In summary, here's the full century of 2011's books:
January:
1. Jilted Generation: How Britain has Bankrupted its Youth – Ed Howker and Shiv Malik
2. The Bridge of San Luis Rey – Thornton Wilder
3. The Broken Bridge – Philip Pullman
4. The Maltese Falcon – Dashiell Hammett
5. The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
6. America Unchained – Dave Gorman
7. The Rats and the Ruling Sea – Robert V.S. Redick
8. The Oxford Murders – Guillermo Martínez
9. The Big Over Easy – Jasper Fforde
February:
10. The Red Wolf Conspiracy – Robert V.S. Redick
11. The Ascent of Rum Doodle – W.E. Bowman
12. Oscar and Lucinda – Peter Carey
13. Room – Emma Donoghue
14. The Fourth Bear – Jasper Fforde
15. Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
16. Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
March:
17. Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age – Bohumil Hrabal
18. Reaper Man – Terry Pratchett
19. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo – J.R.R. Tolkien
20. What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America – Thomas Frank
21. The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides
22. The City and they City – China Miéville
23. Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West – Cormac McCarthy
24. What Maisie Knew – Henry James
April:
25. Dear Me – Peter Ustinov
26. The Heart of the Matter – Graham Greene
27. The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman – Bruce Robinson
28. Touching the Void – Joe Simpson
29. Caribou Island – David Vann
30. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union – Michael Chabon
May:
31. Brick Lane – Monica Ali
32. Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie
33. Cup of Gold – John Steinbeck
34. The Easter Parade – Richard Yates
35. All the King’s Men – Robert Penn Warren
36. Shades of Grey – Jasper Fforde
37. The Chrysalids – John Wyndham
38. The Private Eye Annual 2010 – Ian Hislop (ed.)
39. Humboldt’s Gift – Saul Bellow
40. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
June:
41. Riders of the Purple Sage – Zane Grey
42. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
43. Ill Fares the Land – Tony Judt
44. Moon Tiger – Penelope Lively
45. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Díaz
46. Fup – Jim Dodge
47. Crome Yellow – Aldous Huxley
48. Domes of Fire – David Eddings
49. Emma – Jane Austen
50. We Need to Talk about Kevin – Lionel Shriver
July:
51. The Underground City – Jules Verne
52. A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
53. The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred – Carl-Johan Vallgren
54. The Postman Always Rings Twice – James M. Cain
55. A Dance with Dragons – George R.R. Martin
56. The Blasphemer – Nigel Farndale
57. They Came Like Swallows – William Maxwell
58. The Shadow of the Sun: My African Life – Ryszard Kapuściński
59. Beloved – Toni Morrison
August:
60. Assassin’s Apprentice – Robin Hobb
61. White Noise – Don DeLillo
62. If on a winter’s night a traveller – Italo Calvino
63. The Order of the Stick: Snips, Snails and Dragon’s Tails – Rich Burlew
64. Affluenza – Oliver James
65. The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
66. Amsterdam – Ian McEwan
67. The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields
September:
68. Housekeeping vs. the Dirt – Nick Hornby
69. Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez
70. The Beetle – Richard Marsh
71. Maigret and the Idle Burglar – Georges Simenon
72. Lankhmar – Fritz Leiber
73. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
74. Nights at the Circus – Angela Carter
75. Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
October:
76. The Silver Blade – Sally Gardner
77. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit – Judith Kerr
78. Arrowsmith – Sinclair Lewis
79. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or the Murder at Road Hill House – Kate Summerscale
80. Ironweed – William Kennedy
81. The Tiger’s Wife – Téa Obreht
82. Twenty Years After – Alexandre Dumas
83. Case Histories – Kate Atkinson
84. The Bride’s Farewell – Meg Rosoff
85. Last Bus to Woodstock – Colin Dexter
November:
86. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
87. The Good Fairies of New York – Martin Millar
88. A Week in December – Sebastian Faulks
89. The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
90. Cult Fiction – Ardie Collins
December:
91. The Host – Stephenie Meyer
92. The Affluent Society – John Kenneth Galbraith
93. Moonfleet – J. Meade Falkner
94. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love – Raymond Carver
95. A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan
96. A Room With A View – E.M. Forster
97. The Princess Bride – William Goldman
98. Chronicles of Amber – Roger Zelazny
99. The Line of Beauty – Alan Hollinghurst
100. Matilda – Roald Dahl
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
Post-match analysis
Just to warn you, this is going to start with a post-match interview where I as myself stupid questions and receive banal answers in response. You may wish to skip to the end. Or not, because that might bore even me. But to continue with the football theme I picked up at half-time, we've gone through squeaky bum time, raced into a lead only to get forced back and camped out on the edge of the penalty area in the final ten minutes. Or to put it another way, it was all going so well until December became an endless string of social engagements. But fortunately I was able to hold on to claim all three points with a last-ditch tackle in the final minute.
Ok, enough of that. Looking back, I can't really say that my opinions have changed on the first four point I made six months ago: it remained a challenge, it was not a problem finding things I wanted to read, I definitely read some things I probably wouldn't have otherwise, and that the blog is a good record for Poisterity (whoever he is).
And I feel pretty much the same about the categories too. I loved the non-fiction and some of it definitely ended up in other categories. I cracked crime and discovered not just classic stuff, plenty of which I want to read more of, but also how broad the genre could be. Still hit and miss on the pre-20th century stuff, but, like the Pulitzer winners, the quality is largely obvious, even if it wasn't always my cup of tea (and as I'm sure y'all know, I might make a lot of tea, but my cup of tea is one without any teabags in). Furthermore, I got excuses to read things I'd been intending to for ages from my bookshelf and got another year of interesting debates from book club (thank you everyone). The colours was an interesting choice, the unknown authors threw up some excellent new discoveries and I have to concede (I say concede, I knew this anyway) that Charlie has fantastic taste and knows what I like. And I used my category for the odds and sods that wouldn't fit anywhere else, usually on the random whims that took me at certain times. I continued to make use of the libraries (yes, cutting and closing them is cultural vandalism) and I still ended up buying more books than I intended to. The more things change...
A few thank yous then, mostly to my readers, whoever you may be and however sporadically you may have looked in on this. So that's you, Mum, Dad, Phil (the only person who commented), Porker, Em, Vik, Rhi, Tim, Cat, Kirsty, Tim, Gareth (the only person who subscribed), Sarah, Jan, anyone else I may have forgotten, and, obviously, Charlie (thank you for telling me not to give up, even if I may have wanted to). So yeah, things change but the world keeps going and so, I suppose do I. I'm still a sentimental at heart though and that's not gonna change any time soon.
Some random shout outs for books that didn't make the top ten (coming up), but that had an influence in some way:
Affluenza – Oliver James: reading the right thing at the right time can be great but also not always helpful.
The Good Fairies of New York – Martin Millar: best random find.
Cult Fiction – Ardie Collins: best book by someone I had a pint with (and a very nice chap he is too).
Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy: one of the toughest, bleakest things I've ever picked up, yet still found hard to put down.
Room – Emma Donoghue: probably surprised me the most in that I enjoyed it having not really expected to.
Beloved – Toni Morrison: on the flipside, perhaps the biggest disappointment.
The Blasphemer – Nigel Farndale: most unintentionally hilarious.
A Dance with Dragons – George R.R. Martin: the only hardback I've bought in some time, who was I kidding when I thought I could wait? High expectations and a huge wait aside, it definitely wasn't the best in the series, but here's hoping the final two get back on track.
The Host – Stephenie Meyer: the one I might have been embarrased to be seen reading in public (or private, for that matter).
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë: the classic that I'd never read, had somehow managed to acquire no knowledge of the plot of, and really enjoyed.
And on to the top ten then. Once more, in no particular order, here we go:
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald: pretty much flawless.
The Easter Parade – Richard Yates: depressing but wonderfully captures the lives of ordinary people and the hell that can be their lives.
The Big Over Easy – Jasper Fforde: laugh out loud funny, inventive and held together with a superb plot.
The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides: dazzlingly good writing, a tale of youth.
Fup – Jim Dodge: a perfectly formed modern fairy tale.
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón: a page turner in the best sense of the term.
Matilda – Roald Dahl: I still love it.
A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson: much like Nick Hornby, he can make anything he chooses to write about interesting and it kept me entertained while I also had good company, good music and good beer to attend to.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love – Ramond Carver: short and to the point, I liked it as much as I expected to.
A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan: funny, wise and touching, it broke my heart and put it back together several times during its course.
And that, friends, I believe might be the sound of a fat lady warming up her vocal chords. Smoke me a kipper...
Ok, enough of that. Looking back, I can't really say that my opinions have changed on the first four point I made six months ago: it remained a challenge, it was not a problem finding things I wanted to read, I definitely read some things I probably wouldn't have otherwise, and that the blog is a good record for Poisterity (whoever he is).
And I feel pretty much the same about the categories too. I loved the non-fiction and some of it definitely ended up in other categories. I cracked crime and discovered not just classic stuff, plenty of which I want to read more of, but also how broad the genre could be. Still hit and miss on the pre-20th century stuff, but, like the Pulitzer winners, the quality is largely obvious, even if it wasn't always my cup of tea (and as I'm sure y'all know, I might make a lot of tea, but my cup of tea is one without any teabags in). Furthermore, I got excuses to read things I'd been intending to for ages from my bookshelf and got another year of interesting debates from book club (thank you everyone). The colours was an interesting choice, the unknown authors threw up some excellent new discoveries and I have to concede (I say concede, I knew this anyway) that Charlie has fantastic taste and knows what I like. And I used my category for the odds and sods that wouldn't fit anywhere else, usually on the random whims that took me at certain times. I continued to make use of the libraries (yes, cutting and closing them is cultural vandalism) and I still ended up buying more books than I intended to. The more things change...
A few thank yous then, mostly to my readers, whoever you may be and however sporadically you may have looked in on this. So that's you, Mum, Dad, Phil (the only person who commented), Porker, Em, Vik, Rhi, Tim, Cat, Kirsty, Tim, Gareth (the only person who subscribed), Sarah, Jan, anyone else I may have forgotten, and, obviously, Charlie (thank you for telling me not to give up, even if I may have wanted to). So yeah, things change but the world keeps going and so, I suppose do I. I'm still a sentimental at heart though and that's not gonna change any time soon.
Some random shout outs for books that didn't make the top ten (coming up), but that had an influence in some way:
Affluenza – Oliver James: reading the right thing at the right time can be great but also not always helpful.
The Good Fairies of New York – Martin Millar: best random find.
Cult Fiction – Ardie Collins: best book by someone I had a pint with (and a very nice chap he is too).
Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy: one of the toughest, bleakest things I've ever picked up, yet still found hard to put down.
Room – Emma Donoghue: probably surprised me the most in that I enjoyed it having not really expected to.
Beloved – Toni Morrison: on the flipside, perhaps the biggest disappointment.
The Blasphemer – Nigel Farndale: most unintentionally hilarious.
A Dance with Dragons – George R.R. Martin: the only hardback I've bought in some time, who was I kidding when I thought I could wait? High expectations and a huge wait aside, it definitely wasn't the best in the series, but here's hoping the final two get back on track.
The Host – Stephenie Meyer: the one I might have been embarrased to be seen reading in public (or private, for that matter).
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë: the classic that I'd never read, had somehow managed to acquire no knowledge of the plot of, and really enjoyed.
And on to the top ten then. Once more, in no particular order, here we go:
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald: pretty much flawless.
The Easter Parade – Richard Yates: depressing but wonderfully captures the lives of ordinary people and the hell that can be their lives.
The Big Over Easy – Jasper Fforde: laugh out loud funny, inventive and held together with a superb plot.
The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides: dazzlingly good writing, a tale of youth.
Fup – Jim Dodge: a perfectly formed modern fairy tale.
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón: a page turner in the best sense of the term.
Matilda – Roald Dahl: I still love it.
A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson: much like Nick Hornby, he can make anything he chooses to write about interesting and it kept me entertained while I also had good company, good music and good beer to attend to.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love – Ramond Carver: short and to the point, I liked it as much as I expected to.
A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan: funny, wise and touching, it broke my heart and put it back together several times during its course.
And that, friends, I believe might be the sound of a fat lady warming up her vocal chords. Smoke me a kipper...
Saving the best
And so it came to pass, that verily did Chris read 100 books in 2011. And lo! he did himself proud. The last book was always likely to be one of my choices purely for sentimental reasons and so I could (hopefully) make sure it was something extra special. Obviously this isn't always easy when you've not read a book before, but it was never my intention to deliberately pick something I'd previously read. As it turned out, having been on the subject of children's favourites recently, I plumped for what was probably my favourite book as a child.
It also turns out that it's still just a bit good. Roald Dahl's Matilda, then, was my final read of the year, finished on New Year's Eve and bringing up my ton. And if I was saving one of my best till last, I hadn't realised Dahl was too – Matilda was the last of what I would classify as his major children's books to be written. If you don't know the story, you probably shouldn't be reading this – not only should you be reading the aforementioned title instead, but I might also disown you.
Anyway, it's classic Dahl – wonderfully grotesque characters, brilliant yet downtrodden heroes in waiting, moral comeuppance, and a perfect happy ending. His understanding of what children want from a story, what they enjoy, how their minds work and what keeps things interesting is pretty much unsurpassed. He doesn't speak down to them and he engages right from the beginning. So many could learn so much from this master craftsman. But ultimately it's the story that captures the imagination and while I may have failed to be the child prodigy reading genius, I can still dream can't I?
Book number: 100
Title: Matilda
Author: Roald Dahl
Category: Chris' choice
It also turns out that it's still just a bit good. Roald Dahl's Matilda, then, was my final read of the year, finished on New Year's Eve and bringing up my ton. And if I was saving one of my best till last, I hadn't realised Dahl was too – Matilda was the last of what I would classify as his major children's books to be written. If you don't know the story, you probably shouldn't be reading this – not only should you be reading the aforementioned title instead, but I might also disown you.
Anyway, it's classic Dahl – wonderfully grotesque characters, brilliant yet downtrodden heroes in waiting, moral comeuppance, and a perfect happy ending. His understanding of what children want from a story, what they enjoy, how their minds work and what keeps things interesting is pretty much unsurpassed. He doesn't speak down to them and he engages right from the beginning. So many could learn so much from this master craftsman. But ultimately it's the story that captures the imagination and while I may have failed to be the child prodigy reading genius, I can still dream can't I?
Book number: 100
Title: Matilda
Author: Roald Dahl
Category: Chris' choice
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