Mark Lawrence: My reading in 2016

Friday, 23 December 2016

My reading in 2016

Some book bloggers can devour four books a week. I struggle to read a book a month, though this year I have done significantly better than the last two.

Since my post this time last year I've managed to read 16 books (I'm on my 17th & 18th).

I also read out loud 6 children's books to my daughter, Celyn (at the bottom of the list). This is a significant drop but Celyn's choice of entertainment does vary and has included endless repetition of Malory Towers audiobooks this year...

As is my wont I have reviewed all of these books on Goodreads and you can reach those reviews by clicking on the covers. Listed in chronological order of reading.

Some great reads this year but of all of these I have to say Senlin Ascends was my best read, one of my favourite books of all time in fact. So read it. Nod was the most literary and also a very good book. The Girl With All The Gifts wasn't fantasy, but it was excellent. Many of these titles got 5* from me.

Finding a self-published book that ranks among my best reads ever was a real pay-off from the SPFBO. Many successful authors (and many who are successful in other fields) suffer from impostor syndrome, and to some extent I had a sense of it before I was published. Prince of Thorns sat for years on my hard drive as I felt sure that even if it was of sufficient quality the chances of getting it through the lottery of agents and publishers were slim.

Then I tried to get published and met with almost instant success. But even though I had seen the system "work" I still couldn't help feel that there had been a lot of luck involved. So, I set up the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off to try to offset all that to a small degree and give other authors another ticket in the lottery.

The fact that a book as fine as Senlin Ascends floundered for years despite the author's best efforts seems to me confirmation of all my instincts. Quality on its own is no guarantee of success. In fact it may be that it only gives a modest edge and that the true struggle is reaching a critical mass of readers.

Click on the text to get my Goodreads review for each book.

The science of EVERYTHING

not light reading.