The finish line approaches

A quick question - what's more important, the reading of the books, or the blogging?

This is something I've given plenty of thought as the end of the year - and the end of this 12-month, 100-book challenge - approaches. Unfortunately, and sorry for sounding like a broken record, but this is one of my busiest times of the year work-wise, and when you couple that with a Christmas that was anything but relaxing, featuring long drives, gas leaks and lots of cooking, my leisure time has suffered.

As a result, I've had to prioritise. Rather than a blow-by-blow account of the challenge, I've been forced to focus on the actual reading. But I didn't want any readers to become disheartened by my seeming lack of progress, so I thought it best to post a quick update...

So, it's been 20 days since my last confession, and I have now finished 98 books.

These were:

#93 The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown)

#94 The Heart of the Matter, by Graham Greene (Vintage)

#95 Player One, by Douglas Coupland (William Heinnemann)

#96 Road Dogs, by Elmore Leonard (Pheonix)

#97 Four-iron in the soul, by Lawrence Donegan (Penguin Group)

#98 Fevre Dream, by George RR Martin (Gollancz)

Reviews will follow, but now I'm starting to consider the all-important question: what will be the identity of my last book.

Number 99 has been selected - Our Man in Hibernia, by Charlie Connelly. It's a book I've been looking forward to reading for most of the year, not least because the author is a friend - not that I will allow that to affect my notoriously stingy marking.

But what of number 100. I'll try to keep you posted...

NB: And The Friend of the Wench is up to 98 as well!