This last year I deliberately cut back on the amount of reviewing I was doing, because 2011 was just mad. The reduction in reviewing also seems to have had the knock-on effect of cutting down the amount I read. Just over 70 books this year, which was a comfortable amount. As ever, I have put in bold the ones I really rate.
1: We Others by Steven Millhauser — retrospective collection by one of the best short story writers working today.
2: His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle — continuing my Holmes reading from 2011.
3: Planesrunner by Ian McDonald — reviewed at SF Site.
4: Context by Cory Doctorow — reviewed at SF Site.
5: The Islanders by Christopher Priest — re-read, my review was at LARB.
6: An Exile on Planet Earth by Brian Aldiss — reviewed at Strange Horizons.
7: The Highest Frontier by Joan Slonczewski — not a novel that spoke to me.
8: In the Mouth of the Whale by Paul McAuley – reviewed at Strange Horizons.
9: God’s War by Kameron Hurley — which I wrote about here.
10: Rule 34 by Charles Stross — futuristic police procedural that works well enough without doing anything particularly fresh or surprising.
11: The Door Gunner by Michael Bishop — reviewed at SF Site.
12: Literary Theory: An Introduction by Terry Eagleton — he’s always worth reading.
13: The Godless Boys by Naomi Wood — reviewed for Vector.
14: Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh — a novel that deserved far more attention than it received.
15: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey — sf as it used to be, which makes you wonder why anyone is still writing this stuff.
16: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline — simple-minded shoot-em-up adventure game that slips down easy without leaving the slightest trace afterwards.
17: The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle — finishing my Holmes re-read.
18: Thomas World by Richard Cox — someone pretending to be Philip K. Dick, and not succeeding.
19: These Dreams of You by Steve Erickson — which I wrote about here.
20: Chango’s Beads and Two-tone Shoes by William Kennedy — which I wrote about here.
21: The Frock-Coated Communist by Tristram Hunt — a biography of Friedrich Engels that is superbly written and taught me huge amounts about the history of the left.
22: The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano — I’ve been meaning to read Bolano for a long time, and I am so glad I finally got around to it. A very impressive novel.
23: Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru — another superb novel that I wrote about here.
24: The Coincidence Engine by Sam Leith — great fun, but it doesn’t really hold together.
25: The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature edited by Farah Mendlesohn and Edward James — I’m included in this, so I’ll say no more about it.
26: Blackout by Connie Willis
27: All Clear by Connie Willis — I reviewed these two for Vector, as I said somewhere else there’s a halfway decent 300 page novel in among 1400 pages of bloat.
28: Three Science Fiction Novellas by J.H. Rosny aine — reviewed in Interzone, and written about here.
29: Wind Angels by Leigh Kennedy — re-read for a review for Foundation.
30: Critical Discourses of the Fantastic by David Sandner — reviewed for Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.
31: Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds — reviewed at SF Site.
32: Police at the Funeral by Margery Allingham — I aim to read at least one of her books every year.
33: The Year’s Best Science Fiction 29 edited by Gardner Dozois — the first of the books read for that infamous LARB review.
34: Sibilant Fricative by Adam Roberts — a collection of reviews due out later this year for which I wrote the introduction.
35: Dancing with Bears by Michael Swanwick — I really disliked this novel.
36: Nebula Awards Showcase 2012 edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel — more for the LARB review.
37: Waiting For Sunrise by William Boyd — which I wrote about here.
38: Radiant Days by Elizabeth Hand — reviewed at Strange Horizons.
39: Things to Come by H.G. Wells — atrociously annotated edition (by Leon Stover) reviewed for JFA.
40: Man Who Could Work Miracles by H.G. Wells — more for the JFA review.
41: The Sea Lady by H.G. Wells — and again for the JFA.
42: Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers — as with Margery Allingham, I try to read at least one of her books a year.
43: The King Must Die by Mary Renault — which I wrote about here.
44: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel — just superb.
45: The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2012 edited by Rich Horton — and the final contender for the LARB review.
46: Fame by Daniel Kehlmann — Chris Priest kept insisting I read this. He was right. Strange but very interesting.
47: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells — a superb novel spoiled by the annotation, reviewed for JFA.
48: Wake Up and Dream by Ian R. MacLeod — not his best, but a very amusing alternate history.
49: The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells — if Stover wasn’t dead, I’d kill him.
50: The Fifty Year Sword by Mark Z. Danielewski — rather too clever and too contrived for its own good.
51: Empty Space by M. John Harrison — which I wrote about here. My book of the year.
52: Jack Glass by Adam Roberts — I did a review and interview for Interzone.
53: Selected Poems by T.S. Eliot — I dip into this collection regularly, but it’s a long time since I read the whole thing. I’d forgotten how strange some of these poems are.
54: Railsea by China Mieville — reviewed at SF Site.
55: The Adjacent by Christopher Priest — read in manuscript, and it’s stunningly good.
56: Angels and You Dogs by Kathleen Ann Goonan — reviewed at SF Site.
57: The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
58: Winter Journal by Paul Auster — I’ve lost track of how many autobiographical works Auster has produced, this one is both interesting and rather strange.
59: When the Sleeper Wakes by H.G. Wells — and this is the volume when Stover’s annotations reach their apotheosis of baroque wrongness.
60: Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon — it took me a little while to get into this, but once I did it was superb.
61: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury — I realised I’d never actually read this. A book that is by turn beautifully lyrical and disturbingly off-kilter.
62: At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson — reviewed at SF Site.
63: Ancient Light by John Banville — which I wrote about here.
64: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury — re-read to prepare for a panel discussion at the Folkestone Book Festival.
65: Communion Town by Sam Thompson — somewhere between a novel and a collection of stories, with shades of Viriconium, a superb invention.
66: Hawthorn and Child by Keith Ridgway — I love books that disturb your expectations, and this does so brilliantly.
67: Digital Rapture edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel — reviewed for SF Site.
68: Open City by Teju Cole — a vivid and atmospheric novel about New York.
69: Starboard Wine by Samuel R. Delany — reviewed for SF Site.
70: Spin by Nina Allan — Nina asked me to blurb this novella, and I was glad to oblige because it’s superb.
71: Vengeance by Benjamin Black — I am becoming increasingly puzzled why no-one seems to be adapting these pseudonymous Banville novels for TV, they seem a natural.
Through the dark labyrinth 
I am definitely planning to “slow down” in 2013. After about 100 in 2012, I would be happy with half that in 2013. One book a week to savor and really think about.
* Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh — man, why do I keep passing over that book and not reading it?
* Empty Space by M. John Harrison — can’t wait for the US release, well obviously I can as I could have imported it, but still
* Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru — one I almost picked up three or four times last year, but never did. Sounds like I should have.
* Jack Glass by Adam Roberts — I’m convinced that no more than 10 people in the United States know who Roberts is. Still waiting for a US release of By Light Alone, for goodness sakes.
* The Adjacent by Christopher Priest — ok, when is this coming… Yes, yes, June. In the UK. We had to wait a darned long time for The Islanders.
* Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon — that you liked this, when some of my other bellwethers did not, intrigues me. I wonder if it has anything to do with your distance from San Francisco?
* Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel — it’s probably something wrong with *me* but … I’d rather read the Tim Powers version, if he ever writes it?
On the Chabon, it’s a book you need to read slowly, I think. As I said, it took me a long time to get into it, but once I found the rhythms of it, I found it superb. And it does deal with a part of San Francisco I’ve visited several times.
On the Mantel, you really do need to read her. The use of language in these books is stunning. I once wrote a post at Big Other (http://bigother.com/2010/08/08/he/) all about the way she uses ‘he’ in these books.
Wolf Hall first, or can Bring Up the Bodies just be jumped into? And I’d dare say you have probably spent more time in SF than I have.
Sam, do start with Wolf Hall. One of the really interesting things is to trace the subtle changes of character and voice between the two books. For instance, Wolf Hall is all ‘he’; but Bring Up The Bodies has much more ‘he, Cromwell’, as if we are gently but definitely pulling away from the character. This subtle distancing is, of course, setting us up for his execution in the final volume; but also, I think, it marks an awareness in Cromwell of what he is doing as distinct from how he sees himself.
Eh, were I to wait for Italian editions…
I have ordered Hawthorn & Child, given the ubiquitous praise it has garnered among bloggers & commenters of differents persuasions. I’m also intrigued by Communion Town and Jack Glass, even if I often enjoy Roberts more in theory than practice.
While I was very impressed with Beyond Black, I can’t find much excitement at the thought of embarking in a Historical Trilogy. Knee-jerk reaction, I know – but I’ve decided to read some of Mantel’s earlier works, many of which look like Sparkian black comedies, first.
Empty Space was one of my books of the year, but Harrison is always a shoe-in for me. I plan to reread it soon along with the first two books.