EL Doctorow, Ragtime, Glyn Parry, The Arch Conjuror of England: John Dee, Andrew Caldecott, Rotherweird, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, Alan Johnson, Please Mister Postman: A Memoir

Snuck the latest Asterix in there somewhere, too. 'Ragtime' was the first of the '100 essential novels' that I've read in a long time that I either understood or enjoyed. Written as a knowing attempt to write the Great American Novel, what I liked about it was that unlike so many of the novels I have read on the list, it wasn't purely the east coast, wealthy intellectual elite with no real problems writing about themselves (Roth, deLillo, Updike. . .). Instead it was a more real vision of the American Dream - by the hard work and application of others, people born into riches can become even richer. Just when I think I'm back on top, along came Pynchon, which nonplussed me for 170-odd pages.

Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass, Steven Runciman The Fall of Constantinople 1453, William Faulkner, The Sound and The Fury, Gerard Reve, The Evenings, Tim Marshall, Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags, Philip Pullman, La Belle Sauvage

Loved the first book of the new 'equel' to His Dark Materials, although I did get a little lost as it became increasingly mystic and dreamlike as they journeyed down a flooded Thames Valley. Reminded me a lot of 'The Dark is Rising' for these very reasons - I also struggled to follow that at first as the deluge swept away the earthly world and replaced it with something stranger. Really glad I took the time to reread the first three books, and 'The Amber Spyglass' in particular made a lot more sense the second time round- not sure if I read it more closely, or whether I'm just more comfortable with metaphysics and theological debate now. In between, 'The Sound and the Fury' and 'The Evenings' passed me by; yet more classics I do not understand.