At the start of this year, inspired by the fact that I'd recently signed up to Goodreads, I thought it would be interesting to start recording the books I read, something I've never done before. Although we're only 5/6 of the way through the year, I've just had a look at the list, which reminded me of the experience of discovering so many great books. I know a lot of keen readers keep a record of the books they read, and I'm always fascinated to see what other readers' lists look like. So I thought for this week's blog it might be interesting to post my own reading list for the year so far.
I wasn't aiming to read a particular number of books (I've never been good at any sort of reading challenge, preferring to read quite idiosyncratically, sometimes focussing on one book for a whole month, or reading the same book four times within a year!). So the numbers are just to show the rough chronological order, and plenty of books make more than one appearance. Here's my year in reading so far:
1. Atomised / Michel Houllebecq
2. Oxygen / Andrew Miller
3. Family Money / Nina Bawden
4. In Pale Battalions / Robert Goddard
5. Favole al Telefono / Gianni Rodari
6. Romeo and Juliet / William Shakespeare (reread)
7. The Master and Margarita / Mikhail Bulgakov
8. Doctor Zhivago / Boris Pasternak
9. The Vivisector / Patrick White
10. Anna Karenina / Leo Tolstoy (reread)
11. Skellig / David Almond
12. Once / Morris Gleitzman
13. Private Peaceful / Michael Morpurgo (reread)
14. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde / Robert Louis Stevenson
15. The Shadow of the Wind / Carlos Ruiz Zafon (reread)
16. Of Mice and Men / John Steinbeck (reread)
17. Tomorrow / Graham Swift
18. Random Acts of Heroic Love / Danny Scheinmann
19. The Painter of Battles / Arturo Perez-Reverte
20. The Arrival / Shaun Tan (reread)
21. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? / Jeanette Winterson
22. Various Pets Alive and Dead / Marina Lewycka
23. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared / Jonas Jonasson
24. The House of the Spirits / Isabel Allende
25. The Inheritance of Loss / Kiran Desai
26. Midnight's Children / Salman Rushdie
27. Old School / Tobias Wolff (reread)
28. Digging to America / Anne Tyler (reread)
29. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? / Jeanette Winterson (reread)
30. Report from Palermo (Poverty in Sicily) / Danilo Dolci
31. Words are Stones: Impressions of Sicily / Carlo Levi
32. Mattanza: Love and Death in the Sea of Sicily / Theresa Maggio
33. Monkeys with Typewriters / Scarlett Thomas
34. The Inheritance of Loss / Kiran Desai (reread)
35. The Art of the Novel / Milan Kundera
36. The New Yorker: Short Stories / Alice Munro
37. What the Twilight Says / Derek Walcott (reread)
38. Collected Poems / Derek Walcott (reread)
39. Omeros / Derek Walcott (reread)
40. Cathedral / Raymond Carver (reread)
41. The Leopard / Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
42. Il Gattopardo / Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
43. The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943-1944 / Rick Atkinson
44. 1Q84 Books 1 & 2 / Haruki Murakami
45. 1Q84 Book 3 / Haruki Murakami
46. Solar / Ian McEwan
There are a few things missing from this list. For instance, I didn't write down all the books that I read (or reread) only small parts of, maybe to look at a particular technique or refer to a fact. I also haven't recorded any of the shorter non-fiction: articles, interviews with other writers, investigative pieces of writing. Or any of the films - which is a shame because like many writers I love watching films and find it a massive source of inspiration, so I feel like on this list I'm failing to credit half the people whose work has been important to me. In that spirit, I would like to give Beasts of the Southern Wild, the adaptation of Cloud Atlas and Warrior honourable mention for influencing my thinking nearly as much as anything I read this year!
It's intriguing to have a record of (almost) a year's reading. And rereading - clearly, I return to some of the same books over and over again. Stuart Kelly has an interesting essay on rereading here; I would agree with his idea that books are all the more impressive if they are worth rereading. In fact, I would have reread even more this year if I hadn't resisted lots of my favourite 19th-century novels in favour of longer new books. It's a shame to see that I read no new poetry at all, and hardly any new short stories, even though my three favourite writers are probably Raymond Carver, Derek Walcott and Anne Tyler - a short story writer (mainly), a poet (mainly) and a novelist. So I'll try and be more adventurous with poetry and short stories in 2014...
The longest books? 1Q84, The Vivisector and Anna Karenina were all pretty long (though this is just in terms of page count: The Vivisector took over a month to read, 1Q84 raced by in a few evenings). Shortest? The graphic novel The Arrival weighs in at 0 words (although it still takes a few hours to read properly). Best book? This is difficult. Of all the books I read for the first time this year, The Inheritance of Loss, Midnight's Children and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? left the strongest impressions. And most of the books I reread were ones I returned to because they were particularly important to me. But there are other very good books on the list that wouldn't fall into either of those categories. In fact, I've been lucky - most of the books I read this year were ones that, on looking back, I was glad to have invested the time in.
What about you? What have you enjoyed reading in 2013? Do you keep a record of the books you read? Let me know in the comments if you have a chance!
I wasn't aiming to read a particular number of books (I've never been good at any sort of reading challenge, preferring to read quite idiosyncratically, sometimes focussing on one book for a whole month, or reading the same book four times within a year!). So the numbers are just to show the rough chronological order, and plenty of books make more than one appearance. Here's my year in reading so far:
1. Atomised / Michel Houllebecq
2. Oxygen / Andrew Miller
3. Family Money / Nina Bawden
4. In Pale Battalions / Robert Goddard
5. Favole al Telefono / Gianni Rodari
6. Romeo and Juliet / William Shakespeare (reread)
7. The Master and Margarita / Mikhail Bulgakov
8. Doctor Zhivago / Boris Pasternak
9. The Vivisector / Patrick White
10. Anna Karenina / Leo Tolstoy (reread)
11. Skellig / David Almond
12. Once / Morris Gleitzman
13. Private Peaceful / Michael Morpurgo (reread)
14. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde / Robert Louis Stevenson
15. The Shadow of the Wind / Carlos Ruiz Zafon (reread)
16. Of Mice and Men / John Steinbeck (reread)
17. Tomorrow / Graham Swift
18. Random Acts of Heroic Love / Danny Scheinmann
19. The Painter of Battles / Arturo Perez-Reverte
20. The Arrival / Shaun Tan (reread)
21. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? / Jeanette Winterson
22. Various Pets Alive and Dead / Marina Lewycka
23. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared / Jonas Jonasson
24. The House of the Spirits / Isabel Allende
25. The Inheritance of Loss / Kiran Desai
26. Midnight's Children / Salman Rushdie
27. Old School / Tobias Wolff (reread)
28. Digging to America / Anne Tyler (reread)
29. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? / Jeanette Winterson (reread)
30. Report from Palermo (Poverty in Sicily) / Danilo Dolci
31. Words are Stones: Impressions of Sicily / Carlo Levi
32. Mattanza: Love and Death in the Sea of Sicily / Theresa Maggio
33. Monkeys with Typewriters / Scarlett Thomas
34. The Inheritance of Loss / Kiran Desai (reread)
35. The Art of the Novel / Milan Kundera
36. The New Yorker: Short Stories / Alice Munro
37. What the Twilight Says / Derek Walcott (reread)
38. Collected Poems / Derek Walcott (reread)
39. Omeros / Derek Walcott (reread)
40. Cathedral / Raymond Carver (reread)
41. The Leopard / Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
42. Il Gattopardo / Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
43. The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943-1944 / Rick Atkinson
44. 1Q84 Books 1 & 2 / Haruki Murakami
45. 1Q84 Book 3 / Haruki Murakami
46. Solar / Ian McEwan
There are a few things missing from this list. For instance, I didn't write down all the books that I read (or reread) only small parts of, maybe to look at a particular technique or refer to a fact. I also haven't recorded any of the shorter non-fiction: articles, interviews with other writers, investigative pieces of writing. Or any of the films - which is a shame because like many writers I love watching films and find it a massive source of inspiration, so I feel like on this list I'm failing to credit half the people whose work has been important to me. In that spirit, I would like to give Beasts of the Southern Wild, the adaptation of Cloud Atlas and Warrior honourable mention for influencing my thinking nearly as much as anything I read this year!
It's intriguing to have a record of (almost) a year's reading. And rereading - clearly, I return to some of the same books over and over again. Stuart Kelly has an interesting essay on rereading here; I would agree with his idea that books are all the more impressive if they are worth rereading. In fact, I would have reread even more this year if I hadn't resisted lots of my favourite 19th-century novels in favour of longer new books. It's a shame to see that I read no new poetry at all, and hardly any new short stories, even though my three favourite writers are probably Raymond Carver, Derek Walcott and Anne Tyler - a short story writer (mainly), a poet (mainly) and a novelist. So I'll try and be more adventurous with poetry and short stories in 2014...
The longest books? 1Q84, The Vivisector and Anna Karenina were all pretty long (though this is just in terms of page count: The Vivisector took over a month to read, 1Q84 raced by in a few evenings). Shortest? The graphic novel The Arrival weighs in at 0 words (although it still takes a few hours to read properly). Best book? This is difficult. Of all the books I read for the first time this year, The Inheritance of Loss, Midnight's Children and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? left the strongest impressions. And most of the books I reread were ones I returned to because they were particularly important to me. But there are other very good books on the list that wouldn't fall into either of those categories. In fact, I've been lucky - most of the books I read this year were ones that, on looking back, I was glad to have invested the time in.
What about you? What have you enjoyed reading in 2013? Do you keep a record of the books you read? Let me know in the comments if you have a chance!
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