Christmas and new year reading

Welcome back, how is 2009 for you so far?

I hope you all had good Christmas breaks. I don't know about you, but I view all my holidays as opportunities to do a bit of extra reading (four-month-olds have different ideas about this).

This Christmas I read the following:

• Tunnels by Roderick Gordon; Brian Williams - I think this was self-published, and whilst there are some great ideas and a good story it needed editing down to a nice short snappy novel, the sequel is over 600 pages!
  
• Teacher's Dead by Benjamin Zephaniah - Very gripping and gritty, and a very relevant insight into knife crime.
  
• Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy - This has a very comic feel in tone and presentation, but some of the ground it covers is pretty harrowing; murder, torture, violence and revenge, still a page-turner.
  
• Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve - I loved this, and now want to check out his other work, it is a highly believable retelling of the Arthur story and is more about the creation of myths and stories than swash-buckling exploits.
  
• Mister Roberts by Alexi Sayle - Not a children's book but despite the odd swear word it isn't going to shock any teenagers, and it is perhaps the shorter than all the books above. A story with aliens, robots, gangsters and drop-outs but with a very tender heart. Alexi Sayle was one of my heroes for his comedy in the 80s and is pretty much the same for his books in the 00s.
  

Now I am on to Baby-led Weaning which is far less exiting!