Tag / Graham Greene

by jim

2015: The Year In Books

2015booksWith another year coming to an end, it is time to take a look back at the 31 books I read over the past year, an increase of 8 from last year and my highest total ever, surpassing the 27 books I read back in 1992.  Of those 31, 11 were non-fiction and, of the 20 novels, only 3 were TV show tie-ins.  Only 4 of the books came from the “to-read” drawer, and 11 were e-books.  I read a nearly 9200 pages, the most in 1 year since 1992 and my second straight year reaching the 9000 mark.

Once again, a majority of the books I read this year were by authors I’ve never read before. The 19 authors that I read for the first this year were:
Kurt Vonnegut
Jim Bouton
Melissa Joan Hart
Patton Oswalt
Erle Stanley Gardner
Doug Sohn
Kate DeVivo
Paula Hawkins
Jayson Stark
Scott Reifert
Oscar Wilde
Jeff Katz
Felicia Day
George Carlin
Max Allan Collins
Ann Brashares
David Lagercrantz
Graham Greene
Mary Kubica
Martin Short

The ghost writer for Richard Castle was the only author I read multiple titles from during 2015.

Ten books I read were released this year, while 3 of them were released prior to 1980, with one, The Picture of Dorian Gray, dating back to 1890.

Finally, the breakdown by month.  Vacations in March, November, and December certainly helped pad their totals a tad bit. Continue reading →

by admin

Book 28 (of 52) – The Human Factor

The Human Factor - Graham Greene

The Human Factor – Graham Greene

Sometime back in the late 1980s, I somehow acquired a paperback version of this 1978 novel.  It sat unread before being thrown in a box during a move at some point.  Within the past few years, I found it in a box of my things and decided to put it back in the “to-read” drawer, where it sat until earlier this week.

The Human Factor is a tale of an MI-6 agent assigned to the Africa desk who is passing information on to the Russians.  When a leak is detected in his office, his co-worker takes the fall, causing the double agent to quickly fall apart and reveal his true loyalties.

I’m not sure what I expected out of this book, but a slow burn British spy tale without any real action was certainly not it.  I had no previous experience with Graham Greene’s work, and, truth be told, I won’t be looking for any more.