As with last year (part one, part two), these are the novels or ‘non-fiction but close’ books I’ve read – basically things I read as a break of sorts from work… Many of these were inspired by comments on posts about reading and rereading novels. Thanks.

1. China Miéville, Embassytown
2. Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (not a novel, but a classic of historical writing I’d never got round to reading)
3. John Irving, Last Night at Twisted River
4. Sebastian Faulks, The Girl at the Lion d’Or
5. Michel Houllebecq, The Map and the Territory
6. Alan Moore and David Lloyd, V for Vendetta
7. Sebastian Faulks, A Week in December
8. Kamila Shamsie, Burnt Shadows
9. Edward Bond, Bingo: Scenes of Money and Death
10. James Shapiro, 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (non-fiction)
11. David Byrne, The Bicycle Diaries (non-fiction)
12. John Fowles, The Collector
13. Ernest Shackleton, South: The Story of Shackleton’s 1914–17 Expedition (true story!)
14. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (again)
15. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (again)
16. J.M. Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello
17. Herta Müller, The Passport
18. Julie Otsuka, When the Emperor was Divine
19. W.G. Sebald, The Emigrants
20. Bernard Schlink, The Reader
21. Roberto Bolaño, Nazi Literature in the Americas
22. Mohsin Hamed, The Reluctant Fundamentalist
23. John Updike, Terrorist
24. Teju Cole, Everyday is for the Thief
25. Roberto Bolaño, The Savage Detectives
26. Ian McEwan, Saturday
27. Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses
28. Rob Kitchin, The Rule Book
29. Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
30. Kamila Shamsie, Kartography
31. Michel Houllebecq, Atomised
32. Sebastian Faulks (writing as Ian Fleming), Devil May Care
33. Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees
34. Gabriel Tarde, Underground Man (yes, that Tarde. This is more of a novella than a full novel.)
35. Bill Martin, Avant Rock: Experimental Music from the Beatles to Björk
36. Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones
37. Hari Kunzru, My Revolutions
38. Georges Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces (non-fiction, but really unclassifiable)
39. Malcolm Bradbury, Doctor Criminale
40. Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy (City of Glass – Ghosts – The Locked Room)
    

and a lot of Shakespeare…