Friday, November 13, 2009

My year in books

So this year I have so far read 50 books. Below is the list in mostly chronological order (nerd alert!). Where there's a link it's to a previous review of that book. Might do a little 140-character review of the rest in time on separate blog post.

  1. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
  2. Black Swan Green (2-6 all reviewed on same link as this one)
  3. The Plot Against America - Phillip Roth
  4. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
  5. Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 - Hunter S. Thompson
  6. Mortal Engines
  7. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
  8. The Damned United - David Peace
  9. The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas
  10. Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
  11. The Chrysalids - John Wyndham
  12. The Country Life
  13. The Remains of the Day - Ishaguro
  14. Under a Blood Red Sky
  15. How NOT to Write a Novel: 200 Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs If You Ever Want to Get Published
  16. The Olive Readers (worst book of the list without question)
  17. Viva South America!
  18. When will There Be Good News? - Kate Atkinson
  19. Survival of the Fittest by Dr Mike Stroud
  20. Shakespeare - Bill Bryson
  21. Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson
  22. The Never Ending Days of Being Dead - Chown
  23. In Patagonia - Bruce Chatwin
  24. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
  25. Blind Faith - Ben Elton (terrible)
  26. A Wild Sheep Chase - Murakami
  27. Attention All Shipping
  28. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time
  29. Leviathan by Philllip Hoare (best book of the year, without question)
  30. Moby-Dick
  31. Ghostwritten
  32. American Pastoral - Roth
  33. A Light Hearted Look at Murder
  34. Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals
  35. The New York Trilogy Paul Auster (all Auster's covered on this link)
  36. Man in the Dark - Paul Auster
  37. Music of Chance - Paul Auster
  38. Leviathan - Paul Auster
  39. Dance Dance Dance - Murakami
  40. The House of Sleep - Jonathan Coe
  41. The Brooklyn Follies - Paul Auster
  42. Travels in the Scriptorium - Paul Auster
  43. Timbuktu - Paul Auster
  44. Mr Vertigo - Paul Auster
  45. The Trial - Kafka
  46. The Maze of Cadiz
  47. The Book of Illusions - Paul Auster
  48. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
  49. Moon Palace - Paul Auster
  50. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz
  51. Drown - Junot Diaz

2 comments:

James Evison said...

Note on Leviathan: Read WG Sebald's Austerlitz. It is brilliant. In fact, read all of his 'novels'.

Austerlitz has a genuine creative innovation not seen before in the novel, at least, not so expertly: the non-present narrator. A pure cypher for the description of another character.

All his books are highly recommended and clearly influenced Hoare's style significantly - use of photos/captions especially.

Simon said...

Some good stuff on that list - a few I've come across before and enjoyed a lot, others sat on a shelf waiting for me and even more I now want to investigate. My credit card now hates you!

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