Top Five Fiction Books of the Year

A very difficult choice to make to keep it to just five, but limited it to fiction to make it slightly easier.

In order read, rather than preference because that would be way too hard

Fup by Jim Dodge
A fable simply told about an old man, his life-giving whisky, his grandson and their enormous duck! Beyond that it is hard to describe. It won't take more than a couple of hours to read, which is good because I'll definitely want to read it again and again.

Naive, Super by Erlend Loe
This was a recommendation from Amazon, based on other books I'd bought and viewed. It turned out to be a great suggestion. I loved it. It is about a 25 year old who doesn't know what to do with his life and is looking to feel connected with the world. The main character is not a cynic as is usually the case in these types of books, but lovely if a little odd.

Three to See the King by Magnus Mills
I just discovered Magnus Mills this year and of his four novels I read, this was my favourite. A strange but brilliant little book. A man lives a simple but happy life in a house of tin, until a woman unexpectedly comes to stay and his distant neighbours start to start about a wonderful man called Michael. It is a parable about religion, society and desires, but it is also very funny.

Light of Day by Graham Swift
Playing with the conventions of the detective story, we find out almost immediately who committed the crime, and the rest of the book is about piecing together the events that led up to it. It is all seen from the point of view of a detective, who has fallen in love with the murderer. That summary doesn't really do it justice. It is about relationships, secrets and love - all big themes, but it is beautifully written and griping.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
I was immediately drawn in by the narrator, intrigued with the impending sense that something wasn't quite right in her world. I loved the way the situation was slowly unfolded through memories from the past, and the big revelations just slipped in. The skewed version of England is like science fiction, but this surpasses most books in that genre by having totally believable characters and in particular the portrayal of school day friendships is so accurate. There were certain parts of the book that were very moving, towards the end but also little touches throughout that nearly brough me to tears. This is a book I'll want to read again.

All of my top five books are a bit odd. The first three are very short and the latter two aren't particularly long. I like short, quirky books and 2008 was a great year for them.

Other Readers: 29 December

In my section of a carriage on the train from Newcastle to London, I spied people reading these books:

• Alpha Questions of Life by Nicky Gumbel
• Hard Way by Lee Childs
• The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ by Lynn Picknett and Clive Princes
• From the Eye of the Hurricane: My Story by Alex Higgins

I was reading When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro and Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann.

A Note on the Type: "Explorers of the New Century" by Magnus Mills

The text of this book is set in Linotype Janson. The original types for which were cut in about 1690 by Nicolas Kis, a Hungarian working in Amsterdam. The face was misnamed after Anton Janson, a Dutchman who worked at the Ehrhardt Foundry in Leipzig, where the original Kis types were kept in the early eighteenth century. Monotype Ehrhardt is based on Janson. The original matrices survived in Germany and were acquired in 1919 by the Stempel Foundry. Herman Zapf used these originals to redesign some of the weights and sizes for Stempel. This linotype version was designed to follow the original types under the direction of C H Griffiths.

Bloomsbury paperback 2006.

Other Readers: 12 December

In my part of the tube this morning, I spied other passengers reading the following books:

• Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
• I Claudius - Robert Graves
• a Fu Manchu book

I was reading Fat Man in History by Peter Carey.

Favourite Passage: Timbuktu by Paul Auster

"But the truth is, friend, that dogs can read. Why else would they putthose signs on the doors of post ofifices? NO DOGS ALLOWED EXCEPT FORSEEING-EYE DOGS. Do you catch my meaning? The man with the dog can'treadit, who else is left? THat's what they do in those seeing-see schools. They just don't tell us. They've kept it secret and bynow it's one of hte three or fourvbest-kept secretes in Amercia. forgood reason, too. If word gotout, just think of what wouldhappen. Dogs as smart as men? A blasphermoussasertion. There'dbe riots in the streets, they'd burn down the WhiteHouse, mayhem wouldrule. In three months, dogs would be pressing for theiindependence.Delegations would convene, negotiations would being, and hteend they'dsettle the things by giving up Nebraska, South Dakota and half ofKansas."

Willie G Christmas in Timbuktu by Paul Auster.

Reading around the USA

The map on my Reading Globally post is rather misleading when it comes to the larger countries of the world. I haven't read something set in every region of Russia, India or Canada. The same is true of the USA. I have read a lot of books set in New York and California and not much in between.

Despite my aim to travel the world through reading, it is inevitable that I will still visit the USA, so I've started a map to show my travels through the States.

• Alaska - Drop City by T C Boyle
• California - recent reads set here include Post Office by Charles Bukowski, Tortilla Curtain by T C Boyle, The Graduate by Charles Webb
• Florida - All Families are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland and Darkly Dreaming Dexter books by Jeff Lindsay
• Maine - the books of Stephen King
• Maryland - Timbuktu by Paul Auster
• New Hampshire - Hotel New Hampshire and other books by John Irving
• New York - lots but recent reads set here include Flowers for Algernon, Naive Super by Erlend Loe, Third Brother and Twelve by Nick McDonell and East Hampton in New York state in My Life at Grey Gardens
• North Carolina - The Minotaur takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill
• Wyoming - in Miss Wyoming by Douglas Coupland
• Texas - Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
• Vermont - The Secrety History by Donna Tartt
• Virginia - Timbuktu by Paul Auster
  
  
  
  create your own personalized map of the USA
  

999 Challenge: I'm in!

Having enjoyed the 888 challenge so much, I was pleased when the 999 challenge was proposed.

The rules are much the same as last year, but with 9 books in 9 categories with 9 overlaps allowed.

A 999 challenge blog has been started for participants to chart their progress and post their reviews, so I'll be posting over there too.

My categories for the challenge will be as follows:

1. 1001 Books to Read Before You Die
2. Fiction Authors that are New to Me
3. Crime and Detectives around the world (each one from a different country)
4. Theme: Dystopia
5. Beats, Hippies, 1960s and Counter-Culture (fiction and non-fiction)
6. Around the World (fiction set outside of the UK and USA - each one from a different country)
7. Non-Fiction
8. Complete Works of: T C Boyle
9. Themed Titles: Animals (a different animal in each title)