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There are currently 155 reviews missing.
The last time I was up to date with reviews was 2022-01-31. Since then, 267/422 books (63.3%) have been reviewed. We'll get there … eventually.

The 26 books I read in 2005 year in books

Cover of The Last Cavalier: Being the Adventures of Count Sainte-Hermine in the Age of Napoleon.

The Last Cavalier: Being the Adventures of Count Sainte-Hermine in the Age of Napoleon

by Alexandre Dumas · published 1870 · read 2005-12-01
★★☆☆☆
Disappointing, but not surprising: I knew that Dumas had written a lot, and even his best works need a lot of compression to be readable. The count of Sainte-Hermine probably would not have been good even with much more work, though. With a blatant Mary Sue (much, much worse than Monte Cristo) and a meandering plot at best, finishing this book is an achievement that was not worth it. Trust me.

Cover of Murder Must Advertise.

Murder Must Advertise

by Dorothy L. Sayers · published 1933 · read 2005-12-01
★★★★☆
Murder Must Advertise is such a fun book. Witty, word-play-y, though it works best if you're already familiar with Lord Peter. Great characterisations, and not even that bad of a plot (always the weak point with Sayers). The characters were life-like and good and touching in unexpected places. Keen eye for British class and culture. Loved the banter, missed the Bunter. I'm very happy my re-read arrived here, because Murder Must Advertise and the next book, Nine Tailors, seem to me the best of Sayers' work.

Cover of The Eternity Code.

The Eternity Code

by Eoin Colfer · published 2003 · read 2005-12-01
★★☆☆☆
Artemis gets more growth and a mind wipe, both completely deserved. Holly gets less growth and more voice, which is also nice. All in all an enjoyable book, up to the standard set by Arctic Incident, and better than the first book.

Cover of Lords and Ladies.

Lords and Ladies

by Terry Pratchett · published 1992 · read 2005-11-01
★★★★☆
Magrat gets married, except there's a Shakespeare ex machina and suddenly we're all midsummernight dreaming. Granny Weatherwax has some serious Speech moments where she tells us ex cathedra what to believe, but it's all good as always.

Cover of Robinson Crusoe.

Robinson Crusoe

by Daniel Defoe · published 1719 · read 2005-11-01
★★☆☆☆
Reading Crusoe as a 12-year-old is not exactly the best experience. Possibly the translation's fault, granted – but nevertheless, I never felt like returning to this overly ornate writing of a rather dull story. I know, I know! It's written in 1719, it's by some standards the first novel, all that. Doesn't mean it's enjoyable, and particularly the religious bent is positively Narnian.

Cover of Die Wilden Hühner und die Liebe.

Die Wilden Hühner und die Liebe

by Cornelia Funke · published 2003 · read 2005-10-01
★★☆☆☆
The summer gang at their most generic: Suddenly, the boys are more than just an annoyance. Though they keep being annoying, of course. Captured the feeling of my early adolescence well, and as such I will never read it again.

Cover of The Opal Deception.

The Opal Deception

by Eoin Colfer · published 2005 · read 2005-10-01
★★☆☆☆
Artemis does some more Artemis things. I don't have any memories of this book at all.

Cover of Der unsichtbare Freund.

Der unsichtbare Freund

by Ralf Isau · published 2001 · read 2005-09-01
★★★☆☆
Ending the huge century saga, and going out with a bang. Not sure I like the ending, mind you, but I respect it for being audacious and doing something different for once.

Cover of Eric.

Eric

by Terry Pratchett · published 1990 · read 2005-09-01
★★★☆☆
A wannabe Faustus, time travel, regular travel, Troy and much more? This may be the only Rincewind book that I actually like.

Cover of Murder on the Orient Express.

Murder on the Orient Express

by Agatha Christie · published 1934 · read 2005-08-01
★★★★☆
The famous Orient Express! As always, Christie has a gimmick and follows it to the end, but this time she adds several good ideas on the side! I particularly liked the Cyrillic writing on the handkerchief that threw everybody off and yet was perfectly visible to the reader.

Cover of The Nine Tailors.

The Nine Tailors

by Dorothy L. Sayers · published 1934 · read 2005-08-01
★★★★★
I stand by my previous 5 star rating even on the re-read. Of course, this is heavily influenced by the fact that I read this book several times as a kid, but still – I think it is a good book. It's definitely by far my favourite book from Dorothy L. Sayers. Everything fits: characters, dialogue, extreme amounts of atmosphere, and even a plot worth the name. There are some side characters that I'd have loved to see more of, but that's the only criticism that comes to mind.

Cover of The Body in the Library.

The Body in the Library

by Agatha Christie · published 1942 · read 2005-07-01
★★☆☆☆
The setup for this is so generic that even the book (and literally every other mystery author at the time) had to make jokes about it. That's … about all I remember, to be quite honest. Most Miss Marple mysteries are somewhat of a blur to me.

Cover of Krabat.

Krabat

by Otfried Preußler · published 1958 · last read 2022-06-30
★★★★★
Krabat (English: The Satanic Mill. Yes, really) is unique and I'm having a hard time finding anything similar. The story of a poor orphan during the 30 years war, who signs up for an apprenticeship in a mill and finds himself learning the Dark Arts – it should be cheesy, or cheap, or odd. Instead it's like a deep old fairy tale, complete with violence, love, friendship, death and magic. We read the book in school and it's one of the few books that school didn't manage to ruin for me. It's just too good. The writing is excellent, the structure is awesome and slightly ritualistic. Plus, there is a rock album.

Cover of Nemesis.

Nemesis

by Agatha Christie · published 1971 · read 2005-06-01
★★★☆☆
Generic Miss Marple mystery – can't really remember anything about it except for the beginning. The beginning was a lot of fun, but it continued as a run-of-the-mill mystery.

Cover of Das Jahrhundertkind.

Das Jahrhundertkind

by Ralf Isau · published 1999 · read 2005-06-01
★★★★★
Generally, I dislike the way Isau does magic, the way he does characters, the arcs of his stories. They feel … sticky, for lack of a better world, as if he's always trying to do something to the reader, convert us? This is still true for this series, but its scale and awesomeness outweigh the drawbacks. The protagonist lives for exactly 100 years and has to fight forces of darkness, mysterious ones. His life takes him all over the planet, and he gets to see many historic people and situations first-hand while figuring out his life. It's amazing.

Cover of Sleeping Murder.

Sleeping Murder

by Agatha Christie · published 1976 · read 2005-05-01
★★★★☆
This was one of the few Miss Marple mysteries that I remembered for years. It didn't vanish into the blur of "eh, somebody died and Miss Marple solved it". Partially because I found it genuinely creepy, and partially because it's an unusual setup: New homeowners feel creeped out, and particularly Gwenda feels bad vibes, is scared of the dark, remembers doors where none are etc. Good setup, and a neat solution.

Cover of The Christmas Mystery.

The Christmas Mystery

by Jostein Gaarder, Anne Born · published 1992 · read 2005-05-01
★☆☆☆☆
I find Gaarder grating when he's preaching about philosophy, I find him unbearable when he starts on religion. It doesn't help that every of his book has this "teenager stumbles on mysterious story, lets said story happily preach at him". I didn't enjoy the whole time travel thing either, and it didn't even put me in a Christmas mood.

Cover of Der Wahrheitsfinder.

Der Wahrheitsfinder

by Ralf Isau · published 2000 · read 2005-04-01
★★★☆☆
Second part of the amazing saga, covering the years from 1925 until 1950. Still intriguing, but nowhere near the first part.

Cover of Moving Pictures.

Moving Pictures

by Terry Pratchett · published 1990 · read 2005-04-01
★★★☆☆
One of my first Discworld books, I read it before having seen any Holywood movies (and probably not more than ten movies in total), so I was mostly confused. Granted, it's not one if his better books, so there's that, but re-reading it ten years later did improve the experience significantly.

Cover of Der weiße Wanderer.

Der weiße Wanderer

by Ralf Isau · published 2001 · read 2005-03-01
★★★☆☆
Third part, third quarter of the century: 1950-1975. Less impressive than the beginning, but not slowing down.

Cover of The Prince and the Pauper.

The Prince and the Pauper

by Mark Twain · published 1881 · read 2005-03-01
★★★☆☆
Twain humour and snarky class commentary – I wouldn't swear that it holds up to a re-read, but I liked it a lot when I was young.

Cover of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

by Agatha Christie · published 1926 · read 2005-02-01
★★★★☆
Truly fun book with low re-read value, because you'll remember the gimmick. Christie does that a lot: she picks one thing, and then she runs with it until the very end. Some books are good because the thing is good (like this one), and some are disappointing because the thing is disappointing. Oh, and then there are some books that don't have a thing.

Cover of Night Watch.

Night Watch

by Terry Pratchett · published 2002 · read 2005-02-01
★★★★★
Easily the best Watch book, and up among my favourite Pratchett books. Vimes goes back in time, now that he has cleaned up his act (somewhat), and meats Young Vimes. There's a lot about growing up, and a lot about growing old, and some things about revolutions and principles and not killing the people who try to kill you. Something something more civilised age?

Cover of Men at Arms.

Men at Arms

by Terry Pratchett · published 1993 · read 2005-01-01
★★★★☆
Terry Pratchett's second Watch book, and this time it's not about dragons: It's about the Gonne, a weapon stolen from the Assassins Guild. We already have dwarves, trolls, werewolves and Nobby in the guard, and it's a great adventure. Not peak Watch content, but nonetheless tons of fun.

Cover of Small Gods.

Small Gods

by Terry Pratchett · published 1992 · read 2005-01-01
★★★★☆
Small Gods is Sir Pterry's take on the Catholic church and hoo boy, is it ever a take. There are prophets and exquisitors and gods, and God, and long treks through deserts. It's very, very good.

Cover of Guards! Guards!.

Guards! Guards!

by Terry Pratchett · published 1989 · read 2005-01-01
★★★★☆
Guards! Guards! only barely misses the five-star cutoff. It has dragons, and one-in-a-million shots, and a big terrible city with small terrible people. What else do you want?