Again, as with 2020, I'm not sure how to take stock of 2021. It's been dominated by Covid-19, and in my own bubble that has actually had more impact than last year. Gone from being something out there I had to be careful not to catch and spread, impacting what shops were open and how often I went to work - to something that closed down businesses for good, meant I had to isolate for ten days twice, and that a number of family members and people at work have actually now had. So although I'm testing (shout out to Mitcham Library, which had LFTs up to close of play today), vaccinated and not being reckless, I'm convinced now I'll get it at some point.
Having got that out of the way, on to the books:
First the full alphabetical list:
A Haunted House - Virginia Woolf
A Londoner's Logbook - G W E Russell
A Pocketful of Rye - Agatha Christie
After the Funeral - Agatha Christie
Alas for her that met me! - Mary Ann Ashe
All Passion Spent - Vita Sackville West
An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro
An Autobiography - Anthony Trollope
Appleby's End - Michael Innes
Appointment with Death - Agatha Christie
Black Beech and Honeydew - Ngaio Marsh
Bodies From the Library - Tony Medawar
Breakfast at Sothebys - Phillip Hook
Cards on the Table - Agatha Christie
Curtain, Poirot's Last Case - Agatha Christie
Dead Lion - John and Emery Bonett
Death Comes at Christmas - Gladys Mitchell
Deathtrap Dungeon - Ian Livingstone
Dumb Witness - Agatha Christie
Evil Under the Sun - Agatha Christie
Five Little Pigs - Agatha Christie
Free Lunch - David Smith
Grave Mistake - Ngaio Marsh
Hide My Eyes - Margery Allingham
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale
Carnegie
In Search of Our Mother's Gardens - Alice Walker
It Pays to be Good - Noel Streatfeild
Journeys - Stefan Zweig
Just My Type - Simon Garfield
Life on Earth - David Attenborough
Life on the Edge - Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe
McFadden
Light Thickens - Ngaio Marsh
Live Alone and Like It - Marjorie Hillis
Loitering With Intent - Muriel Spark
London Promenade - William Gaunt
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia
Marquez
Money From Holme - Michael Innes
Money, A Suicide Note - Martin Amis
Mudlarking - Lara Maiklem
Murder by Matchlight - E C R Lorac
Murder by the Book - Martin Edwards
Murder in the Mews - Agatha Christie
Murder is Easy - Agatha Christie
Murder's a Swine - Nap Lombard
No Place Like Home - Beverley Nichols
Orchids on Your Budget - Marjorie Hillis
Ordeal by Innocence - Agatha Christie
Photo-Finish - Ngaio Marsh
Rumpole at Christmas - John Mortimer
Santorini - Alaistair Maclean
Scarred for Life 1 and 2 – Stephen Brotherstone
and Dave Lawrence
Smallbone Deceased - Michael Gilbert
Springtime in Paris - Elliot Paul
Stuff Matters - Mark Miodownik
Tales from the Folly - Ben Aaronovitch
The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie
The Aesthetic Adventure - William Gaunt
The Book of Disquiet - Fernando Pessoa
The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
The Consequences of Love - Gavanndra Hodge
The Crooked Wreath - Christianna Brand
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique
Bauby
The Flemish House - Georges Simenon
The Great Port - James (Jan) Morris
The March of the Moderns - William Gaunt
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe -
Douglas Adams
The Surgeon of Crowthorne - Simon Winchester
The Thirteen Problems - Agatha Christie
They Do it with Mirrors - Agatha Christie
Third Helpings - Calvin Trillin
Travels with Alice - Calvin Trillin
Uncle Tungsten - Oliver Sacks
What Abigail did that Summer - Ben Aaronovitch
Women and Power - Mary Beard
Yes Minister, vol 1 - Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay
As always lots of murder mysteries, but it was the non fiction that really stood out for me this year. New titles like Life on the Edge (Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe McFadden) and Mudlarking (Lara Maiklem) back through Stuff Matters (Mark Miodownik), Uncle Tungsten (Oliver Sacks) to serious and absorbing essays: In Search of Our Mother's Gardens (Alice Walker) then frivolous things like Orchids on Your Budget (Marjorie Hillis), it's been a great year for non fiction reading.
Despite the fact I actually read more fiction (49 fiction to 28 non fiction), little of the fiction has really stood out except I recently realised I've been choosing books from just before, during, or just after the second world war, without making any conscious decision to.
As far as gender goes I've read three more books by men than women (I'm counting Jan Morris as a woman, despite the book I read being old enough to say James on the cover) and four by a mixed team.
Five books in translation, which is better than usual, and which surprised me as I wasn't particularly trying to. On the other hand I didn't finish my 1980s project, and will have to carry 1987, 88 and 89 over to the new year.
The other thing I'd like to do in 2022 is read a book in French, even if I have to do it with a French dictionary alongside.
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