From the Heart of Europe

Hooray for Sir Terry!

Two Second Doctor novels to finish off the year.

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This is the list of books I’ve read this year – please tick if you have read (including started but not finished) any of them They are blocked out by category, and (except for the very last section) ranked in order of appearances in the LibraryThing catalogue. Books in italics have a female author or editor credited. I’ve split two collections (by Roald Dahl and Dav Pilkey) where their components appeared to be better known; interestingly, this wasn’t the case for Cherryh or Moorcock. A more analytical post is on its way, explaining which ones I actually liked.

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Book review of the year

Non-fiction

Best in category: Anne Frank's Diary, a re-read for me (though this edition has all her original text in); a searingly unforgettable account of life in an intolerable situation.
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Fiction (not sf):

Best in category: Vanity Fair, Thackeray's story of life among the declining gentry of the early nioneteenth century.
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Comics (other than Doctor Who)

Best in category: The Fixer, Joe Sacco's questionable tales from Sarajevo before, during and after the war.
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Shakespeare Plays

Best in category: A Midsummer Night's Dream - a marvelous, inventive play.
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SF and fantasy (other than Doctor Who)

Best in category: Alan Garner's The Owl Service, which I hadn't read before.
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Doctor Who spinoff fiction (print)

Best in category: All-Consuming Fire by Andy Lane, in which the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Benny encounter Sherlock Holmes and the Great Old Ones. Glorious.
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Doctor Who audios

Best in category: The Kingmaker, by Nev Fountain, a hilarious inversion of the story of Shakespeare's play Richard III. (I won't do a comprehensive review here, and they are not strictly speaking books anyway, but at some future moment I'll do the whole Big Finish run.)

Doctor Who novelisations

Best in category: The first one published, Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, by David Whitaker. (General roundup here.)



I won't nominate a single Book of the Year, as it is too much like comparing apples to geodes; but I will admit that it is Anne Frank who comes back to mind when I least expect her to.

I tried this last year, and it proved rather a useful guide to books I might like to read during the year. So, this is the list of unread books on my shelves (excluding, rather arbitrarily, Doctor Who and Shakespeare): which of these have you read?

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