2008 books - and computers too
Jan. 4th, 2009 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
memelainaPosting my reading list for 2008 should be easy. Want to know why it isn't? I thought you'd never ask! First, my CD drive went down over Thanksgiving weekend. So I ordered a new one and two weeks later it arrived. Then while the tech at work was installing the new CD drive, the main disk drive started making noises. He told me to baby it and ordered a new one. It was a close thing. It was getting to the place where it took me an average of three times each time I needed to reboot the computer. But the new disk drive arrived and the tech took my machine away for the day to put it in and put on the required software. It was a busy day and the transfer went over until the next day - which is when, on 23 December, the tech realized that my motherboard had died. So I ordered a new machine from procurement. And IM'd my senior vice president (yes, he does report to Larry) and asked him to approve because everyone else in my management chain had already left for the holidays. He's a sweetie, and he approved within 20 minutes of my IM. Luckily the dying disk drive had disgorged it's contents onto a backup drive, do the data was safe and awaiting the new computer.
But where IS the new computer? It was supposed to be delivered to my tech by the Monday after Christmas. No computer. No way to check on the purchase order. Everyone out for the holidays. So sorry. We'll be glad to discuss it with you in the new year. Luckily, I went into the office last Friday to water my plants and there was my new computer (for which there was not shipping record...) sitting under my desk. Since procurement has no record of shipping it, so do you think I can get them to send a new one on Monday?
In any case, I took a few minutes Friday to pull my booklist from the backup disk onto a thumb drive, so here, for those of you who are interested, which is probably damn few, is the list of what I read in 2008.
Dick Francis, Longshot
Kirsten Seaver, The Frozen Echo
Charles Stross, The Family Trade
Janet Evanovich, Wife for Hire
Charles Stross, The Hidden Family
Charles Stross, The Clan Corporate
Margaret Sidney, The Five Little Peppers
Elizabeth Moon, Command Decision
Margaret Sidney, The Five Little Peppers Midway
Agatha Christie, The Body in the Library
Mike Resnick, Second Contact
Someone I Don't Remember, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict
Marta Randall, "The Dark Boy" in F&SF
David Gerrold, "The Strange Disappearance" in F&SF
David Eddings, Belgarath
Sayers and Walsh, Presumption of Death
Agatha Christie, Murder at the Vicarage
John Varley, Red Thunder
Alexander McCall Smith, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club
Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad
Anne McCaffrey, An Exchange of Gifts
Heinlein and Robinson, Variable Star
Laurie King, The Art of Detection
SR Stirling, The City and the Ship
Agatha Christie, The Tuesday Club
David Eddings, Pawn of Prophesy
Jack McDivett, Ancient Shores
David Eddings, Queen of Sorcery
David Eddings, Magician's Gambit
David Eddings, Castle of Wizardry
David Eddings, Enchanter's Endgame
C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian
Lucy M. Boston, Children of Green Knowe
Lois McMaster Bujold, Curse of Chalion
Cleverly, The Tomb of Zeus
Aileen Baron, The Fly has a Hundred Eyes
Jean Auel, The Valley of Horses
C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
Kay Kenyon, Bright of the Sky
Madsen, Tomorrow When the War Began
Noel Streatfeild, When the Sirens Wailed
John Mole , It's All Greek to Me
Agatha Christie, The Moving Finger
Sherri Tepper, Six Moon Dance
Fred Lerner, The History of Libraries
Anne McCaffrey, Rescue Run
Georgette Heyer, The Reluctant Widow
The Princess at the Chalet School
Georgette Heyer, The Talisman Ring
Rivals of the Chalet School
John Scalzi, The Last Colony
Madeline Robins, Petty Treason
Ellen Klages, Green Glass Sea
Georgette Heyer, A Civil Contract
David Palmer, "Tracking" in Analog
Elizabeth Vaughn, Warprize
Zenna Henderson, Pilgrimage
Zenna Henderson, No Different Flesh
Johanna Spryi, Heidi
Barbara Michaels, Sons of the Wolf
Anne McCaffrey, Pegasus in Space
Elizabeth Peters, Laughter of Dead Kings
S. M. Stirling, The Scourge of God
Mary Stewart, The Gabriel Hounds
Mary Stewart, Nine Coaches Waiting
Genesis
Barbara Michaels, Master of Blacktower
Barbara Taylor Bradford, A Woman of Substance
Sarah Addison Allen, The Sugar Queen
L. M. Boston, The Chimneys of Green Knowe
Anne McCaffrey, To Ride Pegasus
Walter Farley, The Island Stallion
D.E. Stevenson, The Enchanted Isle
S. M. Stirling, The Preshwar Lancers
Elizabeth Peters, The Love Talker
Barbara Taylor Bradford, Emma's Secret
Jack Vance, The Anome
Wen Spencer, A Brother's Price
S. M. Stirling, Dies the Fire
Exodus
Some YA Author, Saffy's Angel
S. M. Stirling, The Protector's War
D.E. Stevenson, Summerhills
Lois Lowry, The Willoughbys
Clive Cussler, Sahara
Deborah Tannen, Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation
Deuteronomy
Joshua
George RR Martin, Tuf Voyaging
Samuel I
Dick Francis, Reflex
Mary Stewart, Wind off the Small Isles
Clive Cussler, Sacred Stone
S. M. Stirling, A Meeting at Corvallis
David Handler, The Man Who Lived by Night
Kuchen, My Hundred Children
What was the best book? Maybe Kirsten Seaver's The Frozen Echo. Most disapointing was definitely the David Palmer, for which I had waited nearly 20 years. Runner up is surely the tiny small-press publication of Mary Stewart - it was really a short story and not up to her usual work. Best really new author might be Sarah Addison Allen - the novel's ending absolutely took me by surprise. Yes, I'm reading through the Old Testament. I'm still rationing Dick Francis novels and have another dozen left. They never disappoint. I do reread a fair amount, so not everything is a new read. And some are audio books. I'm actually still working my way through the Deborah Tannen. You should read it. Every woman should read it. But it's the kind of thing you read a page or two at a time and mull over. The insights that come out of it are enlightening and sometimes appaling.
But where IS the new computer? It was supposed to be delivered to my tech by the Monday after Christmas. No computer. No way to check on the purchase order. Everyone out for the holidays. So sorry. We'll be glad to discuss it with you in the new year. Luckily, I went into the office last Friday to water my plants and there was my new computer (for which there was not shipping record...) sitting under my desk. Since procurement has no record of shipping it, so do you think I can get them to send a new one on Monday?
In any case, I took a few minutes Friday to pull my booklist from the backup disk onto a thumb drive, so here, for those of you who are interested, which is probably damn few, is the list of what I read in 2008.
Dick Francis, Longshot
Kirsten Seaver, The Frozen Echo
Charles Stross, The Family Trade
Janet Evanovich, Wife for Hire
Charles Stross, The Hidden Family
Charles Stross, The Clan Corporate
Margaret Sidney, The Five Little Peppers
Elizabeth Moon, Command Decision
Margaret Sidney, The Five Little Peppers Midway
Agatha Christie, The Body in the Library
Mike Resnick, Second Contact
Someone I Don't Remember, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict
Marta Randall, "The Dark Boy" in F&SF
David Gerrold, "The Strange Disappearance" in F&SF
David Eddings, Belgarath
Sayers and Walsh, Presumption of Death
Agatha Christie, Murder at the Vicarage
John Varley, Red Thunder
Alexander McCall Smith, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club
Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad
Anne McCaffrey, An Exchange of Gifts
Heinlein and Robinson, Variable Star
Laurie King, The Art of Detection
SR Stirling, The City and the Ship
Agatha Christie, The Tuesday Club
David Eddings, Pawn of Prophesy
Jack McDivett, Ancient Shores
David Eddings, Queen of Sorcery
David Eddings, Magician's Gambit
David Eddings, Castle of Wizardry
David Eddings, Enchanter's Endgame
C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian
Lucy M. Boston, Children of Green Knowe
Lois McMaster Bujold, Curse of Chalion
Cleverly, The Tomb of Zeus
Aileen Baron, The Fly has a Hundred Eyes
Jean Auel, The Valley of Horses
C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
Kay Kenyon, Bright of the Sky
Madsen, Tomorrow When the War Began
Noel Streatfeild, When the Sirens Wailed
John Mole , It's All Greek to Me
Agatha Christie, The Moving Finger
Sherri Tepper, Six Moon Dance
Fred Lerner, The History of Libraries
Anne McCaffrey, Rescue Run
Georgette Heyer, The Reluctant Widow
The Princess at the Chalet School
Georgette Heyer, The Talisman Ring
Rivals of the Chalet School
John Scalzi, The Last Colony
Madeline Robins, Petty Treason
Ellen Klages, Green Glass Sea
Georgette Heyer, A Civil Contract
David Palmer, "Tracking" in Analog
Elizabeth Vaughn, Warprize
Zenna Henderson, Pilgrimage
Zenna Henderson, No Different Flesh
Johanna Spryi, Heidi
Barbara Michaels, Sons of the Wolf
Anne McCaffrey, Pegasus in Space
Elizabeth Peters, Laughter of Dead Kings
S. M. Stirling, The Scourge of God
Mary Stewart, The Gabriel Hounds
Mary Stewart, Nine Coaches Waiting
Genesis
Barbara Michaels, Master of Blacktower
Barbara Taylor Bradford, A Woman of Substance
Sarah Addison Allen, The Sugar Queen
L. M. Boston, The Chimneys of Green Knowe
Anne McCaffrey, To Ride Pegasus
Walter Farley, The Island Stallion
D.E. Stevenson, The Enchanted Isle
S. M. Stirling, The Preshwar Lancers
Elizabeth Peters, The Love Talker
Barbara Taylor Bradford, Emma's Secret
Jack Vance, The Anome
Wen Spencer, A Brother's Price
S. M. Stirling, Dies the Fire
Exodus
Some YA Author, Saffy's Angel
S. M. Stirling, The Protector's War
D.E. Stevenson, Summerhills
Lois Lowry, The Willoughbys
Clive Cussler, Sahara
Deborah Tannen, Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation
Deuteronomy
Joshua
George RR Martin, Tuf Voyaging
Samuel I
Dick Francis, Reflex
Mary Stewart, Wind off the Small Isles
Clive Cussler, Sacred Stone
S. M. Stirling, A Meeting at Corvallis
David Handler, The Man Who Lived by Night
Kuchen, My Hundred Children
What was the best book? Maybe Kirsten Seaver's The Frozen Echo. Most disapointing was definitely the David Palmer, for which I had waited nearly 20 years. Runner up is surely the tiny small-press publication of Mary Stewart - it was really a short story and not up to her usual work. Best really new author might be Sarah Addison Allen - the novel's ending absolutely took me by surprise. Yes, I'm reading through the Old Testament. I'm still rationing Dick Francis novels and have another dozen left. They never disappoint. I do reread a fair amount, so not everything is a new read. And some are audio books. I'm actually still working my way through the Deborah Tannen. You should read it. Every woman should read it. But it's the kind of thing you read a page or two at a time and mull over. The insights that come out of it are enlightening and sometimes appaling.
