Bookmark Five

Hello. It's been a while since we last spoke. Anything of note happen in the interim that we should be discussing? Geopolitically, like?

No? well in that case we can get on with the annual reading round up. Which might be quite short, as this was a pretty slow year. What with the general state of the world, the type of challenging books I (like to think I) like to read just seemed too much, and fleeing to escapism feels like an abdication of responsibility, somehow. Plus I got a new PC over the summer which is actually capable of running Civilization at full spec, so I can't honestly claim my lack of reading time is purely down to existential angst.

So, excluding comics and academic texts (which also substantially cut into my available reading time), the total is 38 books read this year. Which is quite shocking, when I think about it; at this rate it'd take a decade to clear my TBR pile. Not the worst problem to have, of course. Eighteen by women, seventeen by men and three multi-author collections. Seven non-fiction books and five works in translation. You know the drill.

The reading related highlight was meeting an internet pal in real life for the first time ever. @twodudessf was as excellent company as you'd expect, and the whole experience was far less terrifying than it might otherwise have been. In terms of actual books, the best book I read was probably Indra Das's The Devourers.

Honourable mentions to The Paper Menagerie, City of Stairs, and Imaginary Cities, and also Nishi Shawl's Everfair and  N.K. Jemisin's The Obelisk Gate, both of which which I promise I'll write something about as and when I can pluck up the time and motivation. But if you'll excuse me, Isabella won't build this Great Wall by herself…