January Reading Round Up

Outside there are gorgeous blue skies, the current temperature is -3 and and my garden is covered in snow. Whilst I wait for Mr B's football game to be called off, I'm going to enjoy being warm and curl up in my reading chair with a graphic novel. And probably both dogs heaped on my lap as well! Snug.

I've eventually decided what to do after last year's Year of Readers. I am still going to "fine" myself £1 per book I read but rather than pay it all to one charity I am going to add it to my Charities Trust "freedom account" as an additional monthly top up. This money will be ring fenced for literacy-related donations and that (hopefully) means some decent money once my normal payroll deduction is taken into account as well.

This month reflects some post-Christmas impulse purchasing and I have read a few for the Sci Fi Experience so my list is a bit on the eclectic side!

Graceling - Kristin Cashore
Space Captain Smith - Toby Frost
The Stepsister Scheme - Jim C Hines
The Princess Bride - William Goldman
Fire - Kristin Cashore
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
The Real Story (Gap Sequence) - Stephen Donaldson
Forbidden Knowledge (Gap Sequence) - Stephen Donaldson
Murder Mysteries - Neil Gaiman & P. Russell Craig
Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
A Dark and Hungry God Arises (Gap Sequence) - Stephen Donaldson
The Magic Flute - P. Russell Craig

January Reading List

So the first month of the year is over and what a cold end! I've been dreadfully disorganised this year and am half way through four book reviews but I will finish writing these over the next couple of days and update this post to link in to them.

This is also the end of my first month participating in the Year of Readers project and I've donated £10 to Book Aid to cover my self-imposed "fine" of £1 per book for this month. Feel free to join in and/or donate!

I've really enjoyed the books I've read this month - it's (unusually) pretty heavily weighted towards Sci-Fi books as I am taking part in the Sci-Fi experience. I think I have been really lucky so far in that I've really enjoyed every single new author I have read and have certainly got some pretty good wishlist ideas as I start to catch up on some of the other books these guys (and it was mainly guys) have written! The only remaining question is where I would put them all but there is a wall in our dining room that I call dibs on... I've got a large stack of books to keep me busy on the Sci-Fi front throughout Febuary as well - although there are so many in the TBR pile that I think it might turn into a 2009 Sci-Fi experience! Erp...

January Reading List:
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald
The Gates of Ivory - Margaret Drabble
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Clockwork Heart - Dru Pagliassotti
Glasshouse - Charles Stross
Aunts Aren't Gentlemen - P.G. Wodehouse
Gridlinked - Neal Asher
Daughter of the Forest - Juliette Marillier
The Dispossessed - Ursula Le Guin

January Reading

Oh dear - a few days late but here's my list of books I finished reading in January. A very mixed bag and everything on it comes from the books-I-or-my-neice-got-for-Christmas pile. On which I have still not really made an impression. I don't suppose it helps that I've added a few more books too... Oh well. The first half of the month definitely reflects my need for easy reads - I had flu - and I think it might be time for some contemporary fiction!

• Maggot Pie – Michael Lawrence. This was lent to me by my niece who thought I would enjoy it and she was right. I will be lend Killer Underpants as soon as she has finished reading it.
• Jane Blonde: Sensational Spylet – Jill Marshall. This was also lent to me by my niece as she loves Jane Blonde. There are three more in the series and I look forward to seeing what Jane does next.
• Deathstalker, Deathstalker Rebellion, Deathstalker War – Simon R Green. I got the Deathstalker books for Christmas and, as I had flu for the first two weeks of this year, a bit of space opera was just the ticket. Although I'd not finished the first part of the series at this point, I was forced to pause as I'm unable to trace a reasonably priced copy of Deathstalker Honour.
• The Pure in Heart & The Risk of Darkness – Susan Hill. More Christmas books - I wanted to catch up on the rest of the Simon Serrailler books as I enjoyed reading the first one last year. I also enjoyed these! A nice change of pace from Space too.
• Deryni Rising, Deryni Checkmate and High Deryni - Kathrine Kurtz. I bought these secondhand after reading about her on Pat's blog last year.
• Deathstalker Destiny – Simon R Green. I finally gave up on finding a copy of Deathstalker Honour.
• Inkheart – Cornelia Funke. See my write up below!

An odd month's reading. It'll be interesting to see what February brings.