2021 in books

[schneefink]

Books I read 2021: 40, exactly my goal. I set a lower goal after I started playing Hades last December and that was a good decision. More than a quarter (13) I read in July, July was a good month for reading (no classes, for once.)
Of course that is published fiction only - I'm pretty sure I read at least ten times as much in fic. Different mental category though.

Stats: 1 non-fiction book, about Josephine Baker. ~26 fantasy (about ~20 of which in other worlds), ~8 SF. 5 in German, which is more than in recent years.
I also used to count how many books were written by men/women/other, but there's quite a few authors where I don't know and I'm too lazy to look it up. A little over half women, I think.

Favorite book: Hm. Maybe "She Who Became the Sun" by Shelley Parker-Chan.
Runner-ups: "Piranesi" by Susanna Clarke, though that might be recency bias.
Other books I enjoyed a lot: "The Doors of Eden" by Adrian Tchaikovsky, "The Bone Maker" by Sarah Beth Durst, "A Master of Djinn" by P. Djèlí Clark, and "Vespertine" by Margaret Rogerson.

Goal for next year: Finally read some books from the, uh, four piles on my floor right now… Ever since the open bookshelf nearby appeared the piles grow even faster ^^

Comments

[snickfic]

Oh hey, I didn't know Rogerson had a new book out! I will have to investigate.

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I was surprised and happy when I saw it in the library. It features ghosts and revenants and is apparently the first in a series :)

[nonesensed]

I too enjoyed She Who Became the Sun and Piranesi - very different vibes, but both well-written and breaths of fresh air among other things I read last year. It's fun that Clarke wrote such a different book from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and the grey/gray morality of She Who Became the Sun was executed in a nicely balanced way, without the whole world turning Utterly Grimdark.

I know all too well the feeling of having a hoard of unread books lurking in one's house 😆 I've even made an "in my house" shelf on Goodreads to try and get myself to actually finish all the books I already have at home before I buy (too many) new ones. Starting to feel like that "McDonalds VS We Have Food At Home"-meme. Any book you're particularly looking forward to reading this year?

[schneefink]

I haven't read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - from what I've heard I suspect it's not quite my thing - but I'm very glad I gave Piranesi a try.

Hmm, books I'm particularly looking forward to... I'm planning to read the Earthsea books this year, I only read the first few and that was two decades ago, and I got DD an illustrated version for Christmas so I'll borrow that :)

[nonesensed]

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is one of the few book where I actually recommend watching the TV adaptation before reading the book, if anyone expresses interest in reading it. I was very 'meh' about it the first time I read it, then I for some reason decided to watch the TV version and as soon as I was done with that I dove headfirst back into the book and loved it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Piranesi is a read I, on the contrary, is happy I went into without spoilers.

Yay, Earthsea! Hope you have an enjoyable time reading them :)

[schneefink]

Huh, I either missed or forgot that there is a TV adaption, might have to check that out.

[nonesensed]

The TV show is far more character focused than the book (which is a fun satire but definitely more "zoomed out" than character driven) so if you're looking for a magical mystery/adventure-ish show with British Sarcastic Humor, I'd recommend it :)