Books 2011

Following the lead of a couple of friends, I’m going to set myself a slightly different reading challenge this year.  In previous years I’ve just set myself a target of a number of books (and a couple of years ago I set an overly ambitious target and ended up judging books by how quick they would be to read, not how satisfying they might be).

So, this year, I’ll draft a list of books I want to read plus an overall target.  The list will only be a small proportion of the books I want to read, and will only include books I already own.  That’s my rules.

And here’s the list – I’ll come back to it and embolden things as they are read.  I may even do the odd book review, although I suspect they will be very odd (and rarer still).

1. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.  My first book group book of the year, and also my first book of the year.  Half read at the time of first writing this.
2. One Day by David Nicholls. Bought at a charity shop the other day.  Oxfam in Hamilton if you want to know.
3. Room by Emma Donohue – it was one of the favourite books of staff at the Book Fest in 2010.
4. One Good Turn and When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson.  I own both of these, and loved the first in the series: Case Histories.
5. The Siege by Helen Dunmore, recommended by my friend and fellow bibliophile Louise K.
6. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.  I bought this ages ago, as it had been on my wish list for a while.  But I never read it, and it’s still sitting on my shelf, occasionally winking at me.
7. An Elizabeth David book – not sure which one yet, but I feel I should read one of them.
8. The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney.  I bought this as soon as it came out in paperback, before it won the Costa.  But again, never got round to reading it yet.
9. Away by Amy Bloom – received from my sis-in-law for Christmas 2010 and looks good (and relatively short).
10. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.  I think I got this last year for Christmas as part of a Not So Secret Santa Surprise from a bookcrossing buddy.  I feel I should read it and pass it on, especially as I’ve never read anything by La Atwood.
11. Ulysses by James Joyce – received with The Blind Assassin as part of the same Surprise.  I suspect that I may only start this in 2011, and take some years before I manage to read it through from cover to cover.

I suspect I’ll also read the new Niccolo Amanitti book and the latest Gerard Woodward (Nourishment).

I’ll strike through books as I read them.

24 January 2011

I have now read One Day. It was an engaging enough read, but I spent the whole of the book feeling as though I’d read it before, or seen the movie.  I know I haven’t, but it all seemed so familiar (or perhaps predictable).

Tags: books, lists