Listmania!
All the Books I Read in 2004
Bleak House (Penguin Classics)Bleak House (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £3.66
Definitely one of Dickens' finest. Who can forget the intractable Jarndyce v Jarndyce? A captivating read.
MiddlesexMiddlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Buy new: £5.39 / Used from: £0.01
An outstanding novel from a man I've never come across. This is a generational saga with a difference. The opening line still sticks in my head months afterwards.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-timeThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Buy used from: £1.50
A reasonable read but not sure quite what all the fuss is about. Gimmicky in places, it does do a good job of telling life from the point of view of someone with Asbergers Syndrome.
The Sittaford Mystery (Agatha Christie Signature Edition)The Sittaford Mystery (Agatha Christie Signature Edition) by Agatha Christie
Buy new: £5.24 / Used from: £0.01
One of Christie's best... I always think of the setting of this whenever I reread The Hound of the Baskervilles. Combine these two and there's a really good musical in the making!
Eats shoots and leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to PunctuationEats shoots and leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
Buy new: £6.59 / Used from: £0.01
Bought and read before the edition with the correcting pen came out. I'm definitely with Lynne Truss on the punctation Front Line here: the apostrophe will not die on my watch!
Morality for Beautiful Girls (No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency)Morality for Beautiful Girls (No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency) by Alexander McCall Smith
Buy new: £5.59 / Used from: £0.01
Another fun read about Bostwana and Mma Ramotswe and her clever human intuition. Not to be read if you want anything other than a gentle sitting-in-the-park-on-a-warm-summer's-day kind of read.
Once in a House on FireOnce in a House on Fire by Andrea Ashworth
Buy new: £6.08 / Used from: £0.01
A real surprise this one: recommended to me by a colleague, at the time I read this I lived only three streets away from the central setting of the novel. Weird to know it was mostly true!
You Shall Know Our VelocityYou Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers
Buy new: £0.84 / Used from: £0.01
A great digressive ramble through the eyes of two spontaneous travellers who fly off to various parts of Europe on a whim. Wonderful - a great comment on American foreign policy and its global might.
Brick LaneBrick Lane by Monica Ali
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.01
So so. Some of the description was fantastic but I didn't 'feel' the central relationship enough to care that much about it.
HolesHoles by Louis Sachar
Buy new: £0.61 / Used from: £0.10
A crackingly clever yarn for early teens. Camp Green Lake in the middle of a desert - I love it! A tale of trickery, history, peaches and onions!
Much Ado About Nothing (Penguin Shakespeare)Much Ado About Nothing (Penguin Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
Buy new: £1.92 / Used from: £0.70
Witty and funny, without being insifgnificant. I've really enjoyed teaching this this year.
The Autograph ManThe Autograph Man by Zadie Smith
Buy new: £10.46 / Used from: £0.01
The most woeful excuse for a book ever published. Expecting great things from this and this was even knowing how hard it was for her to write. Only the mini-essay about the Albert Hall matters.
Maggie: The First LadyMaggie: The First Lady by Brenda Maddox
Buy used from: £0.01
Not my kind of Lady but 'Respect' all the same.
Life and Times of Michael KLife and Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee
Buy new: £3.14 / Used from: £3.93
A brillaint read, if more of a novella than a fully fledged piece of writing. For the uninitiated about South Africa a great piece of writing. Moving in many ways.
The Handmaid's Tale (Contemporary Classics)The Handmaid's Tale (Contemporary Classics) by Margaret Atwood
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.27
Not given to dystopian fiction, this was an incredible read with just enough about the present in it to make you very afriad for the future. Stunning.
Language Change: Progress or Decay? (3rd Edition) (Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics): Progress or Decay? (Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics)Language Change: Progress or Decay? (3rd Edition) (Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics): Progress or Decay? (Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics) by Jean Aitchison
Buy new: £13.16 / Used from: £8.73
For A-level Language students out there a must-read. A rather assanine conclusion but incredibly insightful . Good material on Martha's Vineyard and Reading 'ing'.
Northanger Abbey (Penguin Classics)Northanger Abbey (Penguin Classics) by Jane Austen
Buy used from: £0.01
Really enjoyable: Catherine Morland is so believable and you feel every crushing embarrassment and youthful mistake as if it were your own. Jane Austen is a literary superstar.
Captain Corelli's MandolinCaptain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
Buy used from: £0.01
Moving and absorbing, A great novel with so much packed into it. The gay soldier chapters were incredible - and so unexpected. I love his character creation here. Sign me up for Catalonia right now!