Six months of unemployment helped me get through a few books this year. It's telling that I got a job two weeks after I started reading War And Peace so it took me four months to read. All in all it's been a good year for books read. I could have written lengthy analyses at the time but, instead, here's some glib comments which have been given little thought on each book in the order in which I read them.
Ethan Canin - America America
I began this at the tail end of last year but read enough of it for to be classed as one of this year's books. It's now almost twelve months and I wish I'd written something about it at the time by way of review or commentary. I thought it was really good at the time. It has deliberate parallels with Edward Kennedy's incident at Chappaquiddick but also refers to this so it's not meant to be an entirely fictional account. I thought of it as a grand family saga which reminded me of the Tolstoy I had yet to read.
Cormac McCarthy - The Road
I was essentially disappointed with this. Many people had told me it was very good but I just couldn't connect with it. I "got it" as an extended poem but I found myself thinking, "Yes, I get it, is this all there is?" Part of the problem may have been that I read it too sporadically instead of in a few short sittings. I may give it another go at some point.
Ian Rush - Autobiography
My granddad gave me this after he'd read it. Ian Rush was my favourite player when I was 8/9 years old. I read the first version of his autobiography around about that age. I was interested to read about Rush's time in Italy and the truth behind "it was like living in a foreign country" which Rush claims was said by Kenny Dalglish in a press conference for a laugh. It was a passable read but nothing special. Plus, I knew what I would read next.
Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina
I approached this with some caution. Despite its acclaim, I was concerned that it would be an Austen style novel about social conventions amongst the Russian aristocracy. In other words, a book that girls like. That was an aspect of it but I found it interesting and there there was so much more. This is one of the greatest books I have ever read. It was a revelation. I can only assess it from the Maude English translation but Tolstoy writes brilliantly in both style and structure. I also liked some of the philosophical musings, especially the spiritual enlightenment which occurs towards the end of the novel. The most unfortunate aspect of this is that it tends to be sold as a great love story but that's only a small part of an epic novel.
Denis Leary - Why We Suck
A repetitious comedy book which has its point and jokes stretched out to about 200 thin pages. Far too much filler.
Jonathan Wilson - Inverting The Pyramid
A history and examination of football tactics could be very boring but that isn't so in Wilson's interesting and inquisitive book.
Oscar Wilde - The Picture Of Dorian Gray
This had sat on my shelf for years without being touched. I was glad when I finally read it as it's an excellent novella. I liked the themes it explores.
James Ellroy - American Tabloid
Part one of Ellroy's Underworld USA Trilogy. I first read this in 2001 and it's the first time in years that I've re-read a book. I generally seek to read something new (to me) but as the paperback edition of Blood's A Rover was due out I needed to remind myself of what happened in the first two parts. I thought this was brilliant when I first read it that excitement couldn't be repeated on second reading so many years later.
James Ellroy - The Cold Six Thousand
I had struggled to read this when it first came out in paperback circa 2002 due to Ellroy's increasingly sparse prose. Ellroy has since said that he may have gone too far in his economy of words. Rather than making it simpler, it's akin to watching split seconds of information and trying to keep up. That said, I gave it greater focus this second time round and probably enjoyed it more than American Tabloid.
James Ellroy - Blood's A Rover
The long awaited final part of Ellroy's trilogy. Ellroy's a great writer but his plotting can become so elaborate (or "Byzantine" as I learnt from reading other reviews) that it's very easy to be at points where it's hard to know who is who, what they did and how they ended up where they are. However, its diversion from the Kennedys was of little interest to me in 2002 but heroin trafficking in mid-60s Vietnam was now of greater interest,
Ben Goldacre - Bad Science
After some 1700 pages of James Ellroy's stylised prose I opted for a simple popular science book which debunks much of today's pseudo-science such as homoeopathy and anything involving Gillian McKeith. There is, however, some balance in that Goldacre recognises the value that a placebo can have.
John Howard Griffin - Black Like Me
In 1959 white journalist John Howard Griffin used medication and deep tanning lotion to make himself appear black and travelled through America's Deep South to experience life as a black man. What Griffin documents is both shocking and moving.
Fyodr Dostoevsky - Crime And Punishment
This was a novel that I'd thought about reading for a number of years but never got round to it. I'd bought it shortly before Anna Karenina and intended to read it first. Having read Tolstoy I think I compared this unfairly. I don't know if it was the translation but the style was far scruffier than Tolstoy's. As a result, this was a disappointment to me. That's not to say it's bad, I just thought I would really like it and I didn't.
Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanski - Why England Lose: & Other Curious Football Phenomena Explained
This started off well as a new way of looking at football but after a few chapters I lost interest and skipped quite a bit.
Lee Hill - Easy Rider (BFI Modern Classics)
I'd forgotten I'd read this. An extended essay on the film.
Chuck Palahniuk - Fight Club
This is much closer to the film than I expected. It's such a short book that it's hard to add comment.
Kevin Booth - Bill Hicks: Agent Of Evolution
This book needed a better editor. Having read a Cynthia True's earlier biography of Hicks, American Scream, I thought this, compiled and written by his friend would add more insight. Unfortunately, many anecdotes are repeated by different people and it's not until Hicks's very late years that one learns a few things that were not in American Scream. Another glaring omission is a record of Hicks's material at the time. I'm very familiar with Hicks main body of work but I would have liked to have read more of what made him good as a very young comic.
Leo Tolstoy - War And Peace
Having found Anna Karenina to be a revelation I was looking forward to this but delayed reading it due to its length - I wanted to commit to it. I thought this was an excellent book which was a pleasure to read. The only problem was that, after starting a new job and commuting every day, I opted to nap on the train instead of reading this. The final section of the book (The Second Epilogue) is more a collection of essays and musings on the nature of determinism and the Great Man theory. I was keen to have finished this by the end of the year so skimmed over this last section. Regardless of that, I can say, "I've read War And Peace".
Michael Foley - The Age Of Absurdity
An excellent birthday gift from a friend. Foley examines contemporary life with reference to philosophy and psychology. I can't claim to have thought of everything in this book but many of the ideas broached are in line with some of the thoughts I've occupied myself with. The difference is that I haven't articulated them so well.
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