Non-fiction

1. Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman
2. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
3. Acid Drops by Kenneth Williams
4. Mimi and Toutou Go Forth by Giles Foden
5. 1966 and all that: by Craig Brown
6. Molvania: A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Rob Sitch
7. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Fitness by Claire Walter, Anette Tannander Bank
8. Paddling to Jerusalem by David Aaronovitch
9. The Shackled Continent by Robert Guest
10. Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent
11. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind
12. An Introduction to English Poetry by James Fenton
13. Ways of Seeing by John Berger
14. Art History: A Critical Introduction to Its Methods by Michael Hatt
15. Fat Girl by Judith Moore
16. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Science Fiction Art Techniques by John Grant,Ron Tiner
17. The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
18. A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? - 3000BC-AD 1603 by Simon Schama
19. A History of Britain II: British Wars 1603 - 1776 Vol 2 by Simon Schama
20. A History of Britain III: The Fate of Empire 1776-2001 by Simon Schama
21. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

1. The Sunborn by Gregory Benford
2. The Puppies of Terra by Thomas M. Disch
3. Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore
4. Natural History by Justina Robson
5. The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston
6. Telempath by Spider Robinson
7. Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
8. Transcendent by Stephen Baxter
9. Provender Gleed by James Lovegrove
10. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
11. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
12. Thud by Terry Pratchett
13. No Present Like Time by Steph Swainston
14. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
15. Someone Like Me by Tom Holt
16. Gradisil by Adam Roberts
17. Infernal Devices by Philip Reeve
18. Singularity Sky by Charles Stross
19. Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross
20. A Darkling Plain by Philip Reeve
21. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
22. Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
23. Appleseed by John Clute

1. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
2. The Vengeance of Rome by Michael Moorcock
3. Le Morte d'Arthur by Malory
4. Mercedes-Benz by Pawel Huelle
5. The Athenian Murders by José Carlos Somoza
6. Tin Men by Michael Frayn
7. Five on a Secret Trail by Enid Blyton
8. The Woman Who Married a Bear. by John Straley
9. Ulysses by James Joyce
10. The Penopliad by Margaret Atwood
11. Jonathan Livingston Trafalgar Square Pigeon by David Lines
12. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
13. Cold Skin by Albert Sanchez Pinol
14. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
15. Jpod by Douglas Coupland
16. Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders by John Mortimer
17. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
18. Rabbit Redux by John Updike
19. Sniper by Pavel Hak

1. Return to Krypton by Jeph Loeb
2. Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
3. Batman: the greatest stories ever told by Various
4. Superman: Secret Identity by Kurt Busiek
5. The New Frontier - Volume One by Darwyn Cooke
6. Kingdom Come by Mark Waid, Alex Ross
7. Asterix and the Falling Sky by Albert Uderzo
8. Tom Strong vol 5 by Alan Moore
9. Top Ten: The Forty Niners by Alan Moore
10. Batgirl: Year One by Scott Beatty, Chuck Dixon
11. Superman / Batman / Supergirl by Jeph Loeb, Michael Turner

Non-comics overall numbers:

Overall numbers down again. Not commuting by train cut the numbers last time: this year I think Operation Become Less Fat and so on has cut my reading time even more. Even the 11 minutes of 5BX exercises per day amounts to 77 minutes per week, and for the 43 weeks so far that comes to 55 hours. Plus there's the dumb-bells. Is it all really worth losing ten books per year over?

Highlights
Non-fiction. The highlight has to be the astonishing "Self-Made Man" by Norah Vincent, who successfully disguised herself as a man to see how the other half live. Also worth a mention are the first two volumes of Simon Schama's "A History of Britain": both lucid and entertaining (unlike the third).

SF: A disappointing year for SF. Chief disappointment was the long-awaited "A Feast for Crows", which turned out to be a choppy half-selection of the bits he'd managed to finish. "A Darkling Plain" successfully brought the Traction Cities kidult series to a suitable climax. Steph Swainston and Charles Stross managed decent stabs at breathing new life into the old genres of trad fantasy and hard SF.

Other fiction. "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro was a near-perfect novel: poignant and disturbing. "The Vengeance of Rome" by Michael Moorcock brought the Colonel Pyat series to another good close. "The Athenian Murders" was an elegantly high-concept mystery.

Comics: Didn't read very many this year. Pick of the bunch was the classic bit of revisionism "Kingdom Come".

That's all folks! See you next year.