The best books you read in 2010
I know it's silly to ask people to list their to three or anything like that because people often go way over the limit but maybe anything that you read in 2010 that you would give five stars or just anything that was a real standout.
Mine:
The Cold Six Thousand by James Ellroy
Last Days by Brian Evenson
Twilight by William Gay
Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller
The Dying Animal by Philip Roth
Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr
Mine:
Last Exit to Brooklyn Selby Jr.
Dispatches of the Sporting Life Mordecai Richler
Empire of Illusion Chris Hedges
Imperial Bedrooms Bret Easton Ellis
The Castle Kafka
The Plague Albert Camus
Dostoevsky biography by Joseph Frank
The Double Dostoevsky
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago
American Pastoral by Philip Roth
Blank Gaze by Jose Luis Peixoto
Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence
Mr Vertigo by Paul Auster
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
thanks for sharing.blackhawk tactical pants.
— Spambot
"I could have done worse!" exultantly cried the murderer Lebret, sentenced at Rouen to hard labor for life. — Félix Fénéon
I read so many books in a year... How am I supposed to remember which ones I read this year?
The Cider House Rules - John Irving
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Dune - Frank Herbert
Just kidding, I hated Dune so much.
I read a lot, so if I give it more thought, I think I'll have more to add in here. 2010 was a good year for reading. 
The Lovely Bones seems to be hit or miss. I know people who loved it and I know people who hated it. Nobody seems to say it was just ok. I personally hated it. But that's just me.
You can just say any books you like. No one will ever know if you read them last year or not.
Yeah, I don't think I've ever talked to a man who liked it.
Oh! I looooved that book you sent me. I already gushed about it, but it really was a great book.
Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
The Contortionist's Mother Fucking Handbook.
Fuck.
Yeah.
This is why we can't have nice things.
The World According to Garp - John irving
Lady Chatterly's Lover - DH Lawrence
Kockroach - that one guy
Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott
David Copperfield - Dickens
I know there were a ton more, but I sure can't remember right now.
"I'm glad I live in the GPS era. In a different century, I would've set off to visit the other side of the village and wandered off into the mountains and been eaten by a carnivorous plant. Or discovered the Americas."
-LaJessica
Fiction:
Transubstantiate by Richard Thomas
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Women & love is a dog from hell by Charles Bukowski
Non-Fiction:
The Puppet and the Dwarf by Slavoj Zizek
The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris
Republic by Plato
| adj | facebook | an american atheist| warmed and bound |
CRAP! I forgot one!
This is why we can't have nice things.
You can just say any books you like. No one will ever know if you read them last year or not.
I kept track of what I read last year for no particularly useful reason but it made it easy to look back.
I'm going to cross-check everyones lists with all the It's (whatever month) and I'm reading... threads to make sure you're all being honest.
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut (I was so late to reading this I'm ashamed)
Lolita -Nabakov
Your Name Written on Water - Irene Gonzalez Frei
The Book of Illusions - Paul Auster
Torture the Artist - Joey Goebel
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Contortionist's Hanbook - Craig Clavenger
A Song of Ice and Fire (series) - George RR Martin
Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski
The Contortionist's Handbook, Craig Clevenger
How To Be Good, Nick Hornby
High Fidelity, Nick Hornby
Hm, there must be more.
The People of Paper - Salvador Plascencia
Hard Rain Falling - Don Carpenter
I read so much this year, and so much quality work, it's hard to put a finger on even a couple. '09 and '10 were really eye-opening years for me literature-wise.
I read a few last year.
Just a few. Rough estimate, how many you think you read last year, Derek. For me, I'd say somewhere around the 100 mark would be a fair guess.
You can just say any books you like. No one will ever know if you read them last year or not.
Good call!
Yeah, I don't think I've ever talked to a man who liked it.
Oh! I looooved that book you sent me. I already gushed about it, but it really was a great book.
Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
I'm really happy you liked it. Our taste are pretty different so I had to make a lot of research. King was the only thing we really had in common it seems. And you seem to buy the new stuff pretty quickly so he was out. That was the first time I sent somebody a book I hadn't read.
Have you read anything else by her since then? I've been meaning to buy myself a copy of Case Histories since you liked it so much.
I read 140 books last year. I keep a count of them in a notebook then at theend of the year I update my wishlist. I need to go through all I read and see what stood out.
Last year was trhe first time I started rereading books.
Last year was trhe first time I started rereading books.
I should probably start doing this. I've been thinking of writing the date I read a book in the book in pencil, but I would have to look through my books to see when I read them. I thought that goodreads would do this for me, but it's too much of a hassle and I don't keep up with it.
It would be so easy to throw a notebook on one of my bookshelves so when I finish a book I just grab the notebook and write the title and date down.
TCH
The Virgin Suicides
Candy
The Delivery Man
Beat the Reaper
I keep track of the books that are on my list in a journal. But I don't note the ones that aren't on the list. I probably should though.
"I'm glad I live in the GPS era. In a different century, I would've set off to visit the other side of the village and wandered off into the mountains and been eaten by a carnivorous plant. Or discovered the Americas."
-LaJessica
The Virgin Suicides
Candy
The Delivery Man
Beat the Reaper
Did you like The Delivery Man? I read it on 09 and I didn't love it, I guess because to me it was the same as reading Less Than Zero, and I can only read that book so many times under different titles.
The Vigin Suicides was awesome. Have you read Middlesex?
Have you read anything else by her since then? I've been meaning to buy myself a copy of Case Histories since you liked it so much.
I have not read any of her other books, but I aim to eventually!
Middlesex is amazing.
"I'm glad I live in the GPS era. In a different century, I would've set off to visit the other side of the village and wandered off into the mountains and been eaten by a carnivorous plant. Or discovered the Americas."
-LaJessica
The Virgin Suicides
Candy
The Delivery Man
Beat the Reaper
Did you like The Delivery Man? I read it on 09 and I didn't love it, I guess because to me it was the same as reading Less Than Zero, and I can only read that book so many times under different titles.
The Vigin Suicides was awesome. Have you read Middlesex?
Have you read anything else by her since then? I've been meaning to buy myself a copy of Case Histories since you liked it so much.
I have not read any of her other books, but I aim to eventually!
Case Histories Added to my Wishlist. Ive been meaning to check out her books for ages.
The Virgin Suicides
Candy
The Delivery Man
Beat the Reaper
Did you like The Delivery Man? I read it on 09 and I didn't love it, I guess because to me it was the same as reading Less Than Zero, and I can only read that book so many times under different titles.
The Vigin Suicides was awesome. Have you read Middlesex?
Have you read anything else by her since then? I've been meaning to buy myself a copy of Case Histories since you liked it so much.
I have not read any of her other books, but I aim to eventually!
Case Histories Added to my Wishlist. Ive been meaning to check out her books for ages.
I predict you will love it!
The Virgin Suicides
Candy
The Delivery Man
Beat the Reaper
Did you like The Delivery Man? I read it on 09 and I didn't love it, I guess because to me it was the same as reading Less Than Zero, and I can only read that book so many times under different titles.
The Vigin Suicides was awesome. Have you read Middlesex?
Have you read anything else by her since then? I've been meaning to buy myself a copy of Case Histories since you liked it so much.
I have not read any of her other books, but I aim to eventually!
I loved The Delivery Man...so much so that I tracked down Joe for an interview so I could pick his brain a little. And yeah, I can see the parallels between his book and LTZ, both thematically and stylistically, but I think Joe's really stands on it's own. If it had taken place in New York instead of Vegas, I think that would've pigeon-holed Joe as a watered-down Ellis, kind of like Nick McDonell when he came out with Twelve. It's almost like you can't write about twenty-somethings behaving badly without getting the Ellis comparison, or Salinger, but this the subject matter a lot of authors are drawn to, especially the younger ones.
Yeah, love Middlesex. Eugenides is about as perfect an author you can get IMO.
Yeah, love Middlesex. Eugenides is about as perfect an author you can get IMO.
qft
"I'm glad I live in the GPS era. In a different century, I would've set off to visit the other side of the village and wandered off into the mountains and been eaten by a carnivorous plant. Or discovered the Americas."
-LaJessica
Super Sad Love Story, Gary Shteyngart
Great House, Nicole Krauss
The Mind's Eye, Oliver Sacks
Columbine, Dave Cullen
Sourland: Stories, Joyce Carol Oates
The Human Stain, American Pastoral, Sabbath's Theater, Philip Roth (^5, Phil!)
Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer
The Ones That Got Away, Stephen Graham Jones (I've only read three of the stories so far, but based on those, I'm going ahead and add it to my list.)
The Girl With Brown Fur by Stacey Levine
I really need to check out Columbine. I hear nothing but great things about it.
I forgot Things Fall Apart by Chinue Achebe
"I'm glad I live in the GPS era. In a different century, I would've set off to visit the other side of the village and wandered off into the mountains and been eaten by a carnivorous plant. Or discovered the Americas."
-LaJessica
It's pretty amazing.
This is old, but I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and couldn't put it down (it has been a while for a book to do that to me).
As far as I can tell I only read 48 books last year. This is disappointing. Only 27 of those were on my list. At this rate I will never finish!
"I'm glad I live in the GPS era. In a different century, I would've set off to visit the other side of the village and wandered off into the mountains and been eaten by a carnivorous plant. Or discovered the Americas."
-LaJessica
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down (stories)
Bleed Into Me (stories)
Leaving Las Vegas
The Manual of Detection
Thankfully Goodreads lets me sort by date read.
Beat the Reaper - JB
The Death of Ivan Ilych - LT
House of Leaves - MD
Less Than Zero - BEE
Wise Blood - FO
Cat's Cradle - KV
Filth - IW
Why am I drawing a blank? I should probably check Shelfari.
As beautiful and tragic as a flower on a grave.
The Virgin Suicides
Candy
The Delivery Man
Beat the Reaper
Did you like The Delivery Man? I read it on 09 and I didn't love it, I guess because to me it was the same as reading Less Than Zero, and I can only read that book so many times under different titles.
The Vigin Suicides was awesome. Have you read Middlesex?
Have you read anything else by her since then? I've been meaning to buy myself a copy of Case Histories since you liked it so much.
I have not read any of her other books, but I aim to eventually!
I loved The Delivery Man...so much so that I tracked down Joe for an interview so I could pick his brain a little. And yeah, I can see the parallels between his book and LTZ, both thematically and stylistically, but I think Joe's really stands on it's own. If it had taken place in New York instead of Vegas, I think that would've pigeon-holed Joe as a watered-down Ellis, kind of like Nick McDonell when he came out with Twelve. It's almost like you can't write about twenty-somethings behaving badly without getting the Ellis comparison, or Salinger, but this the subject matter a lot of authors are drawn to, especially the younger ones.
Yeah, love Middlesex. Eugenides is about as perfect an author you can get IMO.
I forgot about The Delivery Man. It was really excellent. If there hadn't been so much said about how similar it was to Less Than Zero I don't think I would have even noticed. The writing is somewhat similar to Ellis' but the books are completely different.
Book of the year, for me, has to be:
"The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore" by Benjamin Hale.
Good god if you could ever describe writing as lasagna, that book would be it. Can't wait to see the reactions to it in 2011...
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke)
Life : A User's Manual (Georges Perec)
Searching for John Ford (Joseph McBride)
The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg
Boredom Alberto Moravia
Roman o Londonu Miloš Crnjanski
Tom Perrotta - Little Children
Clevenger - The Contortionist's Handbook
Patrick Marber - Closer
Blankets - Craig Thompson
Philip Roth - The Dying Animal
Will Elliot - The Pilo Family Circus
Looks like it was a good year for TCH.
"I'm glad I live in the GPS era. In a different century, I would've set off to visit the other side of the village and wandered off into the mountains and been eaten by a carnivorous plant. Or discovered the Americas."
-LaJessica
Life : A User's Manual (Georges Perec)
I've often seen that Susanna Clarke around and wondered if it's any good. I might pick it up since you liked it so much.
The Perec is one of my favourites.
That and The Virgin Suicides are probably going to be the two books I read every year.
Damn The Virgin Suicides is a good book. As is TCH. I recently got my copy back from a friend. So I think I'll read it again soon.
I think I read Dermaphoria in 2010, so that would be on my list.
Also, The Postman Rings Twice and Pop.1280. Both great novels. Especially Postman. I really got (am getting) lost in the dark and dangerous world of noir in 2010. Baer and Clevenger kind of kicked me down the rabbit hole and i've been swirling, reading while swirling, of course, ever since, lost in the dark. I don't think I'll be back any time soon. Thanks to The Cult for introducing me to Baer and Clevenger. Best. Thing. Ever.
I actually read a shit-ton of short stories last year, and a lot of the brilliant stuff I read was in that form. Not collections, but shorts in journals, online, here in the workshop and so on.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Micheal Chabon
I dug it
Oh, I forgot Blankets by Craig Thompson. My first graphic novel and I loved it.
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