Skip to main content

15 Books of 2015

Every year I list ## number of books that have made an impression on me in 20##. This year I read a total of 114 books, the most I've ever read in a year since I started recording this. That's 35,909 pages that I have consumed, hour after hour, day after day. And, boy, there's been some good'uns.

1. When Bad Things Happen in Good Bikinis by Helen Bailey
2. Who Fears Death? by Nnedi Okorafor
3. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
4. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
5. The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
6. The Storied Life of A J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
7. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
8. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
9. How to be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis
10. The Time Inbetween by Nancy Tucker
11. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
12. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
13. The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jaaskelainen
14. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
15. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles

These books, I feel, encapsulate how I have grown both as a person, and academically. I've re-fell in love with fantasy, I've read all of Jane Austen, I've finally read Wuthering Heights and I've had the pleasure of reading more non-fiction, in particular no. 1, 9 and 10 on my list; three ladies who I urge you profusely to check out.

This year;
1. I'd like to read all of Hardy
2. I'd like to read more contemporary poetry collections
3. I'd like to discover new contemporary writers - both fic and non-fic - who may influence my Masters thesis.

HAPPY READING IN 2017! :-)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Teens don't read"

Earlier today Maureen Johnson pointed out that the view of "teens don't read" in the UK is deeply entrenched (which is a word that I now love  and had never heard before). As a teenager in the UK, the stigma around reading seems to be - to me - it's "uncool", it's "geeky", there "aren't any good books out there". I think the fact that a lot of teenagers in British schools are exposed to older literature or, perhaps, not that popular literature in lessons and forced into over-analysing and spending countless hours on 'what the author meant'. A point that was raised in this twitter discussion was that people didn't want to be seen reading, or didn't want to be seen reading certain books. It's made me realise that I never   ever ever  see people reading in the older years in my school ( ever ). Perhaps the odd year 7 (12 year old) or year 8 (13 year old) will read, but - from experience - they will probably be
4 comments
Read more

To A Baby

Dear Baby in a cafe, You are growing up in an incredible age. The age of the unknown. We are balancing on a thin line that could topple either way and the future, Baby, is unknown. For the moments that our eyes meet I see a world in your mind. The cogs whirring and your mind constantly processing everything. You see so much and understand so little; but that is changing. It is funny to think of all the new things you're currently learning about. Learning to eat, to drink, to speak, to listen and learn. The world which you observe, Baby, is wonderful. I cannot convey to you how incredibly grand it is because it simply is impossible to put it into words. It is wonderful - completely - but it is also full of terrible destruction. It's like a coin; there are two sides to it. I tend to pick the glass-half-full attitude, because I believe it will ultimately be okay. There are horrible things that happen in this world, Baby, and this world is heading down an unknown path. However
2 comments
Read more

On Family

I think everyone has qualms with their families. There's things we like and, naturally, don't like about the people we spend our time with. We have disagreements and upsets and we are very likely to all have different views on how things should be done but all in all we've kind of been put together because of genes so sometimes have to face the music. After spending time away from family to study at university I've come to appreciate my family more. Not only this but I also see them as people with individual thoughts and ideals... kind of like the moment you realise that your teacher is, holy moly, a person  with a life outside of school . (I know, crazy right?) Through these realisations full of gratitude, and yes slightly bitter reality I have been able to come to terms (well more so than before) with the fact that disagreements happen. People don't see eye to eye. Sometimes people will never understand how your mind works or how other people work. That's j
1 comment
Read more