Some of you may recall that at the start of this year I indicated that I intended reading fifty books this year. I would link to the fifty book challenge, or the relevant I Love Books thread, but frankly I'm too drunk tired to do so.
Anyway, the challenge was completed at about half past four this afternoon. Those of you who are perceptive enough to notice a preponderance of light fiction towards the end of it will correctly deduce something of a sprint finish on my part, but also you must be aware that I've had one day off in the last three weeks and it's all I'm bloody capable of. So you can take your well-thumbed copies of the gulag archipelago and shove them up your time-rich arses.
The great thing about looking back over the list is that each book on it reminds me of something, be it location, state of mind, weather, quality of light....it's hard to say. It's been a pretty good read, I was particularly thrilled by Dashiel Hammett (and therefore it's kind of disappointing that I've now read the vast majority of his writing) but what I most remember about it is sitting on the platform at Preston waiting for a train, leaning on my backpack, stretching in the sunshine, enjoying a wonderful weekend just gone. I'll struggle to read Murakami without thinking of being unable to go snowboarding in Switzerland due to a knackered knee, ordering another coffee (with another brandy to keep it company) and the sun on the mountains, the glare off the snow and (obviously) the exceedingly cute waitress. Just as importantly it was good to read Anthony Bourdain again, because he reignited my love of cooking, the Calvino was read in between attempting the high score on Battleships in the Queen's Head, I got to know Harry Mathews properly, I bought Mark Gatiss' novel in the midst of a truly fantastic weekend away. At the risk of gushing, there's something attached to each of them. I do suspect that I could apply this logic to any list, the memories would surface and I'd think, yeah, pretty good year, but that is well and truly by the by. Anyway, the list:
01) A cooks tour - Anthony Bourdain
02) Cod - Mark Kurlansky
03) if nobody speaks of remarkable things - jon mcgregor
04) South of the border, west of the Sun - Haruki Murakami
05) The Wind-up bird chronicle - Haruki Murakami
06) Dance Dance Dance - Haruki Murakami
07) Beowulf - Seamus Heaney
08) If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino
09) Moving Pictures - Terry Pratchett
10) Last Orders - Graham Swift
11) Collected Prose - Woody Allen
12) Atonement - Ian McEwen
13) A lot of hard yakka - Simon Hughes
14) Red Harvest - Dashiell Hammett
15) The Dain Curse - Dashiell Hammett
16) Disgrace - JM Coetzee
17) The Waste Land and other poems - TS Eliot
18) The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett
19) The Restaurant at the end of the Universe - Douglas Adams
20) The glass key - Dashiell Hammett
21) Sputnik Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami
22) Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world - Haruki Murakami
23) Cosmos - Witold Gombrowicz
24) Amsterdam - Ian McEwen
25) My idea of Fun - Will Self
26) Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
27) Yes we have no - Nik Cohn
28) Love, etc - Julian Barnes
29) Dorian - Will Self
30) The line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
31) Quite Ugly One Morning - Christopher Brookmyre
32) Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin
33) Country of the blind - Christopher Brookmyre
34) The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
35) Overtaken - Alexei Sayle
36) Not the end of the world - Christopher Brookmyre
37) The book of Illusions - Paul Auster
38) The Supermale - Alfred Jarry
39) Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem - Peter Ackroyd
40) Maximum Bob - Elmore Leonard
41) Lucky You - Carl Hiaasen
42) Life a user's manual - Georges Perec
43) The Vesuvius Club - Mark Gatiss
44) The Journalist - Harry Mathews
45) Dry Bones - Richard Beard
46) Tlooth - Harry Mathews
47) The Truth - Terry Pratchett
48) Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett
49) Carry on Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse
50) Going Postal - Terry Pratchett
I don't think I'll hit fifty next year, there's too much else to do, and I've promised myself I'll reread both Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysses, which'll take a couple of months in themselves. Nevertheless though, reading, isn't it ace?
Anyway, the challenge was completed at about half past four this afternoon. Those of you who are perceptive enough to notice a preponderance of light fiction towards the end of it will correctly deduce something of a sprint finish on my part, but also you must be aware that I've had one day off in the last three weeks and it's all I'm bloody capable of. So you can take your well-thumbed copies of the gulag archipelago and shove them up your time-rich arses.
The great thing about looking back over the list is that each book on it reminds me of something, be it location, state of mind, weather, quality of light....it's hard to say. It's been a pretty good read, I was particularly thrilled by Dashiel Hammett (and therefore it's kind of disappointing that I've now read the vast majority of his writing) but what I most remember about it is sitting on the platform at Preston waiting for a train, leaning on my backpack, stretching in the sunshine, enjoying a wonderful weekend just gone. I'll struggle to read Murakami without thinking of being unable to go snowboarding in Switzerland due to a knackered knee, ordering another coffee (with another brandy to keep it company) and the sun on the mountains, the glare off the snow and (obviously) the exceedingly cute waitress. Just as importantly it was good to read Anthony Bourdain again, because he reignited my love of cooking, the Calvino was read in between attempting the high score on Battleships in the Queen's Head, I got to know Harry Mathews properly, I bought Mark Gatiss' novel in the midst of a truly fantastic weekend away. At the risk of gushing, there's something attached to each of them. I do suspect that I could apply this logic to any list, the memories would surface and I'd think, yeah, pretty good year, but that is well and truly by the by. Anyway, the list:
01) A cooks tour - Anthony Bourdain
02) Cod - Mark Kurlansky
03) if nobody speaks of remarkable things - jon mcgregor
04) South of the border, west of the Sun - Haruki Murakami
05) The Wind-up bird chronicle - Haruki Murakami
06) Dance Dance Dance - Haruki Murakami
07) Beowulf - Seamus Heaney
08) If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino
09) Moving Pictures - Terry Pratchett
10) Last Orders - Graham Swift
11) Collected Prose - Woody Allen
12) Atonement - Ian McEwen
13) A lot of hard yakka - Simon Hughes
14) Red Harvest - Dashiell Hammett
15) The Dain Curse - Dashiell Hammett
16) Disgrace - JM Coetzee
17) The Waste Land and other poems - TS Eliot
18) The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett
19) The Restaurant at the end of the Universe - Douglas Adams
20) The glass key - Dashiell Hammett
21) Sputnik Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami
22) Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world - Haruki Murakami
23) Cosmos - Witold Gombrowicz
24) Amsterdam - Ian McEwen
25) My idea of Fun - Will Self
26) Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
27) Yes we have no - Nik Cohn
28) Love, etc - Julian Barnes
29) Dorian - Will Self
30) The line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
31) Quite Ugly One Morning - Christopher Brookmyre
32) Knots and Crosses - Ian Rankin
33) Country of the blind - Christopher Brookmyre
34) The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
35) Overtaken - Alexei Sayle
36) Not the end of the world - Christopher Brookmyre
37) The book of Illusions - Paul Auster
38) The Supermale - Alfred Jarry
39) Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem - Peter Ackroyd
40) Maximum Bob - Elmore Leonard
41) Lucky You - Carl Hiaasen
42) Life a user's manual - Georges Perec
43) The Vesuvius Club - Mark Gatiss
44) The Journalist - Harry Mathews
45) Dry Bones - Richard Beard
46) Tlooth - Harry Mathews
47) The Truth - Terry Pratchett
48) Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett
49) Carry on Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse
50) Going Postal - Terry Pratchett
I don't think I'll hit fifty next year, there's too much else to do, and I've promised myself I'll reread both Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysses, which'll take a couple of months in themselves. Nevertheless though, reading, isn't it ace?
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