Sunday 14 January 2018

2017: another year in books


These are the books I have tackled this year.

Alexander McCall Smith
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate
Ava Bloomfield
Never Grow Up
Chris Lambrianou with Robin McGibbon
Escape from the Kray Madness
Dave Simpson
The Fallen : Life In and Out of Britain's Most Insane Group
David Thomson
The Whole Equation : A History of Hollywood
Donald Macintosh
travels in the white man's grave
E. Annie Proulx
That Old Ace In The Hole
Emma Hooper
Etta and Otto and Russell and James
Gregg Hurwitz
I See You
Iain M. Banks
The Hydrogen Sonata
John Connolly
The Underbury Witches
Jon Stock
Dead Spy Running
Lisa Scottoline
Dead Ringer
Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg MD
Why Do Men Have Nipples? : Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini
Paul Trynka
Starman : David Bowie the definitive biography
Piers Morgan
The Insider : The Private Diaries Of A Scandalous Decade
Richard Bach
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Richard Branson
Screw Business As Usual
Richard Crompton
The Honey Guide
Si King and Dave Myers
The Hairy Bikers Blood, Sweat & Tyres
Terry Looker and Olga Gregson
Manage Your Stress for a Happier Life


Twenty-one books finished in 2017; I read (and listened) to 30 books in 2016 – so not as good a year bookwise, Still, quality always trumps quantity.
On the subject of quality, rarely have I encountered such utter pompous tosh as Richard Branson’s “Screw Business Usual”, which was comfortably the worst book I read in 2017 and is a contender for the worst I have ever tackled. Avoid!

The best? That accolade goes to Dave Simpson’s “The Fallen : Life In and Out of Britain's Most Insane Group”. Honourable mention is also due to “The Whole Equation : A History of Hollywood” and to “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”.

Here’s to 2018 being a good year for reading, if I can find the time ….




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