Just a brief note to say that even when I’m distracted and perpetually short on sleep, Debra Doyle and James Macdonald’s The Price of the Stars is still great fun. I remembered much less of it than I thought, particularly the link to A Working of Stars, which rather smacked me in the face once I turned the relevant page. I’m quite looking forward to the next two books, which twist things around even more, but between moving and revisions on my Note [*], I doubt I’ll have the chance to get started on it this week.
[*] Law speak for a relatively short, student-authored journal article.
This is, however, the one year anniversary of the book log, so I shall put my revisions aside for another moment in honor of the occasion. Tallying up the index is a bit of a subjective endeavour, but I make it 151 items—a couple short stories and a few multi-novel anthologies, but mostly novels. Which comes out to one book about every two and a half days, though my reading pace hasn’t been at all even this year.
Of the new-to-me things I read this past year, the following are my favorites:
- Lois McMaster Bujold, Diplomatic Immunity
- Doris Egan as Jane Emerson, City of Diamond
- A.J. Hall, Lust Over Pendle
- Janet Kagan, Mirabile (which I’ve already re-read once)
- Ellis Peters’ Cadfael novels
- Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero
- Jo Walton, The King’s Peace and The King’s Name
- Martha Wells, The Element of Fire
(It’s much easier to do a best-of-year list than a best-of list, because you’re forced to leave so many things off right at the start.)
And yes, I still enjoy keeping a book log, even when my brain is fried. Speaking of which, more revising awaits . . .
Procrastinating all over the place today, I am.
Looking at your list of books, I count 16 which I have also read in the past year. Of those, only two were read as a direct consequence of what you wrote in your book log (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Lust Over Pendle). I liked both of them.
It warms the cockles of my heart to see City of Diamond make the “best of” list. I always get depressed when I give people books and they don’t like them. I do wish she’d write the sequel.