People who know me will already know how I like lists, and books, so what better way to combine the two interests than to keep a book list - (which reminds me of the guy who liked Larkin and liked writing musicals but that's a whole nuther story) - so I have kept a little book diary for you. I present them here for your reading delectation, the books I've listened to and read in the past 12 months, I'll include marks out of 10, in my humble opinion - so you can skip the really crap ones, if ever faced with the choice.
The ones on cd first - These were often picked off the library shelf in a blind rush on the way to getting saturday morning cakes in superquinn, often with my eyes closed, in other words completely at random - so there were quite alot of misses as well as the hits - the logic being - sure I've loads of driving time, why be picky? In fairness I think it's worth reading/ listening to bad stuff as well as good, and it was all pretty much better than the radio...
Where the authors name is missing it's because they need no introduction - not because I forgot to write them down - and anyone who says that's why is a liar.
Little Face - 5
Fortune's Rocks - Anita Shreve - 5
In a Strange City - Laura Lipman - 5
Fruit of the Lemon - Andrea Levy - 3
The Snow Geese - William Fiennes - 2 or 10 depending on whether or not you're really really into geese - it was a 2 for me.
Tess of the Durbevilles - Thomas Hardy - 9
Necessary Ends - Stanley Midleton - 4 - despite the great surname
Red Harvest - Dasheil Hammett - 4.5
The Bonesetters Daughter - Amy Tan - 6
The Secret History - Donna Hart - 6
Niagara Falls all over again - Elizabeth McCricken - 9.1
Scribbling the Cat - 2
War Diaries 1 - Spike Milligan - 7.5
The Spy who came in from the cold - John Le Carre - 7.5
Wild Swans - 8
Himilaya - Michael Palin - 4
The Lady and the Unicorn - Tracey Chevalier - 5.5
Dangerous Lady - Martina Cole - 5
Madame Bovary - 6.5
Memoir - John McGahern - 8
War Diaries 2 - Spike Milligan - 7.5
Rules of Engagement - Anita Brookner - 6.5
Murphy's Revenge - Colin Bateman - 8
The woman in the 5th - Douglas Kennedy - 8
Book of Salt - Monique Truong - 4
No country for old men - Cormac McCarthy - 5.5
Barefoot - Ellen Hildebrand - 5
The Road - Cormac McCarthy - 9.2
Pass the Butterworms - Tim Cahill - 5.5
Grace and Truth - Jennifer Johnston - 8
Exit Music - Ian Rankin - 7
Kinch - Matt Brown - 3
Half of a yellow sun - 8
Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones - 5.7
This book will save your Life - AM Homes - 8.5
Never Let me go - Kazuo Ishiguro - 6.5
War of the Worlds - HG Wells - 10
Shock - Robin Cook - 1
Other Peoples Children - Joanne Trollope -2
Books I read are up next - hopefully a few more hits perhaps??
The Deportees - Roddy Doyle - 6
In the company of the courtesan - 4
The Trial - Franz Kafka - 10
Attachment - Lynda Tavakoli - 7
The Speckled People - Hugo Hamilton - 6
Bleachers - John Grisham - 6.5
Becoming a Writer - Dorothea Brande - 11
Teach Yourself writing a Novel - Nigel Watts - 8
What I loved - Siri Hustvedt - 8
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - Haruki Murakami - 9
The Inheritance of Loss - Kirin Disrai - 4.5
Altered States - Anita Brookner - 5
Hatter's Castle - AJ Cronin - 8
The Ginger Man - JP Dunleavy - 9.4
Tales of Ordinary Madness - Charles Bukowski - 9.2
Be my Knife - David Grossman - 10
Out Stealing Horses - Per Peterson - 7
The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi - 10
De Niro's Game - Rawi Hage - 8
This Boy's Life - Tobias Wolfe - 8.5
Are you Somebody - Nuala O Faolain - 7.8
Black Baby - Clare Boylan - 8
Secret Life of Bees - Sue Mark Kid - 6.5
Blind Faith - Ben Elton - 8.5
Things you should know - A M Homes - 10
Bad Day at Blackrock - Kevin Power - 8.5
Wheels - Arthur Hailey - 8.5
South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami - 9.9
Armageddon in Retrospect - Kurt Vonnegut - 8
Swann's Way - Proust - 10
So that's all folks - won't have as long a list for a few years again I'd say - what with the shorter commute not being as good for listening to a good yarn. Apart from that - at least you didn't have to sit through last years list - which would have included Flanimals 1 and 2. If you've bought me one of the above books for christmas - you still have a couple of days to sort it out - not that I wouldn't be grateful anyway - of course.
2 comments:
Jesus, That's a lot of reading! I wouldn't have read half that this year. I might follow your lead and post my list, of three.
Yeah - next years not gonna be half as good, look forward to seeing your list - flanimals 1, 2 and what else?
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