So at the beginning of 2012 I started noting every film I watched, but I have been doing the same with books since 2008. I began while I was at university in York and organised it by academic year, and so I have continued.
Last year (2011/12) I had a good look at my to-read list and realised I had about 10 years of stuff already lined up at the rate I was reading. I made a big effort to maximise how much I read and pulled in nearly 14000 pages over the year. I did not do so well this year, I guess it being my last year teacher training probably explains it, although I also got stuck on On the Origin of Species for like a month and a half.
A reminder of the awards:
★ Good!
★★ Very good
★★★ Amazing!
★ Bad...
★★ Very bad
★★★ Awful!
And, again, these are strictly a descriptor of my personal feeling towards the book.
If it wasn't the first time I'd read the book, that is indicated by its title.
★★ A Game of Thrones
A Song of Ice and Fire #1, gritty fantasy and popular TV series.
★ What Do You Care What Other People Think?
Several biographical stories by Richard Feynman.
★ Brutal Harry
A somewhat dark Harry Potter fanfic. Link.
★ The Magician's Apprentice (attempted)
Prequel novel to The Black Magician Trilogy, which I love.
A Study in Magic
A Harry Potter/Sherlock Holmes crossover fanfic. Link.
★ Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
The 1886 classic.
★★ On the Origin of Species
Darwin's treaty on evolution by natural selection.
★ The Illuminatus! Trilogy (attempted)
A quirky trilogy with the subject of conspiracy theories.
★ The Dark Lord's Equal
Harry Potter fanfic, a mature Harry goes back in time. Link.
★ The Ego Trick
A for-the-masses philosophy book about 'identity'.
★★ Harry Potter and the Natural 20 (first 25 chapters)
Harry Potter/Dungeons and Dragons crossover fanfic. Link.
★ The Colour of Magic (II)
The first of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.
★ Big Bang
Popsci book about the Big Bang theory.
★★ The Silmarillion
Tolkien's prequel epic to The Lord of the Rings.
Hyperion
An oft-recommended scifi novel.
★ Misspent Youth
A sort of very early prequel to The Commonwealth Saga.
★★★ Pride & Prejudice (III)
200 years since its publication, Jane Austen's best known novel.
★ How to Lie with Statistics
A short '50s book about the ways statistics can mislead.
★ River Out of Eden
One of Dawkins' books on evolution, the next one I hadn't read.
Permutation City
Hard scifi. May cause headaches and existential nihilism.
Kil'n People
A fun scifi book on an interesting theme.
★★ Interview with the Vampire (II or III)
The book that began Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.
★★ The Vampire Lestat (II)
First part of the sequel duology to Interview.
★★ The Queen of the Damned (II)
The conclusion to the sequel duology to Interview.
★★ Harry Potter and the Natural 20
As mentioned above, HP/DnD crossover, this time completed.
★ Harry Potter and the Confirmed Critical (first 6 chapters)
Ongoing sequel to HPN20. Link.
★ Ender's Game
Another oft-recommended scifi novel, and soon to be a film.
★★ Speaker for the Dead
Sequel to Ender's Game (and the reason he expanded it).
★ The Lifecycle of Software Objects
Scifi novella taking AI from a different angle. Link.
Science Fiction Hall of Fame (first 17 stories)
A highly recommended compilation of pre-1964 scifi short stories.
★ Hikaru no Go (first 6 volumes)
A coming-of-age manga centered on a boy who learns to play Go.
★ Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (chapters 86-89)
Harry Potter fanfic, where Harry is smart. Link.
As for films: although I feel like I haven't watched many for ages (I've been busy with anime and, recently, Breaking Bad) I'm on 47 so far in 2013 which is more than I'd have guessed!
