2010 books - the round up

[peteryoung]

My dead-tree reading over the last year has cut back even further from my annual average of more than a hundred by 50%, resulting in a total of just 53, although I've made up for it as much as possible by reading as many online short stories as I can fit in (my total short story count this year: 301; the complete list is here, with some overlap into collections of short stories I'll complete in 2011 that are not listed below).

It's difficult to pick a Book of the Year this year: although Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud's A Life on Paper comes a close second, it's Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas that was by far the most enjoyable (and manic) read of the year. I'm also giving a shout for Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl (for world-building), Bjorn Turmann's extraordinary The Last Tobacco Shop in the World and Chart Korbjitti's Time as the novels I have probably thought most about after the last page has turned – and as for endings, as expected Time's remained unsurpassed for sheer brilliance.

2010 books, alphabetically by author:
Woody Allen, Mere Anarchy, 2007 [ review ]
Donald Antrim, The Hundred Brothers, 1997 [ review ]
Paolo Bacigalupi, Pump Six and Other Stories, 2009 [ review ]
Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl, 2009 [ review ]
J.G. Ballard, The Disaster Area, 1967 [ review ]
Roberto Bolaño, Amulet, 1999 [ review ]
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Heart of a Dog, 1925 [ review ]
Jeff Burk, Shatnerquake, 2009 [ review ]
Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud, A Life on Paper, 2010 [ review ]
Jacques Chessex, A Jew Must Die, 2009 [ review ]
John Christopher, The Death of Grass, 1956 [ review ]
Marianne De Pierres, Glitter Rose, 2010 [ review ]
Philip K. Dick, Clans of the Alphane Moon, 1964 [ review ]
Philip K. Dick, Galactic Pot-Healer, 1969 [ review ]
Philip K. Dick, Our Friends from Frolix 8, 1970 [ review ]
Tessa B. Dick, The Owl in Daylight, 2009 [ review ]
Thomas M. Disch, The Prisoner, 1969 [ review ]
Michel Faber, The Fire Gospel, 2008 [ review ]
Focus, Future Visions, 1997 [ review ]
Graham Greene, A Sense of Reality, 1963 [ review ]
Harry Harrison, Make Room! Make Room!, 1966 [ review ]
Harry Harrison, Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers, 1973 [ review ]
Bobby Henderson, The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, 2006 [ review ]
Russell Hoban, Linger Awhile, 2006 [ review ]
Bohumil Hrabal, Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age, 1964 [ review ]
Dave Hutchinson, The Push, 2009 [ review ]
Gwyneth Jones, The Buonarotti Quartet, 2009 [ review ]
Chart Korbjitti, Carrion Floating By, 1987 [ review ]
Chart Korbjitti, Time, 1993 [ review ]
Julia Leigh, The Hunter, 1999 [ review ]
Julia Leigh, Disquiet, 2008 [ review ]
Roy Lewis, The Evolution Man, 1960 [ review ]
James Lovegrove, Ant God, 2005 [ review ]
James Lovegrove, Dead Brigade, 2007 [ review ]
Dambudzo Marechera, Black Sunlight, 1980 [ review ]
Richard Matheson, The Shrinking Man, 1956 [ review ]
Haruki Murakami, after the quake, 2000 [ review ]
Hikaro Okuizumi, The Stones Cry Out, 1993 [ review ]
Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore), The Far Reality, 1946 [ review ]
Cameron Pierce, Ass Goblins of Auschwitz, 2009 [ review ]
Hannu Rajaniemi, The Quantum Thief, 2010 [ review ]
Alastair Reynolds, Deep Navigation, 2010 [ review ]
José Saramago, The Tale of the Unknown Island, 1997 [ review ]
SFX, Pulp Idol, 2008 [ review ]
Robert Silverberg, Collision Course, 1959 [ review ]
Gavin Smith, DogFellow's Ghost, 2008 [ review ]
Patrick Süskind, Three Stories and a Reflection, 1996 [ review ]
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1971 [ review ]
Lavie Tidhar, Cloud Permutations, 2010 [ review ]
Alexei N. Tolstoy, Aelita, 1923 [ review ]
Bjorn Turmann, The Last Tobacco Shop in the World, 2010 [ review ]
Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One, 1948 [ review ]
John Wyndham, Chocky, 1968 [ review ]