Wednesday 29 December 2010

2010: A Review of the Year in Books and Comics; 5. A Bloody Great List (Slight Return)

And we're back. Pleasant Christmas, everyone? Or tolerable at least? Jolly good. Well, we only have a few days left to us before the end of the year, so let's return to the Existential Ennui Review of the Year in Books and Comics, specifically that Bloody Great List of the books wot I done read this year, which, you'll recall, are listed in the order wot I done read 'em. And with just over two days of 2011 left to run, I can confidently state that the final list looks a little something like this:

The Green Man by Kingsley Amis
Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming
The Hacienda: or How Not to Run a Club by Peter Hook
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
The Way Home by George Pelecanos
The Wrong Side of the Sky by Gavin Lyall
Point Blank by Richard Stark
The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
Hellblazer: Pandemonium by Jamie Delano and Jock
The Man with the Getaway Face by Richard Stark
Moonraker by Ian Fleming
Killy by Donald Westlake
The Outfit by Richard Stark
The Mourner by Richard Stark
The Score by Richard Stark
The Jugger by Richard Stark
The Split by Richard Stark
The Handle by Richard Stark
The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith
Weathercraft by Jim Woodring
The Most Dangerous Game by Gavin Lyall
The Damsel by Richard Stark
A God Somewhere by John Arcudi, Peter Snejbjerg and Bjarne Hansen
The Rare Coin Score by Richard Stark
The Hot Rock by Donald Westlake
The Hot Rock by LAX
Dig My Grave Deep by Peter Rabe
Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donnell
Wilson by Dan Clowes
The Green Eagle Score by Richard Stark
The Glass Cell by Patricia Highsmith
The Passage by Justin Cronin
The Black Ice Score by Richard Stark
Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household
Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd
Concrete Island by J. G. Ballard
Bank Shot by Donald Westlake
Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay
The Sour Lemon Score by Richard Stark
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
The Secret Servant by Gavin Lyall
Werewolves of Montpellier by Jason
The Dame by Richard Stark
Deadly Edge by Richard Stark
Blacklands by Belinda Bauer
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit by Darwyn Cooke
Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre
The Honourable Scoolboy by John le Carre
Spy in the Vodka/The Cold War Swap by Ross Thomas
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane
Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane
The Blackbird by Richard Stark
The ACME Novelty Library #20: Lint by Chris Ware
The Porkchoppers by Ross Thomas
Chinaman’s Chance by Ross Thomas
Slayground by Richard Stark
The Playwright by Eddie Campbell and Darren White
Cast a Yellow Shadow by Ross Thomas
What Became of Jane Austen? by Kingsley Amis
The Naked Runner by Francis Clifford
Colonel Sun by Robert Markham 
Plunder Squad by Richard Stark
The Out is Death by Peter Rabe
Ending Up by Kingsley Amis

That last one is still in progress, but I've only got a few pages left, so I'll definitely have it finished by midnight Friday. Not that I'll be spending New Year's Eve quietly reading a book or anything. Perish the thought. Ahem. So, altogether, that will make sixty-nine books read this year. (I'm not including Andrew Taylor's The Anatomy of Ghosts or Stuart Maconie's Adventures on the High Teas– both of which were on the previous version of the list – because I still haven't made enough headway on either for them to qualify.) Which means that, at seventy-one books (and probably more by now), Olman's got me beat. I concede defeat, sir.

Even so, sixty-nine books in a single year ain't too shabby. And by a strange act of happenstance, I both started the year with Kingsley Amis, and ended the year with him too. And as Ending Up is about a bunch of crotchety old codgers holed up in a crumbling country cottage at Christmas, passing the time by variously drinking too much, sniping at each other and losing their marbles, it also serves as an entirely fitting end to the year. In more ways than one.

Go here for the 2010 Review of the Year in Books and Comics, Part 1

Go here for the 2010 Review of the Year in Book and Comics, Part 2

Go here for the 2010 Review of the Year in Books and Comics, Part 3 

Go here for the 2010 Review of the Year in Books and Comics, Part 4

Go here for the 2010 Review of the Year in Books and Comics, Part 6 

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