Tag: science fiction

What I Read This Year

‘Reading more’ was not one of my goals for 2020, yet it was my best year for reading in a long time. I’m sure the lockdown contributed to this but I am pleased that I maintained my momentum once I returned to a fully open school in September. On top of the 41 books listed below, I also read over 1,500 articles from The Guardian, as well as countless blog posts and articles from across the web. A good year all round, and one that at least from this point of view, I feel much richer for.

  1. Adams, Douglas: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (r1)
  2. Adams, Douglas: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (r)
  3. Adams, Douglas: Life, the Universe and Everything (r)
  4. Aurelius, Marcus: Meditations (r)
  5. Confucius: The Analects
  6. Dexter, Colin: Last Bus to Woodstock
  7. Dexter, Colin: Last Seen Wearing
  8. Dexter, Colin: The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn
  9. Dexter, Colin: Service of All the Dead
  10. Dickens, Charles: A Christmas Carol (r)
  11. Epictetus: Discourses and Selected Writings (r)
  12. Gracián, Baltasar: The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence
  13. le Carré, John: Call for the Dead
  14. le Carré, John: A Murder of Quality
  15. le Carré, John: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
  • The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - Book Cover
  • The Books of Earthsea - Book Cover
  1. Le Guin, Ursula K.: Tehanu
  2. Le Guin, Ursula K.: Tales from Earthsea
    • The Finder
    • Darkrose and Diamond
    • The Bones of the Earth
    • On the High Marsh
    • Dragonfly
  3. Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Other Wind
  4. Le Guin, Ursula K.: A Description of Earthsea
  5. Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Word of Unbinding
  6. Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Rule of Names
  7. Le Guin, Ursula K.: The Daughter of Odren
  8. Le Guin, Ursula K.: Firelight
  9. Le Guin, Ursula K.: Earthsea Revisioned2
  10. Mascaro, Juan: The Dhammapada
  11. Melville, Herman: Moby Dick
  12. Seneca: Letters from a Stoic (r)
  13. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: Roseanna
  14. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Man Who Went Up in Smoke
  15. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Man on the Balcony
  16. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Laughing Policeman
  17. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Fire Engine That Disappeared
  18. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: Murder at the Savoy
  19. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Abominable Man
  20. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Locked Room
  21. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: Cop Killer
  22. Sjöwall, Maj; Wahlöö, Per: The Terrorists3
  • The Abominable Man - Book Cover
  • Tales from the Perilous Realm - Book Cover
  1. Tolkien, J. R. R.: Tales from the Perilous Realm (r)
    • Roverandom
    • Farmer Giles of Ham
    • The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
    • Smith of Wooton Major
    • Leaf by Niggle
    • On Fairy Stories
  2. Tzu, Lao: Tao Te Ching
  3. Walker, Brian Browne: Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu
  4. Ward, Benedicta: The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
  1. (r) Indicates ‘re–reading’.[↩]
  2. This completed my first reading of the entire ‘Earthsea Cycle‘. I read the first three novels in 2019 and took a break but I was very happy to rejoin Ged and Tenar; not least due to the revisioning Le Guin undertook returning to Earthsea eighteen years after ’The Farthest Shore.‘ Her exploration of womanhood and female empowerment from ’Tehanu‘; through ’The Finder‘ and ’Dragonfly‘; culminating in ’The Other Wind‘ was deeply gratifying. I admire Le Guin’s bravery in returning to a world she had firmly established and to then completely redefine it.[↩]
  3. It was very satisfying to immerse myself in such a tightly constructed sequence of crime novels; and interesting to read the series that established nordic–noir as a genre.[↩]