Again, like last year, I managed to get through some fantastic books over the past 12 months. Actually, as I look at the list right now - damn - some great books I’ve been able to read. There were a couple of strange asides from what I would call my normal reading tastes, but also plenty of more standard fare as well. I have made substantially fewer comments about the books this year and have left a bunch off of this list. Anyway, here it is…

My picks of the lot:

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole 

The best character I read all year. Ignatius J. Reilly - a lazy, over-educated, grandstanding, southern behemoth with a valve problem.

Rabbit Redux by John Updike

This book is a masterpiece. The second installment of the ‘Rabbit Omnibus’ shows us another, seemingly once per decade, collapse of the life of Rabbit Angstrom. If you want to read about suburbia, here you go. Updike is a master. It is impossible to distinguish between the first and second books. Will surely finish the series this year. I have no choice.

The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris

This book got me at a time where I was ripe for the picking. Heartbreaking doesn’t begin to describe this story of a life suddenly falling apart.

Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon

I feel like he’s talking straight to me. Am currently devouring everything he has written.

Some Other Favourites:

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Thoughts HERE

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

Voted Guardian best book of the past 25 years for good reason. The title says it all.

The World According to Garp by John Irving

Nice to read something occasionally where everything ties up neatly in the end. Fantastic read and my first Irving experience.

White Noise by Don Delillo

Harsh, morbid, pessimistic, and funny. Dellilo goes after the modern family, consumerism, academia, industry, and more, and he does it brilliantly of course.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Beautifully written short stories that, in my mind, rivals here earlier Pulitzer winning Interpreter of Maladies.

Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut

Thoughts HERE

Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut sums it up best, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” Vonnegut’s tale of the tangled webs we all weave.

Light in August by William Faulkner

Maybe my favourite Faulkner tale other than The Bear.

Everyman by Philip Roth

First book of Roth’s I have read. A man’s life in retrospect - full of guilt and pride. Fantastic stuff.

Patrimony by Philip Roth

Thoughts HERE

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Thoughts HERE

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I must say, I have always been more of a Hemingway guy, but this Fitzgerald book doesn’t just tell you the story of the Jazz Age, it also gives you the truth. No one is as wonderful as they seem. There are some people who never get any better than the day you meet them. This book seemed like a more in-depth Gatsby - how peeling back the layers of people isn’t ever pretty. How we are all damaged by each other no matter what we choose to show the world. Beautiful.

Visions of Gerard by Jack Kerouac

Thoughts HERE

Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

Classic.

People of the Abyss by Jack London

Thoughts HERE

On Writing by Stephen King

Thoughts HERE

Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

My favourite Kerouac yet.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

This book is growing on me since I put it down a few months back. I think there is a lot I missed that Ishiguro put in there that I am interested in finding out.

Sex, Drugs, & Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

Biting, smart, fun. Klosterman seems like the type of guy I would have loved to of met backpacking around wherever when I was in college. We could have got drunk together, listen to his insights on everything from soccer in America to metal cover bands, then, after a few nights, say goodbye and go our separate ways before we got on each others nerves.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Clever, well-written, great story. One of the most unique narrators around.

Ape & Essence by Aldous Huxley

Thoughts HERE

Netherland by Joseph O’Neill

Thoughts HERE

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway’s tales of Paris in the 20’s.

To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Woolf makes you work for everything in her writing. It took me a good half dozen tries over the past 10 years to finally develop the fortitude to make it through this one. Well, well worth it in the end.

Paradise by Donald Barthelme

First book of Barthelme’s I have read. Knocked it out on a road trip down to Seattle this past summer. A quick, easy, interesting read.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

This was a tough read for me as I am the father of a young girl. Will re-visit this one in a few years time. Nabokov is working on some other level though and you need only read a few passages to get that from this book.

The Damned Utd by David Peace

Brian Clough was a legend. Wish he was still around.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

This was a tough read for me. Story of how both the complexity of grief and the simplicity of merely occupying the same space affects the women in this book. Robinson is amazing.

Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon

Read this after The Crying of Lot 49. Fun, and much easier read. I heard it described as Pynchon-light. I’d agree with that.

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

Funny and with some of the darkness we would see in The Unnamed.

Men and Cartoons by Jonathan Lethem

Funny pulp-fictiony compilation of short stories

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski

Tore my heart out. Thoughts HERE

Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut on Modern art. Enjoyed it.

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Thoughts HERE

Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Thoughts HERE

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Thoughts HERE

Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck

Sequel to Cannery Row. I forgot what happened in Cannery Row, it had been so long since I had read it. Will have to get back to it for a re-read this year, then re-read Sweet Thursday. Sad, nostalgic, sorrowful. Also a bit preachy, but it wouldn’t be Steinbeck if there weren’t some of that in there.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Thoughts HERE

She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem

Thoughts HERE

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Like To The Lighthouse, I had tried this book on a few times before getting through it earlier this year. Great book. Wish I would of read it 15 years ago when I should have. I call this the ‘Siddihartha Syndrome’ and it happens to me a lot.

Under the Dome by Stephen King

Thoughts HERE

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Didion’s wonderful memoir of dealing with grief of her husbands’ death.

Sons & Lovers by DH Lawrence

Posted this at the start of the year regarding Lawrence. I thought about it the whole way through this book. Amazing, apparently semi-autobiographical book.

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Cracking book. Just finishing it now. There are a few characters here that make me wonder if Murray based them on me at certain points in my life.

Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut

KV on politics - Watergate, Nixon, Labor. Very good book.