Originally uploaded by ninahale

Totting up your list of books read in one year is aking to Adrian Mole whipping the ruler out. It’ a little narcissistic and a bit sad.

Which is why I’ve done it. The books, that is. I’m a sad narcissist (read: blogger).The list includes only books I completed, and not the few that I started but failed to finish. Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown was one of those, which was a massive disappointment after the likes of Midnight’s Children and Fury, by turns complex and eminently accessible, and both share a common brilliance.

The 17 books I got through this year are compiled in a handy wishlist for you here, and also in the left-hand sidebar.

Three (King of the World, Musicophilia and White Gold) I got through in a week on holidays.

Two (Ivor Browne’s ‘Music and Madness’ and Philip Gourevitch’s Standard Operating Procedure) were review/interview reads for the Sunday Business Post and Wangari Maathai’s autobiography, Unbowed, is partly research for a book I’m hoping to write.

The rest were personal choices. Reading 17 books in a year is a slow year for me, just one every three weeks, but it has been a busy year. I bought probably three times that, and started another 12 or so books that never got past the first chapter. Hopefully 2009 will be a 30+ year.