Back in 2009 I started posting a summary at the end of the year of what I read during the year (see 2009, 2010) and people have been enjoying it, so I present the 2011 end-of-year post. I set a moderate goal of 50 books this year and I managed 53. Next year we have a lot more travel coming up and I'm going to aim for 60 books read. For the record, I read 'real' books - i.e. not in electronic form - I don't like reading off a screen. Yes, I've seen electronic readers - we both have iPads - and I'm not interested in ever reading electronically.

Choosing my favorite book of the year was again easy - there's alway one book that sticks in your mind as being the memorable strongest highlight of the year, among many highlights. This year it's The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. This was easily the most powerful book I read this year - about the lives of several people during the Seige of Sarajevo. Go buy it and read it - you won't be disappointed.

Now the details. I enjoy putting this together as it will also serve as a record for me many years from now. I hope you get inspired to try some of these books - push yourself with new authors and very often you'll be surprisingly pleased.

Once again I leave you with a quote that describes a big part of my psychological make-up:

In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro!

Analysis of what I read

I read 21526 pages, or 59.0 pages a day, and a book every 7 days or so. I'm a fast reader but I don't speed read or skim ever.

The average book length was 406 pages, a good 85 pages shorter than last year - which also contributed to the overall total being lower. I picked my books differently this year too - reading less science fiction and a lot more contemporary fiction. At least I think that's interesting :-)

The Top-10 Top-15

  #3 Wolf Hall; Hilary Mantel; 592pp; Historical Fiction; April 2; (Fabulous historical fiction recounting Thomas Cromwell's time at Henry VIII's court during downfall of Wolsey and rising of the Boleyns. Very detailed and extraordinary character development. Very strongly recommended.)

  #5 Creation; Gore Vidal; 592pp; Historical Fiction; April 17; (Very complex book based on reminiscences of a Persian ambassador to Greece, China, and India around 500BC. Conversations with Confucious, Buddha, and others make for some deep reading. Also paints a wonderful view of the Persian world around that time. Strongly recommended for history fans who enjoy pithy works.)

  #10 Surface Detail; Iain M. Banks; 640pp; Science Fiction; May 17; (I take back everything I've said - nothing beats Banks' Culture novels when at their finest for sheer, unbridled rollicking sci-fi. A total page turner with some excellent Ship and Mind goings-on and a mind-bending twist at the end reaching back about ten books and 20 years. If you like sci-fi go buy it and read it without delay. Fabulous. Just fabulous.)

  #14 The Club Dumas; Arturo Perez-Reverte; 368pp; Contemporary Fiction; June 10; (The Club Dumas is the basis for one of my favorite movies - The Ninth Gate, although the movie places emphasis on a different part of the plot. Excellent book centered on ancient books - any book about books is an instant hit with me. Follows a book 'mercenary' investigating differences between the 3 final copies of a 1667 book about raising the devil. Excellent - recommended.)

  #23 The Cellist of Sarajevo; Steven Galloway; 256pp; Contemporary Fiction; July 11; (Wow - what a powerful book! Sarajevo must have been a nightmare when it was under siege. The book centers around the (true) story of a cellist who plays for 22 days in the same spot to honor 22 people killed by a shell while waiting to buy bread. Imagine having to cross street junctions with random snipers killing people as they do so? Wow.)

  #29 Les Miserables; Victor Hugo; 640pp; Fiction; July 29; (Hugo's classic tale is absolutely wonderful - a real tour de force. It's a long and complex book dealing with France from 1820s-1830s and following the life of the convict Jean Valjean and those around him, especially the police inspector Javert. It was also made into an excellent movie with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush playing the two roles, respectively. Very strongly recommended.)

  #38 City of Thieves; David Benioff; 272pp; Fiction; August 28; (Excellent story of a young man during the seige of Leningrad being forced to venture into the German occupied hinterland in search of eggs. Really well done and a page turner - read the whole thing this afternoon. Great twist at the end too. Recommended.)

  #39 Julian; Gore Vidal; 528pp; Historical Fiction; September 6; (Fabulous book! A biography of Julian Augustus, told as a novel, following his rise to power, apostasy and intellectual persecution of Christianity as a made-up religion, and military endeavors. I found it a page-turner with an excellent feel for the times that Julian lived in and the fragility of the Roman principate. Strongly recommended!)

  #41 A Passage to India; E.M. Forster; 416pp; Contemporary Fiction; September 18; (A masterful portrayal of the British Raj in the early C20th - their haughty arrogance as colonialists and their misunderstanding of the Indian society and culture they're in. The characters are involved in a scandal which brings out the heated worst behavior in both sides of the community. Strongly recommended.)

  #43 Cleopatra; Stacy Schiff; 400pp; History; October 9; (Fabulous depiction of her life, drawn from the limited sources that survive. Tells the stories of how her life and reign entangles with Julius Caesar's and Mark Anthony's, to invariably dire consequences. I've never read anything in depth about her life before and I'm glad this is what I read first. Strongly recommended.)

  #44 Parrot and Olivier in America; Peter Carey; 400pp; Historical Fiction; October 24; (Excellent account of the complicated life of two unlikely companions in the early 1800s in America, removed from France after the 100 Days when Napoleon briefly regainedd power. Peter Carey has a great way with words and character portrayals. Strongly recommended!)

  #45 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; Stieg Larsson; 600pp; Contemporary Fiction; November 4; (Excellent! Turned into a complete page turner for me. Hard to say much about it without giving away major plot elements, but characters and settingmare very well done. If you've been avoiding this like I had, give in and read it - you won't be disappointed. Already got 2nd and 3rd in trilogy to read. Strongly recommended!)

  #46 The Outlaws Inc.; Matt Potter; 332pp; Non-Fiction; November 13; (Excellent non-fiction account of the ex-Soviet air crews and their giant Anatovs and Ilyushins that fly around the world into some of the dodgiest places on the planet. It also shows how many governments and NGOs make use of them and turn a blind eye to the smuggling of all kinds of things that go on beside their legit cargo loads. Well worth reading.)

  #52 Olive Kitteridge; Elizabeth Strout; 304pp; Contemporary Fiction; December 26; (Excellent book dealing with the life of a cranky old woman in a small town in Maine. It's presented as a series of short story microcosms of people's lives in the town that are linked in some way to Olive. Especially interesting to see how her life changes when major events happen and how she works through them. Kind of reminds me of Annie Proulx's work but not so gritty and heavily written. One of my favorites this year.)

  #53 Burr; Gore Vidal; 448pp; Historical Fiction; December 30; (Excellent start to Vidal's Narratives of Empire series. Goes through Burr's reminiscences of his life during the Revolution, Vice-Presidency and treasonous activities in the West. Really looking forward to reading the other 6 in the series.Strongly recommended for history fans.)

The Complete List

And the complete list, with links to Amazon so you can explore further.

1. Multireal; David Louis Edelman; 522pp; Science Fiction; February 14
2. Geosynchron; David Louis Edelman; 500pp; Science Fiction; March 1
3. Wolf Hall; Hilary Mantel; 592pp; Historical Fiction; April 2
4. Zero Day; Mark Russinovich; 336pp; Contemporary Fiction; April 8
5. Creation; Gore Vidal; 592pp; Historical Fiction; April 17
6. Transition; Iain M. Banks; 448pp; Science Fiction; April 23
7. Unaccustomed Earth; Jhumpa Larihi; 352pp; Contemporary Fiction; April 24
8. The God of Small Things; Arundhati Roy; 352pp; Contemporary Fiction; May 7
9. Fahrenheit 451; Ray Bradbury; 208pp; Contemporary Fiction; May 14
10. Surface Detail; Iain M. Banks; 640pp; Science Fiction; May 17
11. English Passengers; Matthew Kneale; 464pp; Historical Fiction; May 22
12. Persian Mirrors; Elaine Sciolino; 432pp; Non-Fiction; May 27
13. The Coral Thief; Rebecca Stott; 312pp; Historical Fiction; June 3
14. The Club Dumas; Arturo Perez-Reverte; 368pp; Contemporary Fiction; June 10
15. The Frigates; James Henderson; 192pp; Maritime History; June 15
16. The Namesake; Jhumpa Lahiri; 304pp; Contemporary Fiction; June 25
17. The Sewing Circles of Heart; Christina Lamb; 384pp; Non-Fiction; June 27
18. Interpreter of Maladies; Jhumpa Lahiri; 208pp; Contemporary Fiction; July 1
19. A Place So Foreign; Cory Doctorow; 243pp; Science Fiction; July 2
20. Pulse; Julian Barnes; 229pp; Contemporary Fiction; July 4
21. Burtynsky - China; Edward Burtynsky; 180pp; Non-Fiction; July 5
22. Ghost Train to the Eastern Star; Paul Theroux; 512pp; Travel; July 9
23. The Cellist of Sarajevo; Steven Galloway; 256pp; Contemporary Fiction; July 11
24. Bird; Andrew Zuckerman; 512pp; Non-Fiction; July 14
25. A God Who Hates; Wafa Sultan; 256pp; Non-Fiction; July 16
26. The Shadow of the Wind; Carlos Ruiz Zafon; 486pp; Fiction; July 22
27. The Hobbit; J.R.R. Tolkien; 330pp; Fiction; July 24
28. The Blackwater Lightship; Colm Toibin; 288pp; Contemporary Fiction; July 26
29. Les Miserables; Victor Hugo; 640pp; Fiction; July 29
30. In Patagonia; Bruce Chatwin; 240pp; Travel; July 31
31. Arabian Sands; Wilfred Thesiger; 400pp; Travel; August 7
32. World Without End; Ken Follett; 1024pp; Historical Fiction; August 14
33. William Rufus; Frank Barlow; 512pp; History; August 21
34. Out Stealing Horses; Per Petterson; 256pp; Fiction; August 22
35. To Siberia; Per Petterson; 256pp; Fiction; August 24
36. The Catcher In The Rye; J.D. Salinger; 288pp; Contemporary Fiction; August 26
37. Reheated Cabbage; Irvine Welsh; 288pp; Contemporary Fiction; August 28
38. City of Thieves; David Benioff; 272pp; Fiction; August 28
39. Julian; Gore Vidal; 528pp; Historical Fiction; September 6
40. The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople; Jonathan Phillips; 400pp; History; September 16
41. A Passage to India; E.M. Forster; 416pp; Contemporary Fiction; September 18
42. The Captive Queen; Alison Weir; 512pp; Historical Fiction; September 25
43. Cleopatra; Stacy Schiff; 400; Historypp; October 9
44. Parrot and Olivier in America; Peter Carey; 400pp; Historical Fiction; October 24
45. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; Stieg Larsson; 600pp; Contemporary Fiction; November 4
46. The Outlaws Inc.; Matt Potter; 332pp; Non-Fiction; November 13
47. My Name Is Red; Orhan Pamuk; 432pp; Historical Fiction; November 18
48. Endymion; Dan Simmons; 576pp; Science Fiction; November 28
49. Circle of Reason; Amitav Ghosh; 432pp; Contemporary Fiction; November 29
50. Beneath Blossom Rain; Kevin Grange; 352pp; Non-Fiction; December;  11
51. Rise of Endymion; Dan Simmons; 720pp; Science Fiction; December 19
52. Olive Kitteridge; Elizabeth Strout; 304pp; Contemporary Fiction; December 26
53. Burr; Gore Vidal; 448pp; Historical Fiction; December 30

In 2009 I read a whopping 100 books (see my wrap-up post) and it seemed at times like I spent every waking moment reading, so I set myself a more modest goal of reading 40 books in 2010 - and I managed 45. A lot of people enjoyed my top-10 list last year so I thought I'd do it again this year and give you some books to think about reading in 2011. I read 'real' books - i.e. not in electronic form - I don't like reading off a screen. Yes, I've seen electronic readers - Kimberly has an iPad - and I'm not interested in ever getting one.

Choosing my favorite book this year is easy: Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. This is a fabulous, fabulous, fabulous book. It's autobiographical and describes his life on the run from Australian prison in the slums of Bombay. Just go get it and read it - you won't be disappointed.

Now the details. I enjoy putting this together as it will also serve as a record for me many years from now. I hope you get inspired to try some of these books - push yourself with new authors and very often you'll be surprisingly pleased.

Once again I leave you with a quote that describes a big part of my psychological make-up:

In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro!

Analysis of What I Read

I read 21721 pages, or 59.5 pages a day, and a book every 8 days or so. I'm a fast reader but I don't speed read or skim ever. Not as much as last year but I flew 50000 miles less this year (still clocking up 86000).

The average book length was 492 pages, a good 100 pages longer than last year - which also contributed to the overall total being lower. I picked my books differently this year too - reading a lot more science fiction and a lot less history. At least I think that's interesting :-)

The Top-10

It's a lot easier to pick a top-10 this year as I read so many less books. If you don't read much, at least consider looking at some of these in 2011. It's impossible to put them into a priority order so I've listed them in the order I read them, along with the short Facebook review I wrote at the time.

  #4 Shantaram; Gregory David Roberts; 913pp; Fiction; March 27th (Incredibly good (and long) book based on the true story of the author from a prison break in Australia to the slums and mafia of Bombay to joining the mujahedeen in Afghanistan, and back again. Kind of book that you only find a few times in your life. Very strongly recommended. Makes me want to go back to India again.)

  #8 Pushing Ice; Alastair Reynolds; 592pp; Science Fiction; May 30th (Reynolds is just fabulous - my new favorite sci-fi author. A departure from the Revelation Space universe, this deals with humans hitching a ride on the Saturnian moon Janus as it suddenly departs the solar system. Good characterizations and plenty of invented technology. I couldn't put it down during the last 100 pages. Can't wait to read another when we get home.)

  #9 Gentlemen and Players; Joanne Harris; 432pp; Fiction; May 31st (First book I've read from Joanne Harris who penned Chocolat, which was a great movie. Good vacation read - reminded me of my days at old Glasgow Academy. Nicely spun story with an excellent twist at the end - recommended.)

  #13 House of Suns; Alastair Reynolds; 576pp; Science Fiction; June 20th (Another fantastic space-opera from Reynolds. This time the story revolves around 1000 shatterlings - clones imbued with the same facets of the original's personality and sent off around the galaxy, meeting back together every 200 thousand years. After 6 million years of swashbuckling, the proverbial hits the fan in a big way. Excellent story!)

  #14 The Glass Palace; Amitav Ghosh; 512pp; Fiction; June 25th (Fabulous! The 3rd of Ghosh's books I've read was almost as good as Sea of Poppies I read last year. This one deals with the overthrow of Burma by the British in 1885 and the two subsequent wars, following the life of a boy who becomes a teak baron and the Burmese royal family. Vivid portraiture and imagery - definitely a must read.)

  #24 A Place of Greater Safety; Hilary Mantel; 768pp; Historical Fiction; September 8th (Fabulous fictional account of the three main protagonists of the French Revolution - Danton, Robespierre, and Desmoulins, following them from their humble beginnings through to their down falls and executions. Incredibly in-depth and hugely readable - a masterpiece!)

  #26 The Last Witchfinder; James Morrow; 560pp; Historical Fiction; September 15th (Really excellent fictional account of downfall of witch trials in US in early C18th, based on a woman writing a treatise discounting demonology, using Baconian experimental principles and natural history. Employs interesting approach of having parts of book narrated by Newton's Principia Mathematica. Excellent and recommended.)

  #30 Ex-Libris; Ross King; 400pp; Historical Fiction; October 11th (Excellent novel set in 1660 in London dealing with a book seller who gets involved in investigating the existence of a rare hermetic manuscript. Full of period detail and lots of info on rare books from that time, a book about old books and libraries is always one of my favorites. Some excellent twists and turns keep the book interesting. Recommended (plus his earlier non-fiction work I read last year: Brunelleschi's Dome))

  #33 Hyperion; Dan Simmons; 512pp; Science Fiction; October 20th (I'd been putting this off as I thought it would be dated, but it was really excellent - so good in fact that I've bought the subsequent 3 in the series, plus a couple more of Simmons' sci-fi works. Hard to explain the plot, as with all richly-constructed sci-fi universes, but gritty, good tech, good character development. Hugely recommended.)

  #45 Infoquake; David Louis Edelman; 421pp; Science Fiction; December 21st (Excellent start to a trilogy! Great combo of sci-fi and business set around 500 yrs in future. Deals with bio/logics - nano-machines in the body and their programming, plus the business side of the industry. A real page turner and looking forward to starting the next one. Great glossary and timeline appendices too. Strongly recommended!)

The Complete List

And the complete list, with links to Amazon so you can explore further.

1. The Fellowship; John Gribbin; 384pp; History; January 11
2. The Road To Oxiana; Robert Byron; 320pp; Travel; February 5
3. Spawn Collection: Volume 5; Todd MacFarlane; 480pp; Comic; March 7
4. Shantaram; Gregory David Roberts; 944pp; Non-Fiction; March 27
5. The House at Riverton; Kate Morton; 480pp; Fiction; March 31
6. The Prefect; Alastair Reynolds; 502pp; Science Fiction; April 17
7. Anathem; Neal Stephenson; 960pp; Science Fiction; May 25
8. Pushing Ice; Alastair Reynolds; 592pp; Science Fiction; May 30
9. Gentlemen and Players; Joanne Harris; 432pp; Fiction; May 31
10. Standard of Honor; Jack Whyte; 540pp; Fiction; June 5
11. Spawn Collection: Volume 6; Todd MacFarlane; 480pp; Comic; June 6
12. The Devil's Company; David Liss; 400pp; Fiction; June 8
13. House of Suns; Alastair Reynolds; 576pp; Science Fiction; June 20
14. The Glass Palace; Amitav Ghosh; 512pp; Fiction; June 25
15. The Hungry Tide; Amitav Ghosh; 352pp; Fiction; July 4
16. The Archer's Tale; Bernard Cornwell; 384pp; Histrorical Fiction; July 19
17. Vagabond; Bernard Cornwell; 405pp; Historical Fiction; July 22
18. Heretic; Bernard Cornwell; 355pp; Historical Fiction; July 23
19. William the Conqueror; David C. Douglas; 488pp; History; July 31
20. Order in Chaos; Jack Whyte; 928pp; Historical Fiction; August 6
21. The  Satanic Verses; Salman Rushdie; 576pp; Fiction; August 8
22. Travels in Alaska; John Muir; 272pp; Travel; August 15
23. Century Rain; Alastair Reynolds; 640pp; Science Fiction; August 24
24. A Place of Greater Safety; Hilary Mantel; 768pp; Historical Fiction; September 8
25. Two Years Before The Mast; Richard Henry Dana; 544pp; Maritime History; September 11
26. The Last Witchfinder; James Morrow; 560pp; Historical Fiction; September 15
27. Galactic North; Alastair Reynolds; 384pp; Science Fiction; September 22
28. The Evolutionary Void; Peter F. Hamilton; 720pp; Science Fiction; September 28
29. Tinkers; Paul Harding; 192pp; Fiction; October 3
30. Ex Libris; Ross King; 400pp; Historical Fiction; October 11
31. Peace Like a River; Leif Enger; 312pp; Fiction; October 16
32. The Happy Isles of Oceania; Paul Therouz; 528pp; Travel; October 17
33. Hyperion; Dan Simmons; 512pp; Science Fiction; October 20
34. The Last Kingdom; Bernard Cornwell; 351pp; Historical Fiction; October 22
35. Singularity Sky; Charles Stross; 352pp; Science Fiction; October 23
36. JPod; Douglas Coupland; 448pp; Fiction; October 24
37. The Pale Horseman; Bernard Cornwell; 384pp; Historical Fiction; October 30
38. Lords of the North; Bernard Cornwell; 352pp; Historical Fiction; November 3
39. Sword Song; Bernard Cornwell; 336pp; Historical Fiction; November 9
40. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; J.K. Rowling; 672pp; Fiction; November 14 (read for second time)
41. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; J.K. Rowling; 784pp; Fiction; November 21 (read for second time)
42. The Fall of Hyperion; Dan Simmons; 528pp; Science Fiction; December 5
43. Beatrice and Virgil; Yann Martel; 224pp; Fiction; December 9
44. Between the Assassinations; Aravind Adiga; 368pp; Fiction; December 12
45. Infoquake; David Louis Edelman; 421pp; Science Fiction; December 21        

Back when I did the DBA-Myth-A-Day series in April, many people asked for the 30 blog posts to be collected up into a document for easy printing/reading/etc. I promised, but never got around to it, until I had an email from a blog reader, Peter Maloof, who had very kindly done all the work of producing a Word doc with everything collected together. I've prettified the doc and produced a PDF which you can print out and redistribute as you see fit.

You can download the PDF here.

Enjoy!

(This is my last blog post for 2009 - thanks to everyone who reads my blog and takes part in the SQL community - hope you have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!) 

Every so often you have to challenge yourself with a goal that actually stretches your abilities and tests your stamina. At the start of 2009 I set myself the goal of reading 50 books during the year. By the time January was over I'd already read 18 books so I upped the goal to 100, thinking it would be easily achievable. How wrong I was!

I'm very proud that I stuck with this through the year and met my goal, finishing the 100th book on December 29th. I deliberately chose the final book to be Scotland: The Story of a Nation, by Magnus Magnusson. He used to be the host of the UK quiz show Mastermind (that I loved as a teenager), and his catch phrase was "I've started, so I'll finish!". An appropriate statement on my undertaking this year!

If you held a gun to my head and forced me to pick from all the book's I've read this year, my #1 favorite book is Cormac McCarthy's The Road (no, I haven't seen the movie). Incredibly powerful, haunting, and ultimately sad book - I get a lump in my throat just thinking about the story and it's ending. If you only read one book next year, read that one.

Overall, it was an excellent experience and I recommend everyone to try something similar at some point in their lives. Many people have expressed an interest in seeing the complete list plus my favorites for the year, so this blog post is my summary for you all (and as a neat way of getting closure for me too). It's divided into three parts: data, top-10, and the complete list.

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I've enjoyed putting it together, and it inspires you to try some of these books, or even to set yourself a reading goal next year. Do let me know what you think. And I'll leave you with the saying that's governed 2009 for me:

In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro!

Analysis of What I Read

I read a total of 39674 pages, or about 109 pages on average every day, and a book every 3.65 days. Of course some days I didn't read anything and some days I read 500 pages, depending on what I was doing. You might ask - how the hell did you make the time for that with everything else you do? Well, I flew 138000 miles during the year and spent quite a few days sitting by pools in hot places getting on time zones before teaching classes, mostly in India (2 trips) and Thailand (4 trips) - that's a lot of time right there. I made time when at home, reading pages here and there while cooking, taking a break from work, in bed, etc. It also helps that I love reading, and I read quickly (I don't speed-read, or skip sections, every word is read and digested).

Several people through the year poo-poo'd my goal, saying I must only be reading small books, or 'fast reads'. No. I picked a general range from my library (I've got 900+ books - I don't like electronic readers, and one of my favorite past-times is buying books). Here are two charts: the first shows the number of pages in each book, in order that I read them; the second shows the proportion of books in each genre I read.

The average book length was 397 pages, and as you can see, I'm a huge history buff, so 42% of all books were either hard history, or historical fiction. Make fun of me for producing charts if you want, I don't care :-)

The Top-10 

Now on to the top-10. I tried very hard get down to 10 and couldn't - so you get my top-11. It's just impossible for me to order them so I'll present them in the order I read them, along with a little picture of the cover, and my mini-review from my Facebook page (I always post a little review when I finish a book, the first 3 I read before Facebook got it's evil claws into my psyche). The fact that only one hard history book is on the list does not imply that the others I read weren't good - they almost all were excellent, but just not as hugely entertaining or enthralling as the fiction I read.

  #25 The Kite Runner; Khaled Hosseini; 400pp; Fiction; February 14th (From what I remember: My first exposure to life in Afghanistan. Follows the life of a kite-flying boy and his friend in Kabul as it's torn apart by conflict between the Taliban and other warlords. Very well written and highly recommended, as is the sequel A Thousand Splendid Suns that became my #38.)

  #29 The Road; Cormac McCarthy; 287pp; Fiction; February 26th (From what I remember: Follows a father and son heading west through post-apocalyptic USA and their encounters with other survivors. As I said above, my favorite book of the year. Incredibly powerful - a masterpiece. Go read it.)

  #37 Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China; Paul Theroux; 480pp; Travel; March 30th (From what I remember: I love Theroux's travel writing - his knack for portraying people he meets and irreverent appraisals of places he passes through. In this book he explores the Chinese rail network. I'd love to follow in his footsteps on my next trip to China - been twice, but didn't take any trains.)

  #51 The White Tiger; Aravind Adiga; 304pp; Fiction; July 1st (Winner of last year's Man Booker Prize. Excellent story about a driver in India - I can really relate to it after our two trips to India earlier this year being driven around the streets. Quick read - recommended.)

  #59 The Enchantress of Florence; Salman Rushdie; 368pp; Historical Fiction; July 25th (My first Salman Rushdie book turned out to be a real page-turner. Excellent story, steeped in 16th Century history of the Mughals and Florence (a real favorite city of mine - planning a week-long trip next year). Richly told story, great twist at the end. Looking forward to reading a bunch more of his, on a UPS truck towards me already :-) Highly recommended!)

  #64 Shadow of the Silk Road; Colin Thubron; 400pp; Travel; August 6th (Terrific account of following the 4000-mile Silk Road from Xian to Antioch. Central Asia really seems to be "a paradise or hell of mingled ethnicities" with borders that don't really divide the peoples of the area. Very strongly recommended - although the book has engendered some serious wanderlust in this reader!)

  #78 The Name of the Rose; Umberto Eco; 552pp; Historical Fiction; September 21st (I love Eco's works (this is my 4th of his) - they're hugely involved and heavy going to read, with long sections of complex prose. His stories are always involved and erudite, and this is no exception - a murder-mystery set in an early 14th century Italian monastery, amidst the Imperial vs. Papal backed theological struggles of the time. Unfortunately I'd seen the movie so knew the end, but the book was excellent - lots of pithy, syllogistic discussion. Highly recommended, but not for the casual reader.)

  #80 The Elegance of the Hedgehog; Muriel Barbery; 336pp; Fiction; September 29th (Translated from French, this wonderful book concerns a concierge of an upper-class apartment building in Paris. She's low-born but very intelligent, which she hides from the vacuous residents of the building. The other major character is a 12-yr old girl, also hyper-intelligent, but unhappy and suicidal, with startling insights on life. Life changes for them both. Beautiful book, highly recommended.)

  #85 Sea of Poppies; Amitav Ghosh; 560pp; Historical Fiction; October 19th (I've got a real thing going for writers portraying life in India right now. This book follows the stories of a bunch of people around the time of the Opium Wars, who are linked into the trade in India - both Indians and Westerners. Various calamities befall the Indians and they end up on a schooner, the Ibis, heading down to Mauritius. A very compelling story, expertly told and I'll be picking up some more of his novels from Amazon. Highly recommended.)

  #93 The Meaning of Night: A Confession; Michael Cox; 720pp; Historical Fiction; December 7th (Superlative story telling! Been reading this (long) one for a few months on and off. Compelling tale of a man discovering his true origins and trying to win back what is his, with twists and turns along the way - written as a confession from the point of view of the man himself. Dark and brooding, mixed in with life in England in the 1850s. Highly recommended.)

  #100 Scotland: The Story of a Nation; Magnus Magnusson; 752pp; History; December 29th (I deliberately chose my goal-meeting final book of the year to be Magnusson's magnum opus: his 700pp work on the history of Scotland. Extraordinarily well-written and comprehensively researched, I strongly recommend this book to anyone with Scottish roots.)

The Complete List

And now, for completeness, here's the entire list of all 100 books I read, with links to Amazon.com so you can explore further.

1. Mademoiselle Boleyn; Robin Maxwell; 355pp; Historical fiction; January 2nd
2. Ghostwalk; Rebecca Stott; 368pp; Fiction; January 7th
3. The Old Patagonian Express:By Train Through The Americas; Paul Theroux; 404pp; Travel; January 8th
4. Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West; Tom Holland; 464pp; History; January 9th
5. Eternity; Greg Bear; 416pp; Science fiction; January 10th
6. Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England; Alison Weir; 512pp; History; January 11th
7. Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of Planet Earth; The Onion; 256pp; Humor; January 13th
8. Dead Reckoning: Tales of the Great Explorers 1800-1900; Helen Whybrow (Editor); 576pp; Travel; January 15th
9. If You Liked School, You'll Love Work; Irvine Welsh; 320pp; Fiction; January 17th
10. The Professor and the Madman:A Tale of Murder; Insanity, and the making of the O.E.D.; Simon Winchester; 288pp; History; January 18th
11. Isaac Newton; James Gleick; 288pp; History; January 20th
12. Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book1); Stephanie Meyers; 544pp; Fiction; January 21st
13. New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2); Stephanie Meyers; 608pp; Fiction; January 22nd
14. Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture; Ross King; 208pp; History; January 24th
15. Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3); Stephanie Meyers; 640pp; Fiction; January 25th
16. Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4); Stephanie Meyers; 756pp; Fiction; January 27th
17. The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn; Robin Maxwell; 281pp; Historical Fiction; January 29th
18. Brideshead Revisited; Evelyn Waugh; 368pp; Fiction; January 31st
19. Signora da Vinci; Robin Maxwell; 448pp; Historical Fiction; February 1st
20. Chasm City; Alastair Reynolds; 640pp; Science Fiction; February 6th
21. A Short History of Byzantium; John Julius Norwich; 496pp; History; February 9th
22. Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life; Alison Weir; 441pp; History; February 11th
23. To The Tower Born; Robin Maxwell; 320pp; Historical Fiction; February 12th
24. Virgin: Prelude to the Throne; Robin Maxwell; 243pp; Historical Fiction; February 12th
25. The Kite Runner; Khaled Hosseini; 400pp; Fiction; February 14th
26. Hellboy Library Edition, Vol. 1: Seed of Destruction and Wake the Devil; Mike Mignola; 278pp; Comics; February 21st
27. The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium; Robery Lacey; 240pp; History; February 22nd
28. Accelerando; Charles Stross; 415pp; Science Fiction; February 23rd
29. The Road; Cormac McCarthy; 287pp; Fiction; February 26th
30. The Last Apocalypse: Europe at the Year 1000 A.D.; James Reston Jr.; 336pp; History; February 28th
31. The First Crusade: A New History: The Roots of Conflict between Christianity and Islam; Thomas Asbridge; 448pp; History; March 1st
32. Hellboy Library Edition, Vol. 2: The Chained Coffin, The Right Hand of Doom, and Others; Mike Mignola; 278pp; Comics; March 3rd
33. Lighthousekeeping; Jeanette Winterson; 252pp; Fiction; March 4th
34. Marvel 1602; Neil Gaiman; 248pp; Comics; March 8th
35. Eternals; Neil Gaiman; 256pp; Comics; March 8th
36. The Absolute Sandman, Volume 4; Neil Gaiman; 608pp; Comics; March 13th
37. Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China; Paul Theroux; 480pp; Travel; March 30th
38. A Thousand Splendid Suns; Khaled Hosseini; 432pp; Fiction; April 1st
39. The Complete Memoirs of George Therston; Siegfried Sassoon; 656pp; History; April 12th
40. A Tale of Two Cities; Charles Dickens; 544pp; Historical Fiction; April 21st
41. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling; Ross King; 384pp; History; April 28th
42. Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor; Anthony Everitt; 432pp; History; April 29th
43. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World; Jack Weatherford; 352pp; History; May 9th
44. The Killer Book of Serial Killers; Tom Philbin; 352pp; History; May 13th
45. Why We Suck; Denis Leary; 240pp; Non-Fiction; May 23rd
46. Holy Terrors: Gargoyles on Medieval Buildings; Janette Rebold Benton; 140pp; History; May 28th
47. Knights Templar: The Essential History; Stephen Howarth; 321pp; History; Mat 31st
48. Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Capetown; Paul Theroux; 496pp; Travel; June 17th
49. The Thirteenth Tale; Diane Setterfield; 432pp; Fiction; June 27th
50. A Short History of Nearly Everything; Bill Bryson; 560pp; History; June 30th
51. The White Tiger; Aravind Adiga; 304pp; Fiction; July 1st
52. Anil's Ghost; Michael Ondaatje; 307pp; Fiction; July 2nd
53. Time Bandit; Andy Hillstrand; 240pp; Non-Fiction; July 3rd
54. The Sea; John Banville; 195pp; Fiction; July 4th
55. The Glassblower of Murano; Marina Fiorato; 368pp; Historical Fiction; July 5th
56. The Book of Unholy Mischief; Elle Newmark; 384pp; Historical Fiction; July 8th
57. The Bookseller of Kabul; Asne Seierstad; 320pp; Non-Fiction; July 11th
58. The Forge of Christendom: The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West; Tom Holland; 512pp; History; July 18th
59. The Enchantress of Florence; Salman Rushdie; 368pp; Historical Fiction; July 25th
60. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Mark Haddon; 226pp; Fiction; July 28th
61. The Gathering; Anne Enright; 260pp; Fiction; July 29th
62. Saving Fish From Drowning; Amy Tan; 528pp; Fiction; August 1st
63. The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama; Thomas Laird; 496pp; History; August 3rd
64. Shadow of the Silk Road; Colin Thubron; 400pp; Travel; August 6th
65. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; Junot Diaz; 352pp; Fiction; August 8th
66. The Cloud Forest; Peter Matthiessen; 320pp; Travel; August 12th
67. Redemption Ark; Alastair Reynolds; 656pp; Science Fiction; August 17th
68. Year of Wonders; Geraldine Brooks; 336pp; Historical Fiction; August 18th
69. Orpheus Rising; Bateman; 480pp; Fiction; August 20th
70. The Catholic Church through the Ages: A History; John Vidmar; 384pp; History; August 24th
71. Edward the Confessor; Frank Barlow; 408pp; History; August 28th
72. The Places In Between; Rory Stewart; 320pp; Travel; August 30th
73. The Forever War; Dexter Filkins; 384pp; Non-Fiction; September 5th
74. Mogadishu!; Heroism and Tragedy; Kent DeLong; 144pp; Non-Fiction; September 10th
75. The Temporal Void; Peter F. Hamilton; 736pp; Science Fiction; September 14th
76. One Hundred Years of Solitude; Gabriel Garcia Marquez; 448pp; Fiction; September 15th
77. Slaughterhouse Five; Kurt Vonnegut; 288pp; Fiction; September 17th
78. The Name of the Rose; Umberto Eco; 552pp; Historical Fiction; September 21st
79. People of the Book; Geraldine Brooks; 400pp; Historical Fiction; September 27th
80. The Elegance of the Hedgehog; Muriel Barbery; 336pp; Fiction; September 29th
81. The Lost Heart of Asia; Colin Thubron; 400pp; Travel; October 2nd
82. So Young, Brave, and Handsome; Leif Enger; 272pp; Fiction; October 4th
83. The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana; Umberto Eco; 480pp; Fiction; October 7th
84. A Time of Gifts: On Foot To Constantinople; Patrick Leigh Fermor; 344pp; Travel; October 10th
85. Sea of Poppies; Amitav Ghosh; 560pp; Historical Fiction; October 19th
86. A Conspiracy of Paper; David Liss; 480pp; Historical Fiction; October 23rd
87. Breakfast of Champions; Kurt Vonnegut; 303pp; Fiction; October 27th
88. Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors; James Reston Jr; 400pp; History; October 27th
89. A Spectacle of Corruption; David Liss; 396pp; Historical Fiction; November 5th
90. Absolution Gap; Alastair Reynolds; 704pp; Science Fiction; November 15th
91. Spawn Collection, Volume 4; Todd MacFarlane; 480pp; Comics; November 27th
92. Parallel Worlds; Michio Kaku; 448pp; Non-Fiction; December 1st
93. The Meaning of Night: A Confession; Michael Cox; 720pp; Historical Fiction; December 7th
94. Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3; Annie Proulx; 240pp; Fiction; December 8th
95. The Shadow Lines; Amitav Ghosh; 256pp; Fiction; December 10th
96. The Lemon Table; Julian Barnes; 256pp; Fiction; December 16th
97. Jackson Pollock; Leonhard Emmerling; 96pp; Non-Fiction; December 21st
98. Fire and Steam: How the Railways Transformed Britain; Christian Wolmar; 384pp; History; December 22nd
99. The Bedford Hours: A Medieval Masterpiece; Eberhard Konig; 144pp; History; December 23rd
100. Scotland: The Story of a Nation; Magnus Magnusson; 752pp; History; December 29th

Earlier today there was a thread on Twitter asking about what degrees and academic background people have who work on SQL Server. I volunteered to put together a reading list for those wanting to know more of the theory behind a relational database management system, rather than just how to use one.

Here I present a reading list that will take you from how to program well up to how to architect multi-threaded database servers. I've read all of these at some point between finishing my CS/EE degree in Edinburgh in 1994 and stopping dev work in 2005, and they're sitting on my bookshelf as I type this. They're all the best books I could find on the subject at the time, and they're all absolutely excellent. I've included Amazon.com links to the most up-to-date editions (because I'm nice like that ).

Programming

• The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms (Knuth, 672pp)
• The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms (Knuth, 784pp)
• The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 3: Sorting and Searching (Knuth, 800pp)
• Algorithms in C++, Parts 1-4 (Sedgewick, 752pp)
• The C++ Programming Language: Special Edition (Stroustrup, 1030pp)
• The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms (Aho/Hopcroft/Ullman, 470pp)
• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Gamma/Helm/Johnson/Vlissides, 416pp)
• How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics (Michalewicz/Fogel, 554pp)

Underneath the RDBMS

• Computer Networks (Tanenbaum, 912pp)
• Modern Operating Systems (Tanenbaum, 1104pp)
• Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms (Tanenbaum, 704pp)
• Computer Architecture and Organization (Hayes, 624pp)
• Computer Architecture: A Quantative Approach (Hennessy/Patterson, 704pp)
• Cryptography and Network Security (Stallings, 744pp)

Concepts

• Parallel Processing and Parallel Algorithms: Theory and Computation (Roosta, 566pp)
• Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems (Turban/Aronson/Liang/Sharda, 850pp)

  Distributed Algorithms (Lynch, 904pp)
• Transactional Information Systems: Theory, Algorithms, and the Practice of Concurrency Control and Recovery (Weikum/Vossen, 852pp)
• Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques (Gray/Reuter, 1070pp)

RDBMS architecture

• Database Management Systems (Ramakrishnan/Gehrke, 936pp)
• Introduction to Database Systems (Date, 1024pp)
• Database: Principles, Programming, and Performance (O'Neil/O'Neil, 870pp)
• Readings in Database Systems (Stonebraker/Hellerstein, 877pp)

You should also checkout the ACM Special Interest Group on Management of Data (SIGMOD), and the VLDB Conference - these are the premier academic conferences to do with database management systems.

This should keep you busy.. happy reading!

Over the last 18 months a group of SQL Server MVPs, led by Paul Nielsen and including Kimberly and I as editors, have been working on a book, responding to a challenge from Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer for MVPs to give something to the wider community than just our technical one. Now the book is available to purchase, with all profits (minus minimal expenses of the publishers) going to War Child International.

Buy the book, increase your knowledge, and help the children.

Rather than come up with my own blurb about the book's contents, I'm re-using the excellent write-up from the MVP blog, with their permission.  

With contributions from 53 SQL Server MVPs, SQL Server MVP Deep Dives, is organised in 5 parts: Design and Architecture, Development, Administration, Performance Tuning and Optimisation, and Business Intelligence. Within each part, you'll find a collection of concise and focused chapters that take on key topics like mobile data strategies, Dynamic Management Views, or query performance. The range of subjects covered is comprehensive, from database design tips to data profiling strategies for BI. The book features:

• Nearly 60 chapters focused on topics crucial for any SQL Server professional
• Edited by MVP Paul Nielsen, MVP Kalen Delaney, MVP Greg Low, MVP Adam Machanic, MVP Paul S. Randal, and MVP Kimberly L. Tripp
• Appropriate for SQL Server professionals of all levels
• Coverage of new features in SQL Server 2008

Whether you're just getting started with SQL Server or you're an old dog looking for a few new tricks, SQL Server MVP Deep Dives belongs on your bookshelf.

The authors of this book have generously donated 100% of their royalties to support War Child International. War Child International is a network of independent organizations, working across the world to help children affected by war. War Child was founded upon a fundamental goal: to advance the cause of peace through investing hope in the lives of children caught up in the horrors of war. War Child works in many different conflict areas around the world, helping hundreds of thousands of children every year. Visit www.warchild.org for more information.

You can purchase the book by clicking here.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Internals finally starts to roll off the presses at Microsoft Press today! For me this is the first time in print (in book form at least) and my consistency checking chapter (about 1/10th of the book) represents a complete brain-dump of everything I know about how DBCC CHECKDB works.

Kimberly also wrote a great chapter on index internals with some nice examples of how and why they're linked together the way they are. And of course the rest of the book is excellent too, mostly by Kalen but with additional guest chapters on the query optimizer by one of its architects, Conor Cunningham, and on tracing and auditing by fellow-MVP Adam Machanic - all good friends of ours.

Check it out on Amazon.com here.

TechNet Magazine is publishing a series of SQL Server 2008 tips every day through January - mostly taken from upcoming Microsoft Press books on SQL Server 2008. Later this month it will include some tips from our upcoming book Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Internals. Check out the tips at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd391795.aspx.

Enjoy!

Wow - that was tough but *very* fulfilling. As you may know, Kimberly and I are each writing chapters for Kalen's next book - SQL Server 2008 Internals. Well, I *just* finished the DBCC CHECKDB chapter - it's 26000 words and 69 pages, describing all the algorithms in-depth and all the corruption errors that can be reported in SQL Server 2008. It was really fun to write but I'm glad all that stuff's down on paper now - I can make room in my head for a bunch of other stuff

I can't wait to see it in print next Spring!

(Ok - with 5 blog posts today, I think I broke my record. Time to retire for the night before I'm tempted to break it even more...)

Very exciting! The SQL Server 2008 Internals book we're working on with Kalen is now available to pre-order on Amazon, ahead of the planned publication date of February 18^th next year.

I'm neck-deep in the Consistency Checking Internals chapter right now - its shaping up to be about 100 pages on its own!

There's no description yet on Amazon but at least you can pre-order - see here.