Tuesday 21 December 2010

my 2010 books

because I am a girl this is not a boy-style list.  But it is a mention, in no particular order, of a few books I read this year which will stay on my shelf and will be read again, and of one or two others that I would not suggest anyone else read.  So there.

Read these:  The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas; Solar, Ian McEwan; Any Human Heart, William Boyd; Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell; Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood; Just Kids, Patti Smith (so far only in French translation); A Journey, Tony Blair.

Don't read these:  The Pregnant Widow, Martin Amis (terrible load of old sexist tosh); Beatrice and Virgil, Yann Martel (torture porn); Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (bloke travels on a river in Africa talking arse).

I haven't got my reading notebook with me so I will probably remember some more to recommend, or not.  Some readers have recommended books to me during this year, so I am starting to accumulate a reading pile already, before 2011 has started.

What a joy it is to read.

3 comments:

Mr London Street said...

I would recommend Liars and Saints and A Family Daughter by Maile Meloy, if you are taking recommendations.

janestheone said...

I most certainly am taking recommendations

Anonymous said...

Just Kids is great.

I have recently read I Claudius - good.

MJ Hyland : This is How is good.
Linked to the above: Engleby by Faulks - also The Last Weekend by Blake Morrison.

The three I have just mentioned are all linked. Interested to know what you think of them. I didn't even bother to read the new Martel - Life of Pi is on its own and should stay there. He can now die having written it. Don't like the Attwood sci fi-iy things. Have you read her short story collection 'Wilderness Tips'? Still the bench mark. Hairball is exquisite as a short story.