Okay, so I stole this post idea from Fucking Big Thoughts, a
blog that is a lot better than this one, and also Andrew Worthington is a
bigger reader than I am because he has about 70 books on his list and I have 38.
He is also a better writer*, and if I put two and two together I might learn
something about how to become a better writer.
A lot of my books are children’s books, but then I
tend to write YA fiction, so there.
I always grade the books I’m reviewing in the same way that
my work was marked when I was at Uni – out of 100, but really out of 80. Any
book that gets a 70 or more gets a first; that means it’s really good. It is
actually impossible to get 100. Should a book ever get 100, everyone would have
to stop writing because heavenly perfection would have been reached and the apocalypse
would be upon us. Maybe I’ll read something worth 100 in the latter part of
this year, maybe that’s what the end of the Mayan calendar is all about.
* Judged purely on the quantity of stories published and the quality of the publications in which the work appears.
Escape – Oldham 42
Reaver’s Ransom – Diamand 65
Just In Case – Rosoff 56
How I Live Now – Rosoff 75
Breathing Under Water – Green 50
The Green Book – Patton Walsh 51
State of the Art – Banks 68
The Drowned World – JG Ballard 71
Farewell my Lovely – Chandler 80
What I Was – Rosoff 72
Bride’s Farewell – Rosoff 65
Roundabout – Lassiter 41
A Song For Nero – Holt 49
The Master and Margarita – Bulgakov 85
The Curious Incident of... – Hadon 46
Will Grayson, Will Grayson – Green & Levithan 70
Star – Singleton 63
Skaz, Skinny B and Me – Singleton 50
A Bear Called Paddington – Bond 69
Expedition to Earth – Clarke 69
Angel Kiss – Cassidy 41
A visit from the Goon Squad – Egan 76
Here Lies Arthur – Reeve 70
Anybody Out There – Keyes 15
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace... – Mishima 83
Leaving the World – Kennedy 08
The Temple of the Golden Pavi... – Mishima 90
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detetecti...- Adams 45
Eleven Kinds of Loneliness – Yates 85
While Mortals Sleep – Vonnegut 65
The Graveyard Book – Gaiman 70
The High Window – Chandler 82
Revolutionary Road – Yates 85
Exodus – Bertagna 66
Aurora – Bertagna 61
Zenith – Bertagna 57
Wild Abandon – Dunthorne 58
The Age of Arthur; A history... – Morris 55
Well, this is a list of what I remember reading.
Plus I read a few more Dark Ages history books, but I can’t
remember the titles. I read a lot of shorts as well, and re-read stuff like
Instruction Manual For Swallowing (Marek. 83).
In conclusion, the best book I read in 2011 was The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Mishima rated a massive 90/100 - probably the most I've ever awarded a book before.
The worst book I read in 2011 was Leaving the World by Douglas Kennedy who rated 8/100. I was forced to read this when I joined a local book group. It was a horrible experience. Ordinarily I would've stopped reading it before reaching chapter 2.
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