Books Read in 2004

This post follows on from Books Read in 2003, which I posted at the end of March.

And for 2004 I read exactly one hundred books, down five from 2003’s total. This was the year in which I discovered Alexander McCall Smith after picking up a number of his titles in some offer the details of which I can’t recall. I read and enjoyed the books, but haven’t touched his work since (guess I’m fickle). It was also the year in which I had my first encounter with Adam Nevill, and I’ve been a lot more constant in my affections for his oeuvre, albeit there are quite a few titles by him that I’ve bought but not as yet read (just give it time).

On this day in 2004 I was reading “This Symbiotic Fascination” by Charlee Jacob, but curiously I don’t appear to have done any reading on the day I turned 50, unless I took three weeks to get through “The Taking” by Dean R. Koontz. The day after my birthday I started “In the Night Room” by Peter Straub.

Here’s the list:-

Tales of Horror and the Supernatural – Arthur Machen

Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood

The Lottery and Other Stories – Shirley Jackson

Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce

Strange Tales – Mark West

Spare Parts – Stuart Young

Black Altars – Mark Samuels

The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings – Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet – Richard Matheson

The Collection – Bentley Little

Milo and I – Antony Mann

The Red Church – Scott Nicholson

Jung’s People – Kay Green

I, Vampire – Jody Scott

The Visitor – Maeve Brennan

The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps – Michel Faber

Six – Jim Crace

Take No Prisoners – John Grant

Demonized – Christopher Fowler

White Devils – Paul McAuley

The Third Person – Steve Mosby

Spondulix – Paul DiFilippo

The Legend of the Holy Drinker – Joseph Roth

Red Dog – Louis de Bernieres

Cheese – Willem Elsschot

Antwerp – Nicholas Royle

King of All the Dead – Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis

The Etched City – K. J. Bishop

Faces of Mist and Flame – Jon George

Bedbugs – Rick Hautala

Norton Utilities 2002

The Lost – Jack Ketchum

The Night Class – Tom Piccirilli

Deep Ten – Edited by Gary Couzens & Sara-Jayne Townsend

Cathedral of Vampires – Mary Ann Mitchell

Tainted Blood – Mary Ann Mitchell

This Symbiotic Fascination – Charlee Jacob

Weirdmonger – D. F. Lewis

Three Stories & A Reflection – Patrick Suskind

Monday or Tuesday – Virginia Woolf

The Prague Orgy – Philip Roth

Murder in the Dark – Margaret Atwood

Mr. Palomar – Italo Calvino

Somnambulists – Allen Ashley

Close to Spider Man – Ivan Coyote

The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – Alexander McCall Smith

The Lake – Richard Laymon

Shadows of the Night – Edited by Greg Herren

Postcards from Terri – Tony Richardson

Song of Susannah – Stephen King

Deadfolk – Charlie Williams

Gothic Wine – Darren Speegle

Moon Beaver – Andrew Hook

Out of Mind – Sam Hayes

Banquet for the Damned – Adam Nevill

Gathering the Bones – Edited by Ramsey Campbell, Jack Dann & Dennis Etchison

London Revenant – Conrad Williams

Gig – James Lovegrove

Falling – Debbie Moon

A Taste of Blood – Diana Lee

The Final Country – James Crumley

Emperor: The Gates of Rome – Conn Iggulden

Demolition Angel – Robert Crais

Amara – Richard Laymon

Lost Light – Michael Connelly

The Sound of White Ants – Brian Howell

The Imaginary Girlfriend – John Irving

Werewolves in their Youth – Michael Chabon

Drawn to the Grave – Mary Ann Mitchell

The Death Artist – Dennis Etchison

Sex for One – Betty Dodson

Tears of the Giraffe – Alexander McCall Smith

Cherry – Matt Thorne

Tik-Tok – John Sladek

Girl with a Pearl Earring – Tracy hevalier

Script Generator – Philippe Vasset

The Journal of Eleanor Druse – Eleanor Druse (Stephen King?)

Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days – Alastair Reynolds

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned – Walter Moseley

Morality for Beautiful Girls – Alexander McCall Smith

The Kalahari Typing School for Men – Alexander McCall Smith

Days of Magic, Nights of War – Clive Barker

Frozen Assets – P. G. Wodehouse

Legacy of Blood – Jim Harper

Houdini’s Last Illusion – Steve Saville

A Dirge for the Temporal – Darren Speegle

Out of His Mind – Stephen Gallagher

The Ice Maiden – Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis

The Extremist and other tales of conflict – Paul Finch

The Dark Dividing – Sarah Rayne

The Green Face – Gustav Meyrink

Digging Up Donald – Steven Pirie

Sunset and Sawdust – Joe R. Lansdale

The Art of Murder – Jose Carlos Somoza

The Taking – Dean R. Koontz

In the Night Room – Peter Straub

White Apples – Jonathan Carroll

Ancestral Shadows – Russell Kirk

The Mask Behind the Face – Stuart Young

The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror #17 – Edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant