Reading matters

The ultimate book list

The Telegraph has published a list of 110 books it describes as the "perfect library". If it is any indication of being "well read" then I'm afraid I'm at the very bottom of the scale: I have only read a handful of these tomes, most of them from the children's section and, inexplicably, the science fiction section.

Here's the list in full:

CLASSICS
The Illiad and The Odyssey Homer
The Barchester Chronicles Anthony Trollope
Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift
Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
War and Peace Tolstoy
David Copperfield Charles Dickens
Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray
Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
Middlemarch George Eliot

Books read in 2007: a summary

It's that time of year again -- time to look back on a year's worth of reading.

During 2007 I read 65 books and reviewed 64 of them. This was substantially down on last year's efforts, but I had more time for reading in 2006, so this is no great surprise.

The gender split favoured men above women (45:20). This is typical of my reading patterns.

I read 56 fiction books and 9 non-fiction books. This includes one anthology and one short story collection.

The novels I read were broken down as follows: 11 books in translation, 3 Australian, 10 Irish, 18 American and 15 British.

Here's my list of books read in 2007 in the order completed:

It's that time of year again -- time to look back on a year's worth of reading.

During 2007 I read 65 books and reviewed 64 of them. This was substantially down on last year's efforts, but I had more time for reading in 2006, so this is no great surprise.

The gender split favoured men above women (45:20). This is typical of my reading patterns.

I read 56 fiction books and 9 non-fiction books. This includes one anthology and one short story collection.

The novels I read were broken down as follows: 11 books in translation, 3 Australian, 10 Irish, 18 American and 15 British.

Here's my list of books read in 2007 in the order completed:

You know Christmas must be...

... fast approaching when all the newspapers start publishing their 'books for Christmas' suggestions and their 'favourite reads of 2007' lists.

The Telegraph round-up

The Times Online books of the year

The New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year

The Guardian's favourite books of 2007

Amazon.co.uk's best books of 2007

Stay tuned for an onslaught of blogger lists in the weeks to come. No doubt I'll be tempted to put something together myself...

A New York reading list - part II

It's only just occurred to me that I have, over the past two or three years, read quite a few novels set in New York. Here's a short list of all the ones reviewed on this site:

A New York reading list

In my quest to find books set in New York, I came across this wonderful list put together by Mannheim University and thought I'd share it with you.

The fiction titles listed are as follows:

Your assistance is required

Very soon I will be packing my suitcase and jetting off on a much longed-for holiday in the sun. The fact that summer has completely bypassed London this year, coupled with my manic work schedule, means I am counting down the days until I can lie by a swimming pool with a stack of books and some long cool drinks to keep me company.

But I have a problem.

Which books should I take with me?

At last count I had about 120 unread novels in storage. Many of those are acquisitions made this year, but a high proportion were accumulated prior to this. Long-time devotees of this blog will know I made a New Year's resolution to read 50 books in 2007 from my original TBR pile (ie. books acquired prior to January 1 this year), but my efforts have been rather lack-lustre. At last count I'd only read 17 from this list. But I'd like to address this a little on my holiday.

Here's the list as it currently stands:

The Times' 100 best holiday reads

The Times Online has published a list of 100 best holiday reads, which it is billing as "the finest fiction and non-fiction books for the (northern hemisphere) summer" -- although how the selection was made is not explained.

Still, for those who are interested, here's a rundown of the fiction books included on the list. (Any hyperlinks will take you to my own review of the book.)

61 books you've never read

The New York Magazine recently invited 61 critics to name their favourite underrated book of the past ten years. The result is this fascinating list of the best novels you've never read.

As most of you know, I'm a sucker for book lists -- of any sort!! -- so I immediately had to check how many I had read from this rather eclectic list. I've read just three:

THE LAKE by John McGahern
A beautiful, hymnlike epilogue to the life’s work of this Irish master; it should be beloved by everyone who cares about life and literature.
—Andrew O’Hagan

Reviewed on Reading Matters here, with a book group discussion here.

THE ACCIDENTAL by Ali Smith
A brilliantly clever but sympathetic novel, told from different viewpoints, which deconstructs a family through the device of a mysterious visitor.
—Lindsay Duguid, TLS

Reviewed on Reading Matters here.

UNLESS by Carol Shields
Shields’s name has faded from view. Now that she is dead, her work should be vigorously kept in the literary public eye.
—Abby Frucht, Chicago Tribune

Reviewed on Reading Matters here.

(Via Of Books and Bicycles)

Waterstone's 100

I am a sucker for book lists, so when I saw that Waterstone's had released a list of 100 books that its booksellers had nominated as their favourites I couldn't resist checking it out. The list is comprised of titles published since 1982 and was put together to mark the company's 25th birthday.

There's certainly some wonderful titles on it, including a bunch I have read, several that I have reviewed on this site and more than a dozen that I own that are still languishing in my ever-growing To Be Read (TBR) pile.

All the books can be purchased from the Waterstone's website at 40 per cent off. And there's a lively discussion here.

The list in full looks like this:

The winner of my competition about books based on real-life characters and events

Thanks to everyone for taking part in my recent competition to win a copy of Heather Rose's The Butterfly Man.

Entrants were asked to name any novel (except The Butterfly Man) that features a real-life character or is a fictionalised account of a real event from history. There were some intriguing suggestions, so if you're looking for a book that's (sort of) rooted in reality, you might like to try:

• Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, which features the 18th Century naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt and mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss. (Suggested by maup)

• The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, which features Paul Auster. (Suggested by Leah)

• What is the What by Dave Eggers, which is based on the real life story of a Sudanese refugee, Valentino Achak Deng. (Suggested by Kristy)

• The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, which is set in the court of Henry VIII and tells the stories of sisters Anne and Mary Boleyn. (Suggested by Louise)

• Mamaw by Susan Dodd, which is based on Jesse James' mother. (Suggested by suki)

• England's Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton by Kate Williams, which is a non-fiction book about Lord Nelson's mistress. (Suggested by Tanya)

• The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George, which is obviously about Cleopatra. (Suggested by Heather)

• Fatherland by Robert Harris, based on the premise that Hitler won World War Two (Suggested by Brandon, but I can highly recommend it too, having read it about 10 years ago)

• Kleopatra by Karen Essex, another book based on Cleopatra's life. (Suggested by Isabel)

• The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld, a story about Drs. Freud and Jung's real-life visit to New York and a fictionalized murder. (Suggested by trav)

• All the Kings Men by Robert Penn Warren, which is about the political rise and fall of Willie Stark, a governor in the American South during the 1930s. Apparantly Stark is based on real-life Louisana governor Huey P Long. You can find out more via this Wikipedia entry. (Suggested by Ally Tuxill)

• Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman, which features the painter's model, Lydia Cassatt, who was the sister of Mary Cassatt, an American artist and friend of Edgar Degas. (Suggested by Valerie)

• The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid, which is about the discovery of a grave in the Lake District rumoured to contain the body of Fletcher Christian, who led the rebellion against Captain Bligh as part of the Mutiny on the Bounty. (Suggested by Pippa)

• Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks, which is about The Plague. (Suggested by Carol)

• The Terror by Dan Simmons, which is about Sir John Franklin's attempt to find the Northwest Passage. (Suggested by Susan. I can also recommend The Ice Child by Elizabeth McGregor, which is based on the same expedition)

• Archangel by Robert Harris, which features Stalin, and The Fist of God by Frederick Forsyth, which features Saddam Hussein. (Both suggested by Melvyn Mildiner)

• Ines of My Soul by Isabelle Allende, which is about Ines Suarez, a woman who accompanied the Conquistadors in 1540, helping to claim the territory of Chili for Spain and to found the first Spanish settlement in Santiago. (Suggested by catherine)

As to who won the book competiton, this is how I selected the winner. I assigned each entry a number as follows...

1. maup |2. Leah | 3. Kristy | 4. Louise | 5. suki | 6. Tanya |7. Heather | 8. Brandon | 9. Isabel | 10. trav | 11. Ally Tuxill | 12. Valerie | 13. Pippa | 14. Carol | 15. Susan | 16. Melvyn Mildiner | 17. catherine

... and then used a random number generator to work out who had won. This means The Butterfly Man will be winging its way to...