Friday, 31 December 2021

New Year's Eve 2021

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. 


Happy New Year.




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