Books of 2018

It seems I didn't post at all in December, but just look at how promptly I put something up in January! It is, of course, just the annual list of books read in 2018, and I don't know how much I'm going to analyze or draw conclusions about my reading habits here. I will say that it looks like I read 63 books (not including those read at work so this list does not include Walking to the End of the World, Arctic Solitaire, Campfire Stories, Scraps, Peels, and Stems, Wildfire, The Sharp End of Life, Birds of the West, The Salmon Way, and a handful of others whose titles I have simply forgotten that being the nature of my mind).

But I can see that I read some children's books and did a fair bit of re-reading over the last year. The Trollope titles stand out as books I actually remember, to some extent, while some of these I honestly have forgotten almost entirely. A few were truly abysmal, but I think that overall it was a pretty good year for books. That statement surprises me as I recall being disappointed by a lot of what I read. I look at the list and find myself thinking, "Oh that one. It was good," or at least "it had some good elements."

Once again, summer book bingo was good for getting me to read more -- and more varied -- books than is my natural inclination. I see The Goat and smile to remember the absurd children's story about a goat that lives on a NY high rise. I see Ship Wrecker and smile fondly remembering the teenager who suggested it to me. I see Theory of Shadows and click on the link to see what the hell that book was . . . oh, it's the chess one. Huh.

I think the first book of 2019 will likely be a return to a book I set aside at the start of Book Bingo: Our Uninvited Guests.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Black Swan Green
Stealing Home
The Three Clerks
The Tale of Despereaux
To Say Nothing of the Dog
Dr. Wortle's School
Rising Abruptly
French Exit
A House in the Country

Good Evening, Mrs. Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes
Guard Your Daughters
The Ivankiad
Ayala's Angel
The Indifferent Stars Above
London War Notes
Middlemarch
The Feast
Lucy Carmichael
Alias Grace

Early Riser
The City is More Than Human
Lawn Boy
The Goat
Down and Out in Paris and London
The Fire Next Time
Persepolis
Of Mice and Men
The Two Mrs Abbotts
In A Lonely Place

Silent Spring 
Diary of a Provincial Lady
Death at the Chateau Bremont
Notes of a Crocodile
Wolf Hollow
Warlight
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
No Matter the Wreckage
Jane Eyre
Ship Breaker

Ecstasy
High Rising
The Girl Who Smiled Beads
The Only Story
A Fairly Good Time
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
The Essex Serpent
The Genius of Birds
Theory of Shadows
33 Days

The Secret of Nightingale Wood
A Long Way From Home
The Juniper Tree
Lincoln in the Bardo
Minka and Curdy
Rumour of Heaven
The Mitford Murders
The Duke's Children
Woodpecker
Katalin Street

Visitation
On Trails
A General Theory of Oblivion