My favourite books of 2012

I read 166 books in 2012. While some were great, too many were disappointing. In 2013 I plan to finish fewer books. Throughout school I was taught that I should read all of a book before dismissing it and now I too easily persevere with unrewarding ones. No more. If I'm not enjoying a book this year, I'm going to stop. If it's really bad, I will set it on fire.

Here's a list of the books I loved in 2012. There are ten of them because picking an arbitrary number forces me to choose between the options:

1. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn A very clever Oulippian epistolary novel based around lipograms. As the book proceeds the characters are banned from using particular letters and the story describes their attempts to cope. 
   
2. Beowulf by Seamus Heaney An amazing poem from a time when the English were obsessed with fame at any cost. Exciting, moving and strange.
   
3. KLF: Chaos Magic Music Money by John Higgs This book connects many things that fascinated me in the 90s. It's strange, deranged and provocative. I wish I'd had a copy of this in my early 20s.
4. god is not great by Christopher Hitchens A fierce polemic about religion. It shames the shoddy Dawkins book on the same subject. 
5. The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex by Mark Kermode An entertaining collection of essays about films.
6. 4am by Nina de la Mer A fantastic novel about squaddies in Germany and the local rave scene. Brilliantly written. It's slightly tiresome to point this out, but the writer does an amazing job of getting into the minds of her male protagonists.
7. The City and the City by China Mieville A strange novel about two cities that exist in the same place. Feels like a classic already.
8. Discordia by Laurie Penny & Molly Crabapple A lot of Penny's previous work left me a little disappointed but this is incredible, a fierce, well argued description of the recent unrest in Athens. This stands with some of the best of the New Journalism movement. 
9. In defence of food by Michael Pollan An expanded version of Pollan's 7-word advice on diet (Eat food, not too much, mostly plants). One of those books that explained a lot of things that previously confused me.
10. The Life you Can Save by Peter Singer Thought-provoking book on the ethics of poverty and each person's obligation to the world.

Seeing this list of ten books makes me feel a little better about the books I read last year, and makes me want to read them all again. If I had to pick one favourite, it would be Discordia, partly because it feels like the start of something new, and partly for the memory of reading out the best bits to a very hungover friend.