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