I’ve only read 150 pages of a 1000 page book but I already know it will be my book of the year. I’m currently reading Lonesome Dove, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 and, despite it being a Western, which is a genre I’ve never read before, it is easily the best and easiest book I’ve read all year. Characters feel instantly real, the story catches you straight away, and the author has complete control as he swaps between different characters so you always know who’s point of view you’re following, and each feels different from the next.

So, for book of the year, I give it to the first 150 pages of Lonesome Dove, because even if the next 850 pages are dire, those first 150 pages are better than anything else I read this year. (But I’m assuming as a Pulitzer Prize winning book, it doesn’t fall off a cliff on page 200).

Like last year I aimed to read 26 books and managed to read 43, including a couple of 1000 page plus books (fantasy writer, Brandon Sanderson responsible for writing a chapter when a paragraph would do) and a couple that were barely a hundred pages (Catch The Latch, an autobiography about horse racing and The Great Gatsby, which is a classic I’d never read).

My favourites though were:

Oscar Wars – An entertaining history of Oscar winners and losers

The Warhammer Black Library – Easy to read sci-fi that comes with 231 sequels. It may take some time to read all of them…

Truss at 10 – Best political book I read this year, that gradually builds each failure of the Liz Truss premiership until her resignation becomes inevitable

The Wager – listen to this on audiobook. The true story of a British ship marooned in South America with cannabalism, murder, castaways and more cannabalism.

Great Uncle Harry – Michael Palin’s biography of his great uncle who died in WW1. Fascinating.

Garth Marenghi’s Terrortome – a made up trilogy of books by a bad horror writer featuring an entire chapter about how to make love to a typewriter. Very funny. If typewriter trysts are your thing.

Whalefail – a boy gets swallowed by a whale and has to escape. After reading this, I now know exactly what to do if Moby Dick gets peckish.

Watford Forever – the parallel story of Graeme Taylor and Elton John at Watford in the 1970s. Best sport book I read.