So, you're looking at my blog and you're thinking she challenged herself to read 100 books in a year, and look, there's Genus it's book number 100 - she did it. Good for her. Not so, I'm a fraud. Scroll back, back and back again, back to number 8 on this list The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. I didn't finish The Corrections, never returned to finish it as I said I would and with 6 hours left of New Years Eve and somewhere else to be, I'm not going to. So I have failed my challenge, and I have failed my challenge by ONE book alone. It's such a kick in the teeth. I'm probably going to hate Jonathan Franzen for the rest of my life for this, him and his appalling sex writing about warm rabbits etc.
But, I suppose I also failed the challenge on technicalities, I said that I would finish every book I started and I didn't, books I began and have yet to complete are
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Book Of Human Skin by Michelle Lovric
Last Night In Twisted River by John Irving
Though I will probably at some stage read these books I can guarantee you I will not complete:
Critical Mass by Philip Ball a science book so breathtakingly awful that it has winged its way to a charity shop already.
I acknowledged to the blog none of these failures! So I guess I have failed on technicalities!
It's my own fault I failed, had I read one more book in either August, October or November which were quiet months in reading output terms I wouldnt be in this position.
For me my books of the year this year were :
1. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
2. A Song Of Ice And Fire (First 5 novels) by George RR Martin
3. The End Of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas
4. The Vintners Luck by Elizabeth Knox
5. Genus by Jonathan Trigell
6. A Sense Of An Ending by Julian Barnes
7. Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch
8. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
9. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
10. Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence
These are the books that I will recommend beyond this year an interesting mash up of both halves of the year, with Fingersmith the outright winner and with the wooden spoon landing squarely upon There But For The by Ali Smith.
With the 100 books of the year challenged failed on New Years Eve with 99 books, alls I can say is challenge remains unmet, on with the challenge. If at first you don't succeed try again, bring on the class of 2012 : HAPPY NEW YEAR and THANKS FOR READING!!!!!!!
Grrr!
ReplyDelete:P to Jonathan Franzen. Never liked him anyway (never heard of him tbh)
I applaud you for what you have achieved though. I can never bring myself to finish books that don't grab me within the first few pages. This is as a result of reading a John Irving book but hating it and getting more than halfway through before consigning it to the bin!
Susan
ARRRGGGH, I know! which Irving? I've read several, Owen Meany, Garp, Until I Find You and The Fourth Hand,I had particular problems with the content of Until I Find You, but I did finish the book. He can be tricky, but there's something about his tone, that I've been able to appreciate. All his books are weird though, in their own ways.
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