This year, I read more books than ever before and I want to discuss all of them!!
Basically the title. I'm posting now in an attempt to beat the rush of year-end posts over the next few days. It's only been in the last couple of years that I have rediscovered how to read for pleasure and this year, a combination of slightly more free time and some excellent recommendations here at /r/books have lead to me reading a lot more than I ever thought possible. Here's a list of everything I've read this year (and there have been some crackers), with a very short summation of why I did or didn't like it. I would love to hear other people's thoughts, both on these books and also anything I should be looking to add to next year's list!
Plato: Meno & Other Dialogues - I've always had a passing interest in philosophy and decided to start the year with something that had been sitting on the shelf for a while. It had its interesting moments, and made me want to delve further. As someone who hasn't read much Plato it was also a good introduction to his way of thinking and writing.
Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath - a stone-cold classic. I've loved Steinbeck since I was a teenager and I loved everything about this book.
Marquez: Of Love & Other Demons - one of his lesser-known (to me anyway) novels. I really enjoyed it.
Murakami: Absolutely on Music - Conversations with Seiji Ozawa - I'm a musician by trade so I found this fascinating. Two figures who I have huge respect for just sitting down and geeking out about classical music together. Not for everyone, but well worth a read if you have an interest in classical music (or really any music).
Philip Roth: Portnoy's Complaint - I liked it a lot. I think if I was American and/or Jewish I would have found more to relate to, but there is still something uniquely cathartic (and of course hilarious) about how he writes.
James Joyce: Dubliners - My first Joyce and it won't be my last. Highlights: Araby, Eveline, A Little Cloud, The Dead.
Dante: Inferno (The Divine Comedy Part I) - worth reading if only because so much of it has become an important reference point for the rest of literature. Sometimes a bit of a slog (there are only so many feuding Italian nobles that I can care about), but worth it for the great bits.
Heinrich Boll: And Where Were You, Adam? - I loved "The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum" when I read it at university, but this just fell flat for me for some reason.
Murakami: Kafka on the Shore - I'm generally a fan of Murakami (although I'm currently struggling with 1Q84, but that's a different post), and I think this is up there with Wind-Up Bird Chronicle as my personal favourite(s). It seems to have just the right amount of crazy, and some really stunning poetic passages too. I really found myself invested in the fate of these characters.
Borges: Labyrinths - Maybe the best book I read this year (though it's a tough competition) but it's hard to explain exactly why. In need of a reread.
Nabokov: Lolita - The other best book I read this year. I had high hopes and they were matched. Does things with the English language that most authors can only dream of.
Julian Barnes: The Noise of Time - I think this was quite badly overshadowed by the other books I was reading at this point. I enjoyed it, but I don't feel any need to revisit it any time soon.
Calvino: If On A Winter's Night, A Traveller - I read this very quickly, which was both a good thing (I was so absorbed that I couldn't read anything else for a week) but also I think I probably rushed a little and didn't fully "get" everything in every chapter. Another one to revisit at some point. It prompted me to almost immediately buy more Calvino though (Fantastic Tales, Invisible Cities) so I think it's fair to say I enjoyed it.
Raduan Nassar: Ancient Tillage - This was a random "grab-something-interesting-looking-from-the-nearest-shelf" moment and thankfully it paid off. If you like Marquez, you will probably like this. I wish he wrote more.
Salinger: The Catcher In The Rye - my first experience of this book. Again, I think looking back it is overshadowed by the more contemporary and more interesting things that I was reading at the same time, but I remember liking it a lot. You can moan about how much he moans, but we've all been there and I think it's sometimes healthy to be reminded what it was like to be a teenager.
Shami Chakrabati: On Liberty - if you can get past the occasional moment of legalese, this is a good read. Despite her more recent controversies, she still writes very well and has a talent for exploring both sides of her arguments in great depth.
Marquez: Innocent Erendira & Other Stories - these really just didn't work for me for some reason, and so far the only time I've been disappointed with Marquez. I felt that the themes of pretty much every story have just been explored better in his other work. An interesting oddity.
Yasunari Kawabata: Snow Country - I read this in advance of a trip to Japan this year, and I really enjoyed it (the book and the trip!). The kind of story where very little seems to happen until the last two pages, and then everything falls into place and it breaks your heart.
Fowles: The French Lieutenant's Woman - I don't remember a huge amount about it now, but I remember really enjoying it. If anyone is getting into Fowles, I would suggest that this is a better starting point than "The Collector."
Calvino: Invisible Cities - having been to Venice earlier in the year and loved it, this struck a special chord with me. Unlike anything I have ever read before, both in good and bad (but always fascinating) ways.
Zadie Smith: NW - This was the first in my ongoing pledge to read more books by woman (I'm working on it!), and what a great decision it was. I lived in the area of London she writes about for a while, which made me appreciate the flashes of local colour even more. Really great, one of the year's highlights for sure.
Robert Louis Stevenson: South Sea Tales - I'm not very familiar with Stevenson's oeuvre. I enjoyed some of this, and some of it I found to be very hard work. Not sure what else I have to say.
Tolstoy: The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories - I actually found the titular story to be my least favourite in the collection (though it's by no means bad. "The Kreutzer Sonata" is the real winner for me, although the epilogue (where Tolstoy obsesses over the virtues of sexual abstinence) is a bit of a buzzkill.
Kurt Vonnegut: Cat's Cradle - I'm afraid this just didn't work for me. Someone tell me what I'm missing!
Tl;dr - I read some books this year. Let's talk about them!
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