spooky_miss | Review of Books Read

I've just finished typing my book list into excel, so I can work out all the statistics for it, so here goes! :)

This year I've read 117 books (although my reviews on here number 118, and I have no idea why!)

This means I've read a total of 546 books since September 2005.

The first book I read this year was The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I gave it 8.5 out of 10, and enjoyed it as there were similar ideas to in The Secret Garden (and Frances Hodgeson Burnett turned up in the story at one point!) and thats one of my favourite books.

The last book I read was The Liar by Stephen Fry. I gave this 5 out of 10, and was quite disappointed as it was very confusing.

I read 37 non-fiction books - 9 of which I rated 8 / 10, and only one which I rated above that - The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat by Dr Oliver Sachs. I didn't rate any non-fiction books below 5 / 10.

I read 80 fiction books, 9 of which I rated 10 / 10 :

World Without End - Ken Follett
The Final Reckoning - Sam Bourne
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Blood Red, Snow White - Marcus Sedgewick
Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell (see note below!)
Room - Emma Donoghue
The House of Special Purpose - John Boyne
Veronika Decides to Die - Paulo Coelho
Revelation - CJ Sansom

Note about Gone With the Wind - I hated Scarlett O'Hara more than I had ever hated any character ever before!! But apart from that, the book was wonderful, and fully deserves 10 / 10!

I rated one book 0 / 10 - The Average American Male by Chad Kultgen, and actually threw it away after I read it! It was so bad, it was little more than a porn film script. I gave Naked Lunch by William Burroughs 1 / 10, as I was impressed that he'd managed to write so much of the rubbish that made up the book. I also gave 4 / 10 to four books: Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris, Double Fault by Lionel Schriver and On The Road by Jack Kerouac and The Other Side of You by Sally Vickers. This rating was mainly given as they were boring and had unlikable characters. I was also really disappointed by the Lionel Schriver book as We Need to Talk About Kevin was so brilliant.

I'm not sure if I can recommend just one book from what I've read this year - but I think everyone should read The Road, Room and Veronika Decides to Die.

My book plans for this year (2011)

This year I plan to read at least 120 books, and to read more books from the 1001 list. Also I'm going to get more books out from the library - at least 6 a month. I'm also thinking of doing some "book challenges" - I'm looking at a "round the world" one and one about reading authors with names beginning with all the letters in the alphabet, so that should be interesting!

I might also do this for all the films I've watched this year, but need to get them into a list first, as I've just got them as reviews on here so far.

I hope everyone enjoys reading my reviews - thanks to everyone who reads them, and everyone who has added me as a friend in 2010! :)