Books Read in 2003

This post follows on from Books Read in 2002, which I posted at the end of February.

And for 2003 I read one hundred and five books, down an unlucky thirteen from 2002’s total. As ever, lots of writers whose work I sampled for the first time, but nobody who went on to become a permanent feature of my reading life. Only one contender for the top spot, James Ellroy’s “The Cold Six Thousand”, and at the other end of the literary spectrum “Doctor Mooze” by Panton di Villa sucked big time.

No real pattern to my reading leaps out. A high vampire count again, and computer books still feature, so I guess I was still looking for ways to make the infernal machine do what I wanted it to (I still am today, but I’ve given up buying books on the subject as their information seems to be outdated about five minutes after they arrive). As with 2002, I haven’t bothered to look up any of the authors for the computer books. And, as I do every so often, it seems I was toying with the idea of writing erotica in the second half of May 2003 and reading related material as a form of research (that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it). “Sexy Dreams” was a fantasy art book with no named author, and I’ve no idea who wrote “Desires”, or indeed what it was specifically about. Audience participation is welcome in the comments if you think you know.

On this day in 2003 I was reading “Tideland” by Mitch Cullin, and subsequently gave it a spiky review in the pages of The Third Alternative, which you can find reproduced elsewhere on this blog. And I marked my 49th birthday by, among other things, reading the superb “Floater” by the much missed Lucius Shepard (also reviewed on this blog).

Okay, here’s the list:-

The Blood Countess – Andrei Cordescu

The Golden Age – Gore Vidal

The Cold Six Thousand – James Ellroy

Black House – Stephen King & Peter Straub

How To Write Damn Good Fiction – James N. Frey

Some of Your Blood – Theodore Sturgeon

Open the Box – Andrew Humphrey

Ambrosial Flesh – Mary Ann Mitchell

Williwaw – Gore Vidal

House of Pain – Sephera Giron

Night Seekers – Lauren Halkon

Under Cover of Night – Mary SanGiovanni

The Hand That Takes – Paul Harland

The Private Investigator’s Handbook

Film- Sean Condon

Dragon’s Eye – Andy Oakes

The Line of Polity – Neal Asher

Bad Dreams – Kim Newman

One More For The Road – Ray Bradbury

White and Other Tales of Ruin – Tim Lebbon

Tideland – Mitch Cullin

Agape Agape – William Gaddis

Quenched – Mary Ann Mitchell

Globalhead – Bruce Sterling

Interview With the Vampire – Anne Rice

The New York Trilogy – Paul Auster

Creatures of Clay – Stephen Sennitt

The Church of Dead Girls- Stephen Dobyns

The Black Castle – Les Daniels

The Silver Skull – Les Daniels

How to do just about anything on a computer

Nevermore – William Hjortsberg

The Mammoth Book of 20^th Century Science Fiction Volume One – Edited by David G. Hartwell

362 Belisle St. – Susan Moloney

Sleepwalkers- Marion Arnott

The Best American Erotica 2002 – Edited by Susie Bright

Hot Sex – Tracey Cox

Sex for One – Betty Dodson

Desires

The Sexual Life of Catherine M – Catherine Millet

Sexy Dreams

Erotica Vampirica – Edited by Cecilia Tan

The Big O – Lou Paget

The Lexicon of Love – Edited by Stephanie Latour

The Fermata – Nicholson Baker

Sister Alice- Robert Reed

In Springdale Town – Robert Freeman Wexler

Jennifer Government – Max Barry

Word 2002 in Easy Steps

Aisles- Paul Magrs

Windows XP in Easy Steps

White Crow – Mary Gentle

Trampoline – Edited by Kelly Link

Flesh and Blood – Jonathan Kellerman

Anno Dracula – Kim Newman

Sleep No More – L. T. C. Rolt

Shadow Puppets – Orson Scott Card

Basket Case – Carl Hiaasen

The Labyrinth of Satan – Gerald Suster

Havana Bay – Martin Cruz Smith

Second Contact and other stories – Gary Couzens

Amnesia Moon – Jonathan Lethem

Veniss Underground – Jeff VanderMeer

The Dracula Tape – Fred Saberhagen

The Body Artist – Don DeLillo

Horrorscope – Derek Lambert

Local Girls – Alice Hoffman

Storytelling – Todd Solondz

Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World – Louis de Bernieres

The Death of Sweet Mister – Daniel Woodrell

Sarah – J. T. LeRoy

Scared Stiff – Ramsey Campbell

Masturbation: The History of a Great Terror – Jean Stengers & Anne Van Neck

Idlewild – Nick Sagan

Doctor Mooze – Panton di Villa

Nicolo’s Gifts – Neil Ayres

Hell to Pay – Shaun Hutson

Fisher of Devils – Steve Redwood

Exorcising Angels – Simon Clark & Tim Lebbon

Veniss Underground – Jeff VanderMeer

Ilium – Dan Simmons

Moon On the Water – Mort Castle

The Blue Mask – Joel Lane

The Wild – Whitley Streiber

Queer Haunts – Edited by G. Abel-Watters

Fear – L. Ron Hubbard

Lost Boy Lost Girl – Peter Straub

Stainless – Todd Grimson

Best New Horror #14 – Edited by Stephen Jones

Greetings from Lake Wu – Jay Lake

Dante’s Equation – Jane Jensen

Maul – Tricia Sullivan

The Dark – Edited by Ellen Datlow

Nylon Angel – Marianne De Pierres

Wolves of the Calla – Stephen King

Floater – Lucius Shepard

The Alsiso Project – Edited by Andrew Hook

Bibliomancy – Elizabeth Hand

Suffer the Flesh – Monica O’Rourke

The Mountain King – Rick Hautala

Hexes – Tom Piccirilli

Red – Jack Ketchum

City Infernal – Edward Lee

Hotel Transylvania – Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Voice of the Blood – Jemiah Jefferson