My reading in 2008, and a resolution for 2009

It looks like I read at least 57 books in 2008, which I’m pretty proud of. I would read more books if a) there was a reasonable library within 100 km and b) I had more money to buy books. As neither are the case, I don’t read quite as much as I possibly could. I also never read ‘trashy’ fiction:  for mindless entertainment, I would much prefer to play PC games.

57 books is, of course, roughly a book a week over the course of the year. The one thing that disappoints me about this list (50 of these books featured in an earlier list) is that only 8 of the books were by women. 8 out of 57. How can this be? And most of those 8 were TAG Hungerford Award winners. Looking at my bulging bookshelves, the ratio of books by women is little better.

So my resolution for 2009 is to read more books by women writers. I doubt I’ll reach parity with male authors, but 8 out of 57 is not good enough! The first of these will probably be Socialism is Great! by somebody Zhang (a woman). But I need recommendations.  These days I claim (somewhat controversally) that I don’t read anything before 1900, and maybe even 1918. So try to limit suggestions to 20th or 21st century writers. Cheers.