2012: A Review

I kinda fell off the waggon for writing book reviews back in May, must try harder next year.

In 2012, I read 34 books, which isn't too bad, but I was aiming to read more. The problem I found was that after I read Wheel of Time 7: Crown of Swords, I didn't want to wait another month to read the next book. (My plan had been to read 1 Wheel of Time book per month so that I finished reading the series in December, perfectly timed for the final book coming out on the 8th January.) So I quickly finished all the other books in the Wheel of Time series, after which I was too excited about the new book coming in January that I couldn't focus on any other books. Instead I listened to the Wheel of Time audio books, two per month, I've now listened to all of them, and I'm counting the days until the 8th January. Seriously, I am more excited about A Memory of Light (the final Wheel of Time book) than I was about Christmas.

My plan for 2013 is:

1) Write book reviews for every book that I read in 2012 and haven't reviewed yet, I plan to do this between now and the 7th January.
2) Read A Memory of Light, soooooo excited about this, and review it.
3) Continue to work my way through the BBC Top 100 Books list, still loads of them to read.
4) Finish reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series, I've completed the first book and started the second.
5) Only read books that I haven't read before, unless they are on the BBc Top 100 Books list.
6) Start working my way through the 5000+ books that I have on my Kindle, trying some new authors and new genera's etc.

The books I read in 2012 are:

1) The Wheel of Time 1: The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan 
2) The Inheritance Cycle 1: Eragon - Christopher Paolini
3) The Inheritance Cycle 2: Eldest - Christopher Paolini
4) The Inheritance Cycle 3: Brisingr - Christopher Paolini
5) The Inheritance Cycle 4: Inheritance - Christopher Paolini
6) The Wheel of Time 2: The Great Hunt - Robert Jordan
7) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
8) His Dark Materials 1: Northern Lights - Phillip Pullman
9) The Wheel of Time 3: The Dragon Reborn - Robert Jordan
10) Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
11) Lord of the Rings 1: The Fellowship of the Ring - JRR Tolkien
12) The Wheel of Time 4: The Shadow Rising - Robert Jordan
13) To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
14) Mistborn 1: The Final Empire - Brandon Sanderson
15) The Wheel of Time 5: The Fires of Heaven - Robert Jordan
16) Mistborn 2: The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson
17) The Wheel of Time 6: Lord of Chaos - Robert Jordan
18) The Wheel of Time prequel: New Spring - Robert Jordan
19) Mistborn 3: Hero of the Ages - Brandon Sanderson
20) Mistborn 4: Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson
21) The Wheel of Time 7: A Crown of Swords - Robert Jordan
22) The Wheel of Time 8: A Path of Daggers - Robert Jordan
23) Fifty Shades of Grey - EL James
24) The Wheel of Time 9: Winter's Heart - Robert Jordan
25) The Wheel of Time 10: Crossroads of Twilight - Robert Jordan
26) The Wheel of Time 11: Knife of Dreams - Robert Jordan
27) The Wheel of Time 12: The Gathering Storm - Brandon Sanderson
28) The Wheel of Time 13: Towers of Midnight - Brandon Sanderson
29) A Song of Ice and Fire 1: A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin
30) The Wheel of Time 14 Prologue: By Grace and Banners Fallen - Brandon Sanderson
31) The Hunger Games 1: The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
32) The Hunger Games 2: Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
33) The Hunger Games 3: Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
34) The Pseudonomicon - Phil Hine

I have created links to the book reviews already completed and will update the links as I write more reviews.

Finally, I want to nominate my best and worst books of the year:

Best Book of the Year 2012 - I would like to say all of the Wheel of Time books, but I'm going to choose a book that I read for the first time this year

Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

This book is amazing, I couldn't put it down, parts of it terrified me so much that I wanted to scream at the characters in the book to run away, parts of it moved me to tears (which is not an easy thing to do). At the end of this book I was emotionally drained. I will defiantly read more by Sebastian Faulks.

Worst Book of the Year 2012 - Damn curiosity got the better of me and I wish I had never picked up this drivel, I can't believe how many women like this book.

Fifty Shades of Grey - EL James

Dear EL James, please do not attempt to write any more books, go get a job somewhere else, somewhere you will not inflict your shite on the eyes and minds of any more people. Thank you.

Happy New Year everyone.

Tasha xxx

His Dark Materials 1: Northern Lights

Northern Lights
Philip Pullman
1995
5/5
BBC Top 100 Books - Book 3 (part 1)

This book is set in a world very similar to our, however the world is very different to ours. The story revolves around the adventures of a girl called Lyra and her travels through this steampunk dystopia from Cambridge to London, and on to the Fens, and eventually to the Arctic.

This is the second time I have read this book, and it is a good as I remember, I can't wait to read the next two books in this series again.

The Lord of the Rings 1: The Fellowship of the Ring

The Fellowship of the Ring
J R R Tolkien
1954
5/5
BBC Top 100 Books - Number 1 (part 1)

I first read this book just after the film was released in 2001, I had waited a number of years to read it because I didn't want the film to be a disappointment like most films based on awesome books are. At the end of the first LOTR film, I couldn't wait until the next film was released to find out what happened, so I read the books. Despite loving the books, I didn't read any of them again until now. I had forgotten how much brilliant stuff the films had left out!

I love this story and I can't believe I went for so long without reading it again, this series will probably have to go onto my read every year or two list.

Birdsong

Birdsong
Sebastian Faulks
1993
5/5
BBC Top 100 Books - Number 13

 It is very rare for a book to bring me to tears or cause me emotional pain, this is one of these books. The naive optimism before the battle of the Somme made me want to scream at the characters in the book to warn them not to go over the top.

I loved how this book switched between a pre-war love affair, the horrors of World War 1, and the story of a young woman trying to understand what her grandfather had experienced during this war.

Sebastian Faulks has created characters that feel very real, he makes the read feel their joy, their sorrow, their fear and their pain. I couldn't put this book down and felt emotionally drained after reading it.

Wheel of Time 2: The Great Hunt

The Great Hunt
Robert Jordan
1990
5/5

The second book of the brilliant Wheel of Time series begins in Fal Dara where our protagonists are resting after the events in book 1. Rand, Perrin and Mat join the hunt for the Horn of Valere and are for a while on their own without (so it seems to them) Aes Sedai interferance. While Egwene and Nynaeve travel with the Aes Sedai to Tar Valon to learn to control their use of Saidar and become Aes Sedai. This book switches frequently beween the adventures that the boys from Emond's Field are having and those that the girls are having. Towards the end of the book all of these characters are drawn together again on Toman Head.

This book is as brilliant as the first book, it left me totally hooked and wanting to find out more. I have read this book several times (9 to be precise) and every time I read it (and any of the other Wheel of Time books), I find more layers to the story.           

BBC Top 100 Books

This is a list of the BBC Top 100 Books

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
     a. The Fellowship of the Ring - read in Mar 2012
     b. The Two Towers
     c. The Return of the King
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen - read in Feb 2012
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
     a. Northern Lights - read in Feb 2012
     b. The Subtle Knife
     c. The Amber Spyglass
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee - read in Apr 2012
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Working my way throught these books will probably take 2-3 years, some I know are amazing books, some I know I dislike (but I will read them to review them) and some I have never read.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
1813
3/5
BBC Top 100 Books - Number 2

I found this book tediously long-winded and boring to start with, it was very difficult to keep reading this book. However, by half-way through the book, I was intrigued to find out what would happen between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy. At first, I was only going to give this book 1 or 2 out of 5, but as the story continued I decided it deserved a 3/5.

I disliked the way that the vast majority of this book was dialogue between characters, there were very few descriptions of locations and people; it seemed to me to be all mindless chatter until the story got going.

I am glad that I've read this book, but wont be reading it again.

Inheritance Cycle 4: Inheritance

Inheritance
Christopher Paolini
2011
5/5

This is the final book of the Inheritance Cycle, and having read the other books in this series a few years ago, I was looking forward to reading this. I was rather pleased when it appeared as one of Christmas presents.


This is the best book of the series and I can't wait to read future books by Christopher Paolini.

Inheritance Cycle 3: Brisingr

Brisingr
Christopher Paolini
2008
5/5

Yet another brilliant book from Christopher Paolini, even more enjoyable than the first two books in this series. The world and magic system created and expended in the first two books of this series have matured and have a real sense of depth.

Inheritance Cycle 2: Eldest

Eldest
Christopher Paolini
2005

4/5

This book continues on from Eragon, the first book of the Inheritance Cycle, after Eragon is injured while killing Durza he receives a summon to go to the Elves for training. Eragon and Saphira journey to Ellesmera with Ayra, Orik and a number of other dwarfs.


I really enjoyed this book because it expended the story and world created in Eragon, I couldn't wait to pick up the third book in the Inheritance Cycle.

Inheritance Cycle 1: Eragon

Eragon
Christopher Paolini
2002
4/5

Like many other fantasy novels, this story starts with a farm-boy from the middle of nowhere having a life changing experience and venturing off into the world, having a number of adventures along the way and fighting evil.


This is an enjoyable book to read, and leaves you wanting to read the next book in the series.

Tasha's Book Reviews 2012

My cunning plan this year is to write a little review for every book I read in 2012, partly to see how many books I actually read in a year, and partly for the shits n giggles.

I have a number of books that I'm planning to read, but I will probably read additional books as well.

The books I'm planning to read are:

The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
- The Eye of the World - read in Jan 2012
- The Great Hunt - read in Feb 2012
- The Dragon Reborn - read in Feb 2012
- The Shadow Rising - read in Mar 2012
- The Fires of Heaven - currently reading
- Lord of Chaos
- A Crown of Swords
- The Path of Daggers
- Winter's Heart
- Crossroads of Twilight
- Knife of Dreams
- Gathering Storm (Brandon Sanderson)
- Towers of Midnight (Brandon Sanderson)
- A Memory of Light (Brandon Sanderson) (published November 2012) *this is now being published in Jan 2013 so I will read it then)
- A New Spring (Wheel of Time Prequel)

Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini
- Eragon - read in Jan 2012
- Eldest - read in Jan 2012
- Brisingr - read in Feb 2012
- Inheritance - read in Feb 2012

Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
- The Final Empire - read in Apr 2012
- The Well of Ascension - currently reading
- The Hero of Ages
- The Alloy of Law

The Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
- The Way of Kings

Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson

A Song of Ice and Fire - George R R Martin
- A Game of Thrones
- A Clash of Kings
- A Storm of Swords
- A Feast for Crows
- A Dance with Dragons

BBC Top 100 Books
which I wont list here, but you can find by following the above link.

So that's 130 books or 11 per month, although I will probably read the BBC Top 100 Books over the next 2 years to make things more manageable. I have read a number of these books before, and in the case of the Wheel of Time books, many times, but when a new book in a series is publishes, I like to re-read the previous books in the series to recap the story.

Wheel of Time 1: The Eye of the World

The Eye of the World
Robert Jordan
1990
5/5

This is one of my favourite books of all time, and this must be at least the 9th time I've read it.

The Eye of the World is the first book in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, the series will consist of 14 books when it is completed in November 2012. Sadly the author died before he was able to complete the series, however the final books have been written by Brandon Sanderson.

The lives of 5 young people from a tiny village in the woolly-backs-of-no-where are turned up-side-down, in the days leading up to the spring festival of Beltine mysterious strangers are seen by the young men of the village, at the same time a lady, a swordsman, a gleeman and a peddler arrive in the village. An attack that evening by creatures thought to be myths changes the lives of the 5 young people forever. Their fate and that of the world is intertwined...

The Eye of the World tells the tale of their flight from home with the forces of evil of their tails and the adventures they have along the way.

Each time I read this book, I get more out of it, I will probably read this book, and the others in the series, once a year for the rest of my life.