave out, wondering which ones you have forgotten about or unjustly overlooked and especially which book from a particular author makes the list - Dickens, Maugham, Greene, Zola and Steinbeck are authors I have particular difficulty choosing a favourite from.

>231 ursula: We would be dopplegangers if your hundred and mine coincided entirely Ursula and you are far too smart for that! Love lists because they reveal a bit about yourself, they reveal the shabby limits of your own reading (I am talking about myself!) and, in the case of other people's lists they often tip you off to something well worth reading.

>232 jessibud2: My reading is a little Euro-centric I think, Shelley which could explain the obscurity of some of the titles.
I have just completed my non-fiction list which I am about to foist on the thread and, believe me that was a much harder list to put together and certainly emphasised to me that I don't read enough non-fiction.

>233 ChelleBearss: I hate things that make a repetitive noise like that Chelle - would do my head in - it is a bit like Hani reminding me that her handphone/mobile still hasn't been paid!

Great idea, Paul! I just posted a list of my top 100 novels, and we share 11 of them: Things Fall Apart, Another Country, The Plague, Invisible Man. A Sea of Poppies, Palace Walk, A Fine Balance, The Redundancy of Courage, A House for Mr Biswas, The Gift of Rain, and The Shadow of the Wind.

I'm quite surprised that three of my top 10 novels, Troubles and The Siege of Krishnapur, both by J.G. Farrell, and Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, didn't make your top 100.

OK I am sure someone mentioned Non-Fiction

Tough to come up with a list on a similar basis as the fiction one. I have included poetry here as The Guardian do in their own list.

1-20

1 Foundation : The History of England Ackroyd (History from earliest times to the Tudors)
2 Wind, Sand and Stars Antoine Saint-Exupery (Elegiac look at the early days of flying)
3 Voices from Chernobyl Alexievich (Doom-laden reportage from the Nobel winner)
4 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Angelou (Excellent memoir of difficult early years)
5 Another Time Auden (Close to perfect Anthology from Auden)
6 The War of the Running Dogs Barber (How the Communists were beaten in Malaya)
7 Benn Diaries Benn (Covers 50 years of a life in Politics - my political hero)
8 Dream Songs Berryman (Quixotic brilliance from the tragic versifier)
9 Summoned By Bells Betjeman (Provincial maybe but accessible and wonderful too)
10 In Place of Fear Bevan (Another political hero and founder of the National Health Service)
11 Songs of Innocence and Experience Blake (Deceptively simple poetry at the dawning of the 19th Century)
12 Undertones of War Blunden (Often overshadowed by Graves but this is its equal)
13 Testament of Youth Brittain (Moving account of WWI experiences)
14 Selected Poems Brooks (Picked this up by chance and never regretted it)
15 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Brown (Have read this umpteen times)
16 A History of Almost Everything Bryson (Bill throws the kitchen sink at the reader and we still love him)
17 In Cold Blood Capote (Classic real-crime story)
18 Guilty Men Cato (Fiery condemnation of the appeasers of Hitler at the start of WW2)
19 Papillon Charriere (Put me off holidaying in France's overseas possessions)
20 The Songlines Chatwin (Excellent travel writing)

I have read 29 on your top 100 and few others are on my " I should read " list

>236 kidzdoc: I liked Troubles and The Singapore Grip, Darryl but couldn't decide which one i liked better and finished up leaving both out. The Siege of Krishnapur cannot be included because I haven't read it! Wolf Hall probably would have made the list if I had not limited myself to only one book per author and I plumped by a narrow margin for A Place of Greater Safety. I would have had a list filled with Zola, Maugham and Greene otherwise.

I will go over shortly and compare notes, mate.

>238 torontoc: Lovely to see you Cyrel. I am not surprised you have a goodly number of mine as we do seem to like fairly similar books. xx

NON-FICTION BEST OF LIST

21-40

21 The Merchant's Tale Chaucer (Read years ago - Once you get over the language it's great fun)
22 The Gathering Storm Churchill (First volume of his eloquent war memoirs)
23 The Donkeys Clark (The Donkeys in question being the Generals on the Western Front in WWI)
24 Hope and Glory Clarke (Positive take on Britain throughout the last century)
25 The Future of Socialism Crosland (Studied this and reread it a number of times in my early Labour days)
26 Boy Dahl (First thing I read of his and he really was a born storyteller)
27 Return of a King Dalrymple (This year's non-fiction winner for me)
28 The Chatto Book of Modern Poetry 1915-1955 Day Lewis (Greatly influenced my young self; always bedside me)
29 Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry Dove (Fantastic and very broad coverage of US poetry)
30 Answering Back Duffy (A poetic standard and then a new poem written in homage to it - it works)
31 My Family and Other Animals Durrell (Brilliantly joyous memoirs of growing up on an idyllic Greek island)
32 Chronicles Dylan (Pretty much the only thing the Nobel winner has written for the page)
33 The Wasteland Eliot (Possibly the best single poem ever written)
34 Millennium Fernandez-Armesto (A History of a thousand years in about a thousand pages)
35 We Were Young and Carefree Fignon (Of course I have to include something on cycling - this is a brave book)
36 Albemarle Book of Modern Verse Finn (Does for me latterly what the Chatto book used to do)
37 Put Me Back on My Bike Fotheringham (Yorkshire's finest males cyclist dies on Mont Ventoux)
38 Cromwell : Our Chief of Men Fraser (A period of interest to me and this is an excellently readable work)
39 The Affluent Society Galbraith (Brilliantly accessible and profoundly sensible economic analysis)
40 Being Mortal Gawande (This book touched so many in the last couple of years)

Wow -- on the non-fiction lists, too. But a small quibble - you should probably move #97 on your fiction list, Elie Wiesel 's mind-searing Night to non-fiction.

I think I'm going to favorite your lists and try to pick up some of them this next year. Your lists make me feel positively unread and quite illiterate.

ETA: I'm also really impressed that Darryl could put together his list that quickly. Putting together 100 favorite books is going to be a work of months for me.

NON FICTION BEST OF LIST

41-60

41 The Prophet Gibran (Came across this whilst in Egypt; spiritually awakening)
42 Goodbye to all That Graves (Classic memoir of the trenches)
43 The Sense of Movement Gunn (Brilliant sophomore collection by Gunn)
44 Last Train to Memphis Guralnick (My mum still has a poster of The King in her bathroom; I remember this one too)
45 Empire of the Summer Moon Gwynne (The Searchers is my favourite movie and this brought it back)
46 84 Charing Cross Road Hannf (Wistful and engaging little prose odes about books and long distance relationships)
47 North Heaney (Difficult to pick a favourite of Heaney's but this shades it)
48 The Worldly Philosophers Heilbroner (This short volume really explains economic thought)
49 Histories Herodotus (The forerunner of all historical writing; gossip and gore in equal parts)
50 All Creatures Great and Small Herriot (Gore of a different kind in the Yorkshire Dales)
51 Hiroshima Hersey (The aftermath of the then deadliest millisecond in history)
52 The Age of Revolution Hobsbawm (Could be heavy going but always rewarded close reading with clear insight)
53 Birthday Letters Hughes (I think this was the first thing I ever gave 10/10 to on LT; searing and cathartic poetry)
54 The Fatal Shore Hughes (Panoramic history of the foundation of Australia)
55 The State We're in Hutton (Always look out for the good sense in Hutton's economics books - our Paul Krugman)
56 The Lost Leader Imlach (He is indeed a Lost Leader - died too young but at least he left us this)
57 A Short History of England Jenkins (If I must recommend one book for a Short History of my country - this is it)
58 This Boy Johnson (I am currently reading the sequel. The origins of probably the Labour Party's best man currently)
59 High Windows Larkin (Also difficult to choose one of Larkin's collections but I plumped for his final one)
60 The Seven Pillars of Wisdom Lawrence (Will never forget this one as i left it out in the rain at 13 years old and lost my pocket money for ages as my mother had to buy the library book)

>242 streamsong: I did think about doing so Janet to be honest but as I recall it is written in the form of a work of fiction as a way of trying to distance himself from the reality of the horror he was forced to face. It has been described by many as an autobiographical novel and there lies the difficulty. Wiesel himself called it his testimony so technically you are right I suppose but, whichever list it goes in, I can state categorically that no book has made me weep in the way that one did.

NON FICTION BEST OF LIST

61 - 80

61 Cider With Rose Lee (would follow me to the Desert Island any day)
62 A Time of Gifts Leigh-Fermor (imagine walking across Europe thinking about literature and life)
63 If This is a Man? Levi (Primo Levi would surely have won the Nobel Prize had he lived a tad longer)
64 The Pendulum Years Levin (Great summation of the end of the Swinging Sixties)
65 Lords of Finance Ahamad (Engrossing tale of how the bankers cocked up after WWI)
66 War Memoirs Lloyd-George (2000 pages of detail and political point scoring from the Welsh wizard)
67 The Railway Man Lomax (Life for the soldiers captured by the Japanese in WW2 was no picnic)
68 For the Union Dead Lowell (Great mid-century American poetry)
69 Autumn Journal MacNeice (Brilliant work by the great voice of the 1930s)
70 The Fight Mailer (Can almost hear that Rumble in the Jungle)
71 The Autobiography of Malcolm X Malcolm X (Trenchant and prescient)
72 Long Walk to Freedom Mandela (The life story of a great man)
73 The Summing Up Maugham (Maugham could have written down his shopping list I would want to read and re-read it)
74 The Dark Continent Mazower (Europe in the 20th century)
75 Angela's Ashes McCourt (Well received memoirs of an Irish childhood of love and poverty)
76 On Football McIlvanney (Simply the best sports journalist bar none)
77 Monty : His Part in my Victory Milligan (Hilarious war memoirs set in North Africa)
78 Love and War in the Appenines Newby (Newby's time in Italy during the war)
79 The Moon's a Balloon Niven (When being a Hollywood star was really worth talking or writing about)
80 Shout! Norman (Definitive biography of the Fab Four)

>234 PaulCranswick: I totally agree, it's revealing both about what you like and about what you've missed. If someone doesn't have any gaps in their reading, I am instantly suspicious!

NON FICTION BEST OF LIST

81-100

81 Homage to Catalonia Orwell (Very honest and lasting depiction of that doomed conflict)
82 Rain Paterson (Who is the best living poet? I'd say Don Paterson)
83 The Winter King Penn (Excellent study of the difficult reign of Henry Tudor)
84 The Tyrannicide Brief Robertson (Charles II is often termed the Merry Monarch; wasn't smiling after this)
85 Wars of the Roses Ross (Brilliant summation of that conflict that still irks me and other White Roses till today)
86 The Social Contract Rousseau (Formative ideas that resulted in socialism)
87 War Poems Sassoon (Splendid collection; shame Owen didn't live to do the same)
88 The Sonnets Shakespeare (Cannot have a list like this without the Bard of Avon)
89 Inside the Third Reich Speer (Methinks thou dost protest too much)
90 World War One : A Short History Stone (Magnificently manages to encapsulate the whole thing into 200 pages)
91 History of Political Philosophy Strauss (Magnificently manages to encapsulate the whole thing into 1000 pages)
92 Twelve Caesars Suetonius (Classicism rarely comes as accessible as this)
93 Origins of the Second World War Taylor (I cannot conceive of another historian so consistently engaging)
94 The Great Railway Bazaar Theroux (I always loved train travel - Theroux was living my dream)
95 Collected Poems Thomas (Only one with a "Collected Poems" cause I couldn't leave any out)
96 The Guns of August Tuchman (Beats all other books on the lead up to and start of WW1 hands down)
97 The Oxford Anthology of English Poetry Wain (A constant companion and allows some of the Romantics inclusion here)
98 The King's War Wedgwood (Edge of the seat history of the English Civil War by Dame Cicely)
99 Beyond Belief Williams (Looks at the Moors Murders in Yorkshire/Lancs of the 1960s)
100 The Tower Yeats (Nice way to end with that giant of a poet and a giant of a poetry collection)

>246 ursula: Ursula, I have 180 Non-fiction books on my TBR not counting my poetry and I wonder how many of these will feature on my lists in a few years time. There will never be enough time for all the great books.

re your #46 - 84 Charing Cross Road. One of my all-time faves. Paul, have you read her sequel, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street? And if so, and if you haven't already done so, I would highly recommend that you get hold of the film that was made of those 2 books, called by the title of the first book. The casting could not have been better if Hanff and and Doel themselves had been in it: Anne Bancroft as Helene and Anthony Hopkins as Frank. It's one of the few movies I have seen that, as film adaptations, more than does justice to the books. I actually bought the DVD (I don't usually buy movies) just for the pleasure of being able to watch it whenever I want a fix of delight.

And another book by Hanff, Q's Legacy tells the story of how those first 2 books came to be written.

Enjoying all the lists Paul.

I think I've read just fifteen from your hundred books. Intrigued to see you included The North Water. I liked it - but not sure if it would make my list.

Another good list, Paul, thanks. I've got A Short History of England, I believe, and I'll move it up the TBR. Don Paterson, eh? Okay, I'll check him out.

>249 jessibud2: Yes to all Shelley. I agree it is a very sympathetic rendering of the books isn't it?

>250 charl08: The North Water really stuck with me, Charlotte and I hadn't been especially expecting to like it even.

>251 jnwelch: I have you to thank for Berryman too Joe, so least I can do is to try and even things up with some British poetry icons.

>227 PaulCranswick: 'essential' a very necessary tool that word :-)

Lots of long ago reads in your non-fiction list Paul, and a few still coasting in my tbr piles. I know there is effective cream for piles, just not sure it works on tbr ones!

>253 Caroline_McElwee: The cream wouldn't work on mine either - the book piles that is!

109.

Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel by William Trevor

Date of Publication : 1969
Pages : 277
TIOLI December 2016 : Read in memory of Trevor

The great man died last month.

This wasn't one of his most famous works of fiction but it is certainly a striking and slightly disturbing one.

In parts a black comedy and in parts simply dark, the novel features a series of characters who could only be described as misfits and degenerates. We have a deaf and dumb nonagenarian communicating via notepads, we have the dedicated Hotel porter watching askance whilst the sawn-off pimp procures clients for his fallen women and the whisky sodden son of the hotel owner drinks away the profits. We have the latter's son and estranged wife living a life separate and the insurance clerk brother in law and his wife surveying their sterile marriage. Into this mix comes Mrs. Eckdorf and she is about to turn their lives upside down in her own quest that takes us through the pages.

There is an absurdist feel to some of this, a surreal feel, a hysterical feel. Faith, relationships and the satisfaction of human foibles are the concerns of Trevor here and he slowly unravels his plot and his people in an unforgettable manner.

8/10

Great list of nonfiction books, Paul. I've read 10 from your list. I'll create a similar list this weekend.

Nice review of the Trevor.

>256 kidzdoc: Thanks Darryl. I look forward to your list. I don't consider myself well read generally in non-fiction although in history and poetry I have read a fair bit and therefore my list is a little tilted that way too.

I've read 10 of your nonfiction choices with several more on the shelves. I love reading other people's lists, conducting short or long mental dialogues about many choices. So thank you for that and for inspiring other readers.

>258 Matke: You're welcome, Gail. I have 180 non-fiction titles segregated and to be gotten through steadily over the coming months (probably 60 or so months).

Hi Paul, I've enjoyed going through your top 100 fiction books. I have read 26 of the ones you have listed but many more are on my list. I was particularly pleased to see Malice Aforethought by Francis Illes, one of my all-time favorites.

I will have to come back and check out your non-fiction list as I am sure there will be many there that I need to take note of.

I think I'd have trouble coming up with a top 100 list because I read so many pre-LT. Many of my favorites are from days of old.

I've read about 34 off your fiction list and about 10 from your nonfiction. I've read others by some of the authors you've listed but not the specific title. I don't think I could pull together a top 100 for myself, so many choices.
>245 PaulCranswick: fyi If this is man touchstones to The Picture of Dorian Gray.

>260 DeltaQueen50: There is probably less crime and thriller stuff there than is justified by my reading, Judy and I guess that is possibly because I have become too snooty as I get older! I loved that one and Before the Fact too.

>261 thornton37814: Yep me too, Lori, but I still had my excel spreadsheets to rely upon.

>262 avatiakh: I would have thought over a third of my fiction list was pretty high. Your lists would be particularly eclectic, I am sure, as you read much more and more variedly than I do.
ETA : Thanks for noticing on the Levi touchstone; I have amended it.

Currently Reading :

Please Mister Postman by Alan Johnson

Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

&

The Silent Duchess by Dacia Maraini

Oh, I made a list of the bibliography for Falling for Science. Two of Roger Scruton's books are included.
http://www.librarything.com/list/11159/all/Falling-for-Science
and I noticed that an ex-headmaster of Eton did a recommended reading list for 16 yr olds a few years back and it has also been added to LT lists, some interesting reads in there, I'd forgotten about Wolf Totem and now that it's been made into a film, I should hurry up and read it.
http://www.librarything.com/list/10326/all/Etons-list-the-books-every-bright-16-...

>265 avatiakh: Kerry I have read from the Scruton and Popper books in your first list and have read 6 out of 40 on your second list.

Look what I bought yesterday



358. 100 Prized Poems

Wow, thanks for that fiction 100 list. I've copied now so I can browse "Paul's One Hundred Novels" for inspiration. Have read 23 on your list.

I've never done a list og best or favorite books, but have a favorite 100 movie-list. I think I might attempt a 100 book-list....hey, say, where's one of my favorite authors, Tolstoy? :) interesting choice for Austen - Northanger Abbey. I think my list would lean heavily towards the british as well.

I've only read 16 of the fiction and 5 of the nonfiction. But I tend to read more classics than modern literary fiction.

>268 ctpress: The lists are of course Carsten dictated by the necessity of our actual reading. The reason for Northanger Abbey being my favourite Austen is that I have only finished two of hers the other being Mansfield Park.
Your reading has always struck me as quite eclectic, Carsten, so I would be very interested to see what you came up with - Scandi treasures?

>269 The_Hibernator: I did read a lot of classics too back in the day, Rachel and still add a few every year. Background, education, gender, opportunity and so on will all help to open up our reading for us. Everyone of us are different so no-one's list will be so alike.

Hmm - I've read 26 of your top 100. Maybe I should make 2017 'Read Paul's list' year. Though, no offence, a couple of the ones I have read I have loathed! But variety and all that ;)

>271 BekkaJo: Bekka, don't spend next year reading my lists as I want the two of us to remain good friends!

I managed 9 on the fiction list and 8 on the non-fiction, more than I would have thought as I'd only read 5 on Darryl's list! I fear my own list would be much less substantial in breadth or topic, containing an awful lot of YA books and nostalgic reads that may not be brilliantly written but still mean a lot to me. I shall keep branching out as much as my concentration will let me though :)

I have only read 5 on your NF list (and have 3 on my physical shelves, as yet unread).

On your fiction list, I have read 13, started but not finished 4, and have 5 on my physical shelves, as yet unread.

Well, yes, I did indeed majorly enjoy The Gift of Rain. Heh.

I love the nonfiction list but I haven't read enough nonfiction to say much. Those that I have read (a handful from your list) tend to be memoirs.
I hope to read more NF in the coming year, especially in the political terrain.

>267 PaulCranswick: NICE!!

>273 lunacat: The great thing about such a list Jenny is that it is all about what the books mean to you or me in that case. I don't think we are saying that these are the 100 best books ever written but the 100 I enjoyed the most. For example, in choosing the Steinbeck, I usually list Of Mice and Men but plumped for In Dubious Battle and not The Grapes of Wrath which I think is undoubtedly the best book he's written but not the one I enjoyed reading the most.

>274 jessibud2: Started but not finished 4 out of the 17 of my 100 you've tried is quite a high casualty rate, Shelly!

>275 EBT1002: As did I, Ellen. xx In fact I liked it better than its successor which was critically more lauded but had less plot IMO.

>276 PaulCranswick: - It's true. But I usually give myself one week or 50 pages of a book and if it doesn't grab me by whichever comes first, I move on. Usually. Sometimes I will persist, in the hope that it gets better but this year alone, there were a few that I should have just left earlier rather than slog through. Too may books, too little time....

>277 jessibud2: I am more of a completist, Shelley, and often most probably to my own detriment. Once I have started a book I tend to plod on with it. If I am finding it heavy going I will invariably read one or two others alongside it.

I'm just slinking through the threads, trying to catch up. It's a fool's errand at this point, but hello Paul! I hope the holidays are treating you well.

>279 rosylibrarian: Lovely to see you here Marie and especially bringing tidings of holidays - just wish that I had some!!

Hi Paul! I was intrigued by your top 100 fiction and nonfiction.

Of your 100 fiction, I've:

--read 19 works
--read 15 other authors but a different work
--have 12 on the TBR bookshelf

Not so well on the NF list:

--read 7 works
--read 7 other authors but a different work
--have 3 on the TBR bookshelf

>281 kac522: Those are pretty decent numbers, I think.
With my interests in the NF being English history for Civil War and War of Roses, the World Wars, Cycling - I guess it would be hard to expect a full house!

I have to say, it makes me feel like an almost-genius, to have read a fair amount from your tremendous list, and knowing what a voracious reader you are.

I'll have to put together my own list. I've been keeping track of what I read since 1985 (age 32). Missing a few from college years, but the ones that were meaningful I either kept or I've purchased new copies.

One book I didn't see on your list that is probably one of my top 10 NF is Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. It is so much more than just a Holocaust memoir. Dr. Frankl wrote it immediately after he was released from the camps (unlike Wiesel's Night) and it has a completely different, yet somehow hopeful, tone.

>283 kac522: Kathy, I will have to go and look for that one. Haven't read it so, of course, it cannot make the list! I have kept track of all my reading formally since 1994 (aged 28) and on LT since 2011.

8 and 6 on your lists, Paul.

>285 ronincats: I will put up some lists in the coming month of top 17 (for 2017) books in different genre. I am sure that my sci-fi and fantasy list will see you with a full house. xx