Friday, January 13, 2012

State of the Blog: Part Two, the Authors

Four times a year, I do a review of the books I've read so far.  In January, that review covers all the books I read the last calendar year.

This is the second of my quarterly blog assessment posts.  This one takes a look at my author lists over in the right-hand column. The first part addressed my lists. Part Three will deal with the challenges I joined this year.

NOTE: If you are systematically reading the books of any of these authors, please leave a comment here or on the post for the author's list (click on the title below or in the right-hand column) and leave a link to any related post. I will add the links on the author's list post.

I recently split my author list into two parts: General favorites and Mystery favorites.  See here for discussion.

In 2011, I read 40 books by my favorite authors.  For the list of all 116 books I read in 2011, go here.


GENERAL FAVORITES

Kingsley Amis

Maeve Binchy

William Boyd


Elinor Lipman



Philip Roth

C. P. Snow

Anne Tyler

John Updike

P. G. Wodehouse



MYSTERY FAVORITES

Kate Atkinson

Lee Child

Dick Francis

P. D. James

Donna Leon

John Lescroart

Helen MacInnes

Ian Rankin

Dorothy L. Sayers

Julia Spencer-Fleming

Opening Sentence of the Day: Side Trips From Cowboy



It's July 9, about half-way through the process of writing this book and nearly a year since Margetty and I went to the Big Hole and retrieved the black amulet.
-- Side Trips from Cowboy: Addiction, Recovery and the Western American Myth, by Sandy Compton.  That's an opener to catch my attention, although the title already did that.

Compton is the author of the novel, Archer MacClehan & the Hungry Now, sort of a contemporary Western adventure, and Jason's Passage: From the Blascomb Family Chronicles, a collection of three related short stories.




A Few More Pages hosts Book Beginnings every Friday.  The event is open for the entire week.