Yo, 2011 Imma let you finish

 … actually, you know what? Just fuck off. You’ve been a shit year, thanks very much. Or, you know – thanks for nothing.

Anyway.

This happened, in April: http://justaddbooks.blogspot.com/2011/04/just-add.html

Good times were had by all.

The year tripped along. My mother – who had had heart valve replacement surgery last year – wasn’t doing well. She was in and out of hospital, and struggling. She finally went into a home after being admitted to hospital in June (on my 40^th birthday actually) with a massive infection.

The last member of my Dad’s family – my aunty Alice – died not very much later than that (which I found out by virtue of reading the death notices on the page I was checking at work that night) and then my mother died in early July: http://justaddbooks.blogspot.com/2011/07/things-and-life.html

So … yeah. I mean, the rest of the year was … okay. But, honestly, I’m just so ready for 2011 to be over.

Even though the world is going to end in 2012. ;p

I’ve read 54 books this year (funnily enough I slowed down after I started watching Merlin/mainlining Merlin long!fic. I need to redress that balance). My goal for next year is to read 75. It’s realistic, I think.

I’m also contemplating re-running the Kiwi YA challenge that I failed so hard on. Oh, and someone on Twitter during one of the #spbkchats said someone should run a challenge for NZ Women writers. Apparently there’s an Aussie challenge. So …………….. watch this space ;)

Here’s the list of my books, if you like:

1 Ash by Malinda Lo

2 The Fall by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

3 Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox

4 Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

5 King of the Murgos by David Eddings

6 Quillblade: Voyages of the Flying Dragon Bk1 by Ben Chandler

7 My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme

8 Murder at the Laurels by Lesley Cookman

9 Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox

10 The Changeover by Margaret Mahy

11 The Screwed-up Life of Charlie the Second by Drew Ferguson

12 We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

13 The Raven’s Heart by Jesse Blackadder

14 Genesis by Bernard Beckett

15 True Grit by Charles Portis

16 August by Bernard Beckett

17 The Scarecrow by Ronald Hugh Morrieson

18 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J K Rowling

19 Rosebush by Michele Jaffe

20 The 10pm Question by Kate De Goldi

21 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J K Rowling

22 The Two Towers by J R R Tolkien

23 Full Dark No Stars by Stephen King

24 Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

25 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J K Rowling

26 The Sea-wreck Stranger by Anna Mackenzie

27 City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

28 The Silent Land by Graham Joyce

29 Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

30 A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

31 The Larnachs by Owen Marshall

32 Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe

33 The Windup Bird Chronicle by Harukai Murakami

34 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J K Rowling

35 The Shattering by Karen Healey

36 City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

37 Ebony Hill by Anna Mackenzie

38 Elfland by Freda Warrington

39 The Order of the Phoenix by J K Rowling

40 Finder’s Shore by Anna MacKenzie

41 A Game of Thrones by George R R Martin

42 The Devotion of Suspect X

43 The Return of the King by J R R Tolkien

44 The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

45 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John LeCarre

46 Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

47 Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Heard

48 Autumn by David Moody

49 Before the Poison by Peter Robinson

50 The Facts of Life by Graham Joyce

51 Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell

52 Kraken by China Mieville

53 The Accident by Linwood Barclay

54 Snuff by Mr Sir Terry Pratchett

Not many of those books have reviews because I kind of let that slide for a bit, but I want to get back into the swing of blogging, as much as I was ever in the swing of it so … we’ll see.

I also started having movie nights on Sunday – just me, a movie and some cross stitching (and, usually, a cat or three).

As far as my shocking memory can recall, this is the list of the movies (in no particular order):

A Single Man
The Runaways
Inception
Murder by Death
Centurion
Designing Woman
The Picture of Dorian Grey
Sucker Punch
The Last Station
The Ghost Writer
Romeo + Juliet
The Tempest
The Oxford Murders
Key Largo
Jurassic Park
Lolita

It’s a mixed bag, yes? The Romeo+Juliet is the Baz Luhrmann one and the Tempest is the one with Helen Mirren as Prospero. (LOVED.)

But it’s nice, you know? Park up on a Sunday night with a movie, some stitching … yeah.

Roll on 2012. I’m ready.