hey, c'mon, i read ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FIVE books this year. narrowing it down to just ten was way too hard--i mean, i totally had forgotten that i read david mitchell's first two books back in january. and a lot of really good books came out this year!
not all of thse were published in 2005, but they were all new reads for me and they're the ones that i couldn't put down, and that i'm still thinking and talking about. they appear in the order in which i read them:
top books of 2005!
1. david mitchell's number9dream (book 5 of 2005)
2. nicholas shakespeare's the dancer upstairs (book 19)
3. kent haruf's plainsong (book 36)
4. rachel cusk's the lucky ones (book 48)
5. andrea levy's small island (book 76)
6. j.k. rowling's harry potter and the half-blood prince (book 90)
7. gabrielle zevin's margarettown (book 92)
8. paul auster's the music of chance (book 95)
9. chieh chieng's a long stay in a distant land (book 97)
10. tash aw's the harmony silk factory (book 117)
11. diana evans' 26a (book 118)
12. laila lalami's hope and other dangerous pursuits (book 144)
12. scarlett thomas' popco (book 146)
14. david foster wallace's infinite jest (book 151)
15. james meek's the people's act of love (book 154)
books that deserved the hype, but didn't make my top 15
shalom auslander's beware of god: stories
haruki murakami's kafka on the shore
zadie smith's on beauty
marina lewycka's a short history of tractors in ukrainian
jan lars jensen's nervous system
most overrated books (also, books i really didn't like)
jonathan safran foer's extremely loud and incredibly close
sam lipsyte's home land
robert pinsky's the life of david
I am very impressed by your reading list! My top resolution for 2006 is to read more - the fact that I only finished one book over the break really irritates me!
ReplyDeletei actually didn't do as much reading as i was expecting over the last week--it took me a while to get through the sherwood book.
ReplyDeletei hope you at least read something you really liked!
wow, is this comment spam? i certainly don't have the power to get movies made.
ReplyDeleteanyway, i sort of like neil gaiman and terry pratchett's view of the hell vs heaven scuffles.