Sunday 3 December 2006
Books of the year
It must be Christmas... yesterday's Herald had a "books of the year" article. It was the usual selections -- people who should be reading serious stuff were reading escapist fluff and people who you might expect to read fluff were reading serious books. So Jack McConnell chose The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas as his book of the year. Nicola Sturgeon chose Weekend. Ruth Wishart chose Among the Dead Cities. And some unknown (to me) writer chose Failed States. Sheena McDonald said she liked to read books that take her beyond her comfort zone and selected The Third Reich in Power. It looks like Jack and Nicola prefer La-La Land.
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Ok Bobby so eclectic reading tastes are not up your street or are you being provocative? I would note only that Nicola chose a Scottish writer (I'll never vote SNP) and AC Grayling is an arse who needs his hair cut.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember what I have read this year but included Of Mice and Men, The Human Stain, two Fearless Jones novels by Walter Mosley, If this a Man and just now I'm reading Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. I've never read any Harry Potter but Northern Lights was in the house and I just started it and immediately liked it. I think it might be science fantasy and this is not normally my kind of thing. Its probably also a children's book but I like the adventure and the whole world it describes. I have been surprised by how good I think it is.
I sometimes think I should read more non-fiction especially history. But as you know I've been in la la land for some time. So what have you bloggers been reading and anything to recommend for the new year?
Final note no central defence - no progress but yet...Nakamura.
Not a good reading year for me Gerry. I've mostly joined the ranks of the sleeping bus passengers. This is not helped by me currently reading a really boring (and really big) book about philosophy called "The Human Touch" which sends me to sleep within seconds. I've also read "Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense" (an interesting management book), "All Marketers are Liars" (pretty obvious what that one is about), and "Common Errors in English Usage". Boy, I need to read more fiction.
ReplyDeleteLike Gerry I'm reading Northern Lights. Eve read the three books and thought they were good so I have started on the 1st one.
ReplyDeleteI read a couple of Philip Roth books "American Pastoral", "I Married a Communist" but could not finish the latter and thought the former just petered out at the end.
I have also read a couple of Walter Mosley novels.
A great football novel is "The Damned United" written by David Peace. Its about Brian Cloughs 44 days at Leeds United. Its been rated as the best ever novel about football. I read his 1984 last year set during the miners strike and was really impressed.
I've not read a lot of non fiction as I've started an OU course in Science and that takes up a fair bit of my time.
On music, I see Sufjan Stevens is getting a lot of press. If you get the chance to hear "Greetings from Illinois" you will be well rewarded.
I'll check out the music Billy. What's the Science course you're doing? I'm about to commence an M.Sc. (E-Learning) in January (Edinburgh Uni).
ReplyDeleteIts Science Foundation Course (S101). It's a level one course that covers all the branches of science (physics, chemistry, bilology, geology) and prepares you for specialisation in the level two and three courses.
ReplyDeleteOne book I forgot to mention yesterday was non fiction "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain. Its about his experiences as a chef in USA. Its a bit like rock and roll meets cooking. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.