2010 is going to be defined by major changes like a new city, new jobs and who knows what other surprises. 2009, on the other hand, was defined by books!
I crammed a lot of reading into my daily commute between Oxford and London. I don't miss that haul, but I do miss the hours I spent wrapped up in my scarf, forgetting the grumpy commuters around me while immersed in an awesome read. I read more books this year than any previous year and probably any future year. Here they are below - watch this space for my list of 2009 winners and losers (or in the meantime, read last year's).
2009 books
January
1. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
2. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
3. STori Telling by Tori Spelling (oh yes I did)
4. Love & Respect by Emmerson Eggerichs
5. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arther Conan Doyle
February
6. Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
7. ‘Tis by Frank McCourt
8. The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
9. Persuasion by Jane Austen
10. Books vs Cigarettes by George Orwell
March
11. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
12. My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl
13. The Mysterious Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
April
14. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
15. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
16. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
17. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
May
18. The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
19. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winnifred Watson
20. Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders by John Mortimer
21. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemmingway
22. The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
June
23. TM McSweeney’s issue no. 30 (short stories)
24. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
July
25. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
26. Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
27. American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
August
28. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
29. Making Conversation by Christine Longford
30. Saturday by Ian McEwan
31. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
32. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
September
33. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
34. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
35. Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
October
36. Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
37. The Potato Factory by Bryce Courtenay
38. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
November
39. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
40. The Great Divorce by CS Lewis
41. The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
December
42. Inspector Morse:The Wench is Dead by Colin Dexter
43. At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald
44. Jake’s Thing by Kingsley Amis
45. Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens
and books started but never finished:
The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan (of the infamous book burning incident)
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens (not recommended as beach reading!)
12 comments:
wow, you both inspire me to read more, and make me feel slightly ashamed for my lacking in reading in 2009, here's to 2010.
Can hardly wait to read your review of "STori Telling by Tori Spelling". Does that count as a book?
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
I love your list, Amanda!
What a lovely list! The End of the Affair and At the Back of the North Wind are two of my favorite books.
Very impressive! Wish I had more time to read books for pleasure, for now I will stick school reading. sigh.
That is QUITE the list! I might borrow some of those titles.
what did you think of the twilight books? and at the back of the north wind?
also, loads of these are on my 'to-read' list... which would you really recommend?
Spoiler: The sound of one hand clapping is called a 'spanking'.
LOL - that last comment made the 50 pages I read of that crappy book all worthwhile! Please take credit for it!
Amie: I thought the Twilight books were pretty lame. I kept reading them becuase I was sure there must be SOME reason everyone loved them, which would soon be revealed. I have yet to decode this mystery.
Back of the North Wind was okay. Not my typical genre, but short and not unenjoyable :)
reccommendations coming up!
i agree about the twilight books. if they were just the vampire/werewolf stuff, they'd be about ten times better. the syrupy ridiculous junior high romance fantasy is gag-worthy for me. i'll eventually read the last one, when it comes out in paperback, but i won't ever reread them. =P
i agree also about north wind. having lived in aberdeen, it felt good to read it... but i much prefer his more fantastic fantasies. =)
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