Fifty Books
So, inspired by a fairly self-explanatory blog I like, I thought that this year I would try to read fifty books. I don't know if 50 is a particularly difficult number, but it seemed like a good enough idea. You may have noticed the list down on the right-hand side there. The list-making action in itself is pretty useful, because we all know the incentive provided by a good list, and it's persuaded me to finish off the occasional book instead of just starting a fifth at once, as I tend to do. I also like to remind myself to read something for fun once in a while during term time too, alongside all the tedious lit theory essays and linguistics chapters.
So I notice that according to the current total, I have... three books to read in approximately a day and a half. Noooo problemo. I think I will just get off the damn internet, head down to a coffee shop, and chill and read for the afternoon. Possibly I will get some pancakes while I'm at it.
In brief, my favourite books of the year have been: Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson; Jorge Luis Borges's Fictions; A Complicated Kindness by Mariam Toews; The Night Watch by Sarah Waters; The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy; Locas by Jaime Hernandez... Ah, you know what? I can't even choose my favourites. I pretty much loved them all, and I'm sure they all enriched my brain in some way. Oh, except Things Fall Apart. That was just boring.
So I notice that according to the current total, I have... three books to read in approximately a day and a half. Noooo problemo. I think I will just get off the damn internet, head down to a coffee shop, and chill and read for the afternoon. Possibly I will get some pancakes while I'm at it.
In brief, my favourite books of the year have been: Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson; Jorge Luis Borges's Fictions; A Complicated Kindness by Mariam Toews; The Night Watch by Sarah Waters; The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy; Locas by Jaime Hernandez... Ah, you know what? I can't even choose my favourites. I pretty much loved them all, and I'm sure they all enriched my brain in some way. Oh, except Things Fall Apart. That was just boring.
posted by susie r at 1:46 PM
4 Comments:
Ooooh, is The Night Watch that good then? I finally got myself a copy, but I haven't got round to reading it yet.
Nick, that book is not for you! Sigh, well, go on then. You can read it.
The Night Watch really is very good. Waters has an amazing sense of period detail and plot, and is just a very skillful storyteller. I couldn't stop reading it, despite the fact I should've probably been doing something more useful. My friend Hannah liked it too.
Oh, and you remember I saw Sarah Waters give a reading back at UEA, for the Literary Festival? She read two amazing and tantalising passages from The Night Watch and then talked very winningly about her research and influences. I was dying to read the book from then on, but of course I had to wait months until it was out in paperback. Me and my stupid aversion to hardbacks.
Yeh, I remember you saying how good she was but that the hardback was a no-go because it impractical was for long train journeys.
But overall it's not for me though? It sounded good when she was interviewed about it in The Guardian... ha, I shall read it anyway and dance over my ban! But not today though; today, I am a little hungover. Oh dear.
Well the hardback thing is not only that they're no good for train journeys- although that is true- it's also that they're just too big and clumpy and no fun to read in general. They just don't handle well, I don't think. With the odd exception. Ah, plus, they cost extra precious currency.
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