Everyone likes to write a list, don’t they, and maybe show off, I don’t know. Every year I think I should write about the books I’ve read, and then I never do. Luckily Goodreads keeps track for me.

This year I’ve done some re-reading – I re-read a number of Bond novels while my partner had Covid, although not all of them, you can probably only read three at a time.

My favourite thing about the Bond novels is incidental social detail. Things like Bond eating pasta with pesto for the first time, or complaining that you really can’t get a nice bottle of Taittinger in London in the 1950s. This is also something I love about Agatha Christie novels. I’ve been re-reading these (slowly) since 2020, and I read four or five this year. Some of them are very definitely better than others but the social detail is always fascinating. She was writing over such a long and dramatically-changing period. There’s loads of great stuff about class in Christie, and I always find that very interesting.

I read the first four Jack Reacher novels and three of Anne Cleeves’ Shetland novels, both because everyone always goes on about them. Solid and well-written examples of their genres. Hurrah for the library app, which is the ideal place to get them from. I don’t need Jack Reacher novels filling up my already overly full shelf space. I can’t imagine I’ll re-read them; but I thought that about Christie when I was twenty or whatever.

I read Dune for the first time. It was quite good actually. And I read and enjoyed the first two Richard Osman books, which are very amusing.

What have I enjoyed most? I’ve read 107 published books this year and this is my top 15 of things that were new to me.

Index, a History of by Dennis Duncan
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James
Mad About You by Mhairi Mcfarlane
How to Build Stonehenge by Mike Pitts
Incy Wincy by RJ Darker
The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley
The Foghorn’s Lament by Jennifer Lucy Allan
People Person by Candice Carty-Williams
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Sutanto
The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel
Otherlands by Thomas Halliday
Murder Most Cornish by Kate Johnson
Playing the Bass with Three Left Hands by Will Carruthers
My (Extra) Ordinary Life by Rebecca Ryan

The worst book? I read a really dull biography of Mary Pickford. Considering how interesting her life was that was quite an achievement.

I got lots of great books for Christmas (as always!) so am already looking forward to starting my 2023 list.