At the end of last year Greg wrote about the books he'd read and enjoyed during 2007, and in passing mentioned that he'd read nearly 60. I remember being impressed by the quantity and also having no idea how many books I'd read that year, although I took a rough guess at 30. And so an idea was born: I'd keep a list of every book I read during 2008.

Once there were six books on the list it suddenly occurred to me that what I needed was a spreadsheet! I could then record not only the names of the books but other facts that might help me find trends in my reading. I really ought to get out a bit more don't you think? Anyway, in addition to the title and author I also noted:

Year of publication - because I think I like contemporary fiction more than classics and wanted to see if that was true.

Gender of author - because I wondered if I would read more male authors as I'm a man.

Nationality of author - because I wanted to see whether I read as much English fiction as I assumed I did.

Sexuality of author - because I wanted to know if as a gay man I read more work by gay writers than straight.

Number of pages - because in my head my perfect book is 280 pages long, and I wanted to see if this was true.

How I acquired the book - new, secondhand, borrowed, or reread something I already owned.

And what I did with it when it was finished - kept it, sold it or gave it away.

OK, here's the bit where it gets really geeky, so you might want to run for your life - don't say I didn't warn you!

The Results:

Impressively I read 45 books this year! I think it helped that I spent quite a bit of time in airports. And I think I was pushing myself to read more because I didn't want to end the year looking like an illiterate fool! The full list is here - I was going to retype it, complete with links to the relevant page on Amazon, but that might have taken days, besides if you're curious about something you know where to look!

So what did I find out?

84% of them were published in the last five years. The oldest book was 63 years old. 11% of them were published this year.

Only 13% were written by women.

54% were written by British writers. 31% by American writers. Apart from one book by an Australian novelist the rest were European. Strangely I read two books by a Swiss author.

31% were by gay authors, although there were five authors whose sexuality is not recorded on the internet. None of the gay authors were women, which surprised me.

I read a total of 13914 pages, making an average length of 309 pages. The longest book was a proper blockbusting 512 pages, the shortest a mere 142.

14 of the books were new, 19 were secondhand, 10 were borrowed, and 2 were books I already owned.

Of the books I bought I kept just 2.

So how did I find the whole process? Absolutely fascinating! It actually changed the way I felt about books: at the start of the year I thought I'd be reading 30 books, then multiplied that by 40 years (the amount of reading years I hope to have ahead of me) and suddenly realised that 1200 books is a really small number, so what was the point of keeping all those books I'd not really liked but hoped I might enjoy more second time round. The sleeves have never been emptier and I feel better for it - what's left is quality not quantity!

And once I realised I wasn't going to be keeping books when I'd finished them the need to buy them new vanished, so I started buying more secondhand and rediscovered my local library. That fact that this is far greener than stocking up on new books is an added bonus!

But enough of statistics, what books did I actually enjoy? Well, I'm having three favourites:

Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett - set in the 1960s, in a street in London that was the centre of the fur trade, it's about a man who becomes obsessed with someone he works with. It's beautifully written, you can really picture the places he writes about, and it's lingers in the mind long after you've finished it.

The boy in the striped pyjamas by John Boyne - don't bother with the film, this is the real deal. It made me cry repeatedly. It's genuinely astonishing. It's a children's book, but that's far too limiting a definition of it, it's the most extraordinary book I've read in years.

The Hungry Years by William Leith - a straight, middle-aged man writes about his strange relationship with food, and page after page made me think, "oh my God that's me!" It made me think about the food I put in my mouth for the first time in many, many years. This book genuinely changed my life a little bit this year, I felt in control of food, which brought calm to my life and less strain to my waistband.

I'm loving this and will be doing it all again next year! I think I may also apply the same process to other parts of my life. I don't think there's anything that couldn't be made better with a spreadsheet! God bless Excel!

There are Easter Eggs in the shops! I thought I saw them on Tuesday but was a bit worse for wear and didn't believe my eyes, but when I saw them again today I knew I wasn't dreaming! Not the big ones of course but Creme Eggs, because after a week and a half of overeating what the world really needs now is sickly chocolate.... Of course I may be on my high horse about it now but I bet by the end of next week I'll have indulged. I'm such a disappointment.

We would normally go back today but amazingly our boss was persuaded that going back for one day would be pointless and stupid, so I've had another day off. I've tried to make it a little more productive than previous days, and I have managed to get a few things done, but mostly I've just been eating too much and laying on the sofa. To be honest it will be good to get back into my routines and get the structure back into my life.

New Year's Day is another one of those holidays that just don't work for me. I'm sure if I'd stayed out very late last night I'd enjoy the chance to recover before work tomorrow but as I didn't it just feels like a Sunday. Another Sunday in a week of Sundays.

So I've been a bit bored, which is a dangerous thing. I've started throwing things away. Who knew there was more stuff I didn't want! Is it wrong to have enjoyed cleaning out a kitchen cupboard? Or just sad?

As well as that I've been having a bit of an ABBA afternoon, which was prompted by this:



There's something about a glamorous blonde woman singing a sad song that just makes me want to weep. So I did. Loving the lipstick.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! xxx

I spent New Years Eve in the traditional manner - at home, asleep before midnight. I've forgotten when I fell out with NYE but it's been a while since I felt the urge to celebrate it. Drinking till you fall over doesn't really fit with the reflective mood I normally have at this time of year. But strangely this year I felt more sociable, and I think if the right offer had come along I might have been tempted to do something, although knowing me my idea of 'right' would be have been so ridiculously specific that it would never happen anyway!

And so to resolutions.

I never make serious ones because I know I'm bad with change. So instead I always make silly ones, like "eat more fish", "wear more grey" or last year's "eat porridge" which actually worked. But all the changes I've made in the last few years - and there have been some, I know it looks like the same old me but it's not - came about because I wanted to change things not because it was a new year. So this year I make no resolutions, which is appropriate as the world is a bit scary at the moment and it would just be nice to get to 2010 in one piece!

Have a lovely start to 2009!

And so as 2008 staggers to a close it's time for a little reflection on the year.

It felt like it took a while to get going, and once it did it seemed to keep stopping and starting, and just never quite took off. It was 'bitty', muddled, with no overall shape or theme. It suffered in comparison to the previous two years, which had been particularly great. The good bits were still very good, but the dull bits inbetween seemed duller and longer. Still, no one died, which is a relief. 6/10 - could do better.

And with that I'll wish you all a happy new years eve, wherever and however you're celebrating. Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog this year, no matter how briefly, but particular thanks to those who came back repeatedly, and big love to those who left comments or sent me messages in response to the nonsense I keep writing - without you this would just be typing, and where's the fun in that! You're all fabulous and gorgeous and I love you lots!

See you in 2009! XXX

I woke up yesterday with a head full of cold, a stiff neck and aching hips. God knows what the hip thing was about, I was too busy bracing myself for the inevitable meningitis that I always assume I have when my neck hurts. If only there were tablets for hypochondria!

But I lived long enough to go shopping. Not to the sales - I've spent all year resisting shops, I'm hardly going to lose my mind for 50% off something I never liked/wanted in the first place. No, I took Mum to buy birthday gifts for my nephew, whose birthday is on Saturday. We normally try and do it before Christmas but this year we ran out of inspiration. But it came back and we were so organised we were done in an hour and I was back at Mum's eating pastry before noon.

I spent much of the afternoon lying on the sofa moaning to myself in a slightly feeble way. Until I got bored of it and did a pile of ironing. Then, because the Christmas TV is so poor, I ended up watching a DVD of Footloose, which amazingly I've never seen. It was surprisingly good fun, although why anyone would find Kevin Bacon attractive is beyond me...

And finally, the lovely Roger is right, there were categories missing from my best of's, most notably Best TV - actually I don't watch that much TV, which makes me wonder why I have such a pile of expensive electrical equipment for just that purpose, but that's boys and their toys for you... So this year I loved Dr Who (always watchable, not always as good as it could be, but thank God that Tate woman has gone!), Torchwood (fantastic), Dexter (ditto), and a special mention goes to 30 Rock, which I ended up watching in Barcelona with both Sarah and Jan and loved it so much that I've treated myself to the box set of the first series as a little New Year gift. But my favourite thing was Gossip Girl - wealthy teenagers swanning round Manhattan and Brooklyn, it could have been annoying but it was utterly unmissable!

And as for best shag, that kind of thing will be covered in a more personal/sentimental 'review' of the year tomorrow, possibly after I've drunk too much gin when I'll feel the need to tell you all how fabulous you are. Or maybe not.

Yesterday was a slow news day, unless you count doing a jigsaw with my Mother, looking at kitchens with my sister, and snogging a stranger exciting, so now seems like a good moment to give you my cultural best of's for the year. You lucky people!

Best book - come back in the New Year, I have something long and spreadsheet-based for this - be very afraid!

Best Album - not a vintage year for CDs, I probably bought less than I have in years, and I spent much of the year exploring the fringes of Folk. It's going to look like a bit of a fix, but my two favourite albums this year were both by women from New York:

I spent the first half of the year loving Autumn Fallin' by Jaymay, which was Folky, sad and smart, and made me want to runaway to NYC and fall in love with unsuitable boys. The year ended with The Stoop by Little Jackie, which is funny, you can dance to it and when she says, "you must be kidding" at one point I just want to runaway to NYC and become a waitress in a diner.

Best gig - not a vintage year for gigs either, lots of small lowkey stuff, although I did finally get to see Bjork - it was just a pity she was touring an album I found hard to love. So my two best gigs weren't really gigs at all:

Liza Minelli at the London Coliseum - more a religious event than a gig. She got a standing ovation just for being alive basically, and anything after that was a bonus! New York, New York made me cry. She truly is a legend!

Latitude festival - the Glastonbury experience I've always dreamed of but never quite had: brass bands, classical music, puppet Morrissey, pink sheep - next year's ticket is already booked!

Best theatre - not a vintage year for this either, I saw less stuff in the West End than in previous years and although I saw some interesting stuff the only thing that I saw and immediately wanted to see again was Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray, which was really dance and was very sexy.

Best film - I saw less films this year than in any other year I can remember, a pitiful 20! But looking through the list I clearly went for quality over quantity, which is an improvement! I ended up with three favourite films:

The Diving Bell & the Butterfly - heartbreakingly beautiful, and at times almost too painful to watch.
Sex & the City - because it remained true to the series and was utterly fabulous.
Mamma Mia - I'm a gay man of a certain age, this film was scientifically designed with me in mind!

Best Art - oddly I haven't really any idea what Art I saw this year, which is remiss of me and next year will be rectified with a spreadsheet! The thing that springs to mind was Antony Gormley at the White Cube, because he's a genius and his stuff always makes me smile.

Best thing - Barcelona!

No one is more surprised by this than me! You see I have history with Barcelona: Jan has lived there for ten years, so I've been a few times already, most recently for her and Josh's wedding to end all weddings, but I felt like I'd been enough and wanted to see other cities. So when Sarah announced she was moving there in 2007 I was disappointed - why couldn't she do the decent thing and move to New York?!

So I put of going to visit until May, then went back in June, and loved it so much I went again in November! I feel relaxed there now, comfortable with the metro and the airport, and can find Jan and Sarah's houses. And each time I visit I meet more of their lovely friends so it gets more welcoming. Don't panic, I'm not moving there - they need someone to go over and visit! And I will be in March!

So, 2008: not really an outstanding year, sort of a 6 out of 10 year for culture, maybe 7 as I'm feeling generous. 2009 on the other hand is shaping up to be a stunner!

It's interesting I have no worst of's, it never really occurred to me before, but it's nice to see I'm dwelling on the positives!

I'm determined to keep this holiday as relaxed as possible and also want to avoid going back to work thinking, "what did I do with all that time off?!" It's a tricky balance that I've never been able to pull off, and yet there's always hope that this year will be the one when I actually manage it! And yesterday was a very promising start.

By 11am I had ordered furniture. Not wardrobes this time but a two chests of drawers. I ignored the voices in my head - and those of other people - that said, "what about hanging things?" because there is nothing I have that won't fold just as well as it would hang. Ultimately I'd just grown tired of looking at a pile of clothes on the bedroom floor and needed to make a decision, any decision - burn the clothes and live in bin bags would have been equally valid at the point! They being delivered next week, and hopefully not returned the week after.

After that I drifted over to Mum's as I knew my sister would be there and Christmas is a good chance to catch up with her. Inevitably there was lunch and snacks. I must find a way of avoiding food for a few days!

Then I went back home where I was visited by Sarah and her lovely boyfriend David, who apparently is a chameleon:

Lovely to see you both! xxx

After that I had a gentleman called - the boyfriend of a married man I've met a couple of times lately. I only wanted to meet him really to understand how the being boyfriends with someone married worked, and I guess I wanted to complete the set, which is an annoying habit I really must get out of next year!

And I finished the evening eating Ryvita - no idea why! - and watching Wallace & Gromit from Christmas Day, which turned out to be the first Christmas TV that hasn't disappointed me - finally!