What I read in 2012:

I haven’t written an entry in ages, and I meant to post in November, but that obviously fell through. I actually started writing a proper post, but I don’t feel like finishing it, so have a list of the books I read this year instead.

(Just saying, you can learn a lot about a person from what they read. Unless they read everything, in which case you need to be more discerning.)

I aimed to read 100 books this year, but I only got to 54, which is a bit of a downer, since it’s just past half of what I intended. Unfortunately, manga, comics and textbooks do not count. I’d also like to point out I read the entire collection of Sherlock Holmes, which should count for nine novels, right?

Favourite and stand-out books for the year are in bold.  

1: The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales – Jacob and Wilhelm Grim

2: Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

3: Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens

4: The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas

5: Nocturnes – Kazuo Ishiguro

6: Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen

7: The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro

8: Norwegian Wood – Haruki Murakami

9: The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells

10: Bright Young Things – Anna Godbersen

11: The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins

12: Just Listen – Sarah Dessen

13: The Fault in Our Stars – John Green

14: Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins

15: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight – Jennifer E. Smith

16: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

17: A Straight Line to My Heart – Bill Condon

18: If on a Winter's Night a Traveler – Italo Cavalcino

19: Fixing Delilah – Sarah Ockler

20: The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Steven Chbosky

21: The Trial – Franz Kafka

22: Beloved – Toni Morrison

23: Slice: Juicy Moments from My Impossible Life – Steven Herrick

24: The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga

25: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon

26: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer

27: John Belushi Is Dead/Hollywood Ending – Kathy Charles

28: Why We Broke Up – Daniel Handler (with Maira Kalman)

29: As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner

30: The Piper’s Son – Melina Marchetta

31: I came to say goodbye – Caroline Overington

32: The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde

33: Gravity – Scot Gardner

34: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares – Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

35: Saving Francesca – Melina Marchetta

36: Deadville – Ron Koertge

37: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist – Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

38: Complete Illustrated Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle

39: My Brilliant Career – Miles Franklin

40: The Aunt's Story – Patrick White

41: Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami

42: Being Here – Barry Jonsberg

43: Guitar Highway Rose – Brigid Lowry

44: Fury – Shirley Marr

45: A Pale View of Hills – Kazuo Ishiguro

46: Life of Pi – Yann Martel

47: One Seriously Messed-Up Week: in the Otherwise Mundane and Uneventful Life of Jack Samsonite – Tom Clempson

48: Preloved – Shirley Marr

49: The Boat – Nam Le

50: The Hunter – Julia Leigh

51: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami

52: The Push – Julia Lawrinson

53: Battle Royale – Koushun Takami

54: Every Day Is Like Sunday – Paul Vlitos

I read a lot of Australian young adult fiction this year as always. It’s been a good year, with new releases from two of my favourite Aussie writers Bill Condon and Barry Jonsberg.  Okay, so they were technically published 2011, but because they were both shortlisted for 2012, I count them as new releases. I’m a bit upset Jonsberg didn’t win the PM’s literary award, Being Here was truly amazing.

Overall, a much wider range of reading this year, especially more literature. I read a lot of novels for English at uni too. I got into Kazuo Ishiguro early this year, and I’m now a big fan. I’ve also branched into translated works with Dumas, Murakami, Kafka and Takami. I already love Dumas, so not a big surprise, but I quite like Murakami’s works too; although perhaps his speculative fiction is not my style so much. I loved Norwegian Wood though. 

It’s shocking, I know, but I finally got around to reading Melina Marchetta. It’s hard to believe, because she’s only one of the biggest names we have around here in my happy world of Aussie YA. After finally reading her work, I can definitely understand why. I really liked The Piper’s Son. Speaking of Aus Lit, read Miles Franklin and Patrick White for my university course, and I’ve never fully despised a character so much as Sybylla from My Brilliant Career.

Apart from that, read a pretty mixed bunch of fiction, some enjoyable, and also some utter rubbish due to my stubborn habit of never giving up on a book. Still on a bit of a high after the insanely epic Battle Royale, and not sure if I’ll be able to find something to top that for a while, if ever.  

And well, I don’t usually feel like blogging, but I ended up going on and on about books. Maybe I should just turn this into a book blog.

I joke.

See you next year!