The Book List

People who know me will already know how I like lists, and books, so what better way to combine the two interests than to keep a book list - (which reminds me of the guy who liked Larkin and liked writing musicals but that's a whole nuther story) - so I have kept a little book diary for you. I present them here for your reading delectation, the books I've listened to and read in the past 12 months, I'll include marks out of 10, in my humble opinion - so you can skip the really crap ones, if ever faced with the choice.

The ones on cd first - These were often picked off the library shelf in a blind rush on the way to getting saturday morning cakes in superquinn, often with my eyes closed, in other words completely at random - so there were quite alot of misses as well as the hits - the logic being - sure I've loads of driving time, why be picky? In fairness I think it's worth reading/ listening to bad stuff as well as good, and it was all pretty much better than the radio...

Where the authors name is missing it's because they need no introduction - not because I forgot to write them down - and anyone who says that's why is a liar.

Little Face - 5

Fortune's Rocks - Anita Shreve - 5

In a Strange City - Laura Lipman - 5

Fruit of the Lemon - Andrea Levy - 3

The Snow Geese - William Fiennes - 2 or 10 depending on whether or not you're really really into geese - it was a 2 for me.

Tess of the Durbevilles - Thomas Hardy - 9

Necessary Ends - Stanley Midleton - 4 - despite the great surname

Red Harvest - Dasheil Hammett - 4.5

The Bonesetters Daughter - Amy Tan - 6

The Secret History - Donna Hart - 6

Niagara Falls all over again - Elizabeth McCricken - 9.1

Scribbling the Cat - 2

War Diaries 1 - Spike Milligan - 7.5

The Spy who came in from the cold - John Le Carre - 7.5

Wild Swans - 8

Himilaya - Michael Palin - 4

The Lady and the Unicorn - Tracey Chevalier - 5.5

Dangerous Lady - Martina Cole - 5

Madame Bovary - 6.5

Memoir - John McGahern - 8

War Diaries 2 - Spike Milligan - 7.5

Rules of Engagement - Anita Brookner - 6.5

Murphy's Revenge - Colin Bateman - 8

The woman in the 5th - Douglas Kennedy - 8

Book of Salt - Monique Truong - 4

No country for old men - Cormac McCarthy - 5.5

Barefoot - Ellen Hildebrand - 5

The Road - Cormac McCarthy - 9.2

Pass the Butterworms - Tim Cahill - 5.5

Grace and Truth - Jennifer Johnston - 8

Exit Music - Ian Rankin - 7

Kinch - Matt Brown - 3

Half of a yellow sun - 8

Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones - 5.7

This book will save your Life - AM Homes - 8.5

Never Let me go - Kazuo Ishiguro - 6.5

War of the Worlds - HG Wells - 10

Shock - Robin Cook - 1

Other Peoples Children - Joanne Trollope -2

Books I read are up next - hopefully a few more hits perhaps??

The Deportees - Roddy Doyle - 6

In the company of the courtesan - 4

The Trial - Franz Kafka - 10

Attachment - Lynda Tavakoli - 7

The Speckled People - Hugo Hamilton - 6

Bleachers - John Grisham - 6.5

Becoming a Writer - Dorothea Brande - 11

Teach Yourself writing a Novel - Nigel Watts - 8

What I loved - Siri Hustvedt - 8

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - Haruki Murakami - 9

The Inheritance of Loss - Kirin Disrai - 4.5

Altered States - Anita Brookner - 5

Hatter's Castle - AJ Cronin - 8

The Ginger Man - JP Dunleavy - 9.4

Tales of Ordinary Madness - Charles Bukowski - 9.2

Be my Knife - David Grossman - 10

Out Stealing Horses - Per Peterson - 7

The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi - 10

De Niro's Game - Rawi Hage - 8

This Boy's Life - Tobias Wolfe - 8.5

Are you Somebody - Nuala O Faolain - 7.8

Black Baby - Clare Boylan - 8

Secret Life of Bees - Sue Mark Kid - 6.5

Blind Faith - Ben Elton - 8.5

Things you should know - A M Homes - 10

Bad Day at Blackrock - Kevin Power - 8.5

Wheels - Arthur Hailey - 8.5

South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami - 9.9

Armageddon in Retrospect - Kurt Vonnegut - 8

Swann's Way - Proust - 10

So that's all folks - won't have as long a list for a few years again I'd say - what with the shorter commute not being as good for listening to a good yarn. Apart from that - at least you didn't have to sit through last years list - which would have included Flanimals 1 and 2. If you've bought me one of the above books for christmas - you still have a couple of days to sort it out - not that I wouldn't be grateful anyway - of course.