Books Read: 2012

I do always enjoy tracking what I've read in a single year, and it's actually one of the main reasons I keep this blog. I normally aim for around 50 books a year, but I'm not sure I met that target in 2012. Let's see:

1. Flight from the Enchanter (Iris Murdoch)
2. The Ballad of the Sad Café (Carson McCullers)
3. Along the Cherry Lane (Richard Sparks)
4. From The Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant (Alex Gilvarry)
5. The Book Club Cookbook (Gelman/Levy)
6. This Mobius Strip of Ifs (Matthias Freese)
7. The Bottom Billion (Paul Collier)
8. The Perfume Lover (Denyse Beaulieu)
9. Glow (Jessica Maria Tuccelli)
10. Midnight in Peking (Paul French)
11. Helen Keller In Love (Rosie Sultan)
12. Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes (Chastain et al)
13. My American (Stella Gibbons)
14. On The Edge (Richard Hammond)
15. The Fifth Mountain (Paulo Coelho)
16. Blackbird (Jennifer Lauck)
17. Girl from the South (Joanna Trollope)
18. Starlight (Stella Gibbons)
19. Winnie and Gurley (Robert G Hewitt)
20. Diary of a Nobody (George and Weedon Grossmith)
21. For a Dancer (Emma L Stephens)
22. How Hard Can It Be? (Jeremy Clarkson)
23. At Home (Bill Bryson)
24. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
25. The Way of the Tumbrils (John Elliot)
26. The Finkler Question (Howard Jacobson)
27. Seeing Things (Oliver Postgate)
28. The King's Speech (Logue and Conradi)
29. Helpful Herbs for Health and Beauty (Barbara Griggson)
30. Delirium (Nancy L Cohen)
31. Running With Scissors (Augusten Burroughs)
32. Five Children and It (E Nesbit)
33. Blaming (Elizabeth Taylor)
34. Embassytown (China Miéville)*

*to be reviewed

Frankly, I'm amazed that I managed to read the equivalent of one book every 10/11 days given my other commitments this year, with the shift from part-time to full-time work and my driving lessons being the main consumers of my time. I even think there may be a couple of books that I read but didn't review, so it may even be a little more than this (especially as I also don't count rereads).

I really discovered a new interest in politics and economics this year thanks to Cohen and Collier's books, and the classics I read this year were also a real highlight. 

Another big change this year was the exponential increase in free books received: of the 34 books listed above, 13 of them were kindly sent to me from PR agencies and authors for review. So to all those sponsors: thank you!

The main shame in this list is the total lack of French-language reading, which I really should do better at given that I've now lived in France for four years. Definitely something to improve in 2013!

I hope you achieve all your reading goals in the new year also, and experience health, wealth and happiness in all other areas of life :)