I used to think that I read quite a lot. I always have a book on the go and rare is the day when I don't read at least a couple of pages. One thing that I have realised though over the last month or so is that although the quantity I read may be quite high, I do just rad quite a random assortment of what ever is available in the charity shop in the order I pick them up in.
Last week I picked up a leaflet in Waterstones advertising a three for two offer on their top 50 books of the decade (2000 – 2009). Now, although a three for two offer is quite good value I know that you can often get the same books cheaper online, but I was interested to see what they had included in their list. What worried me slightly though was that I've only actually read seven of them – yet at least another eight of them are somewhere is the displaced pile of books in the attic. My challenge for the year is therefore to try and read at least 45 of them before the year is out (I know, my reading time may be somewhat limited come June, so I'll try and squeeze as many as I can into the next four months!)
As an avid reader (and writing about everything I read on here too) it's amazing that one of the other things I've never done is take part in any sort of reading or book group. There is a quick-ish solution to this one though with the "Not the TV Book Group" that dovegreyreader and some fellow bloggers have started up. The selection of books that they will be covering is listed here, and I'm currently working my way through the first on the list: Brodeck's Report
by Philippe Claudel. The online discussion is due to take place on dovegreyreaders blog this Sunday, 7 February, so I'd better get reading!
If any of you are interested in the Waterstones books of the decade then the complete list (by year, with interestingly nothing from 2009) is below:
2000
-
The Blind Assassin
– Margaret Atwood
-
White Teeth
– Zadie Smith
-
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
– Michael Chabon
-
The Tipping Point
– Malcolm Gladwell
-
The Human Stain
– Phillip Roth
-
True History of the Kelly Gang
– Peter Carey
2001
-
It's Not About the Bike
– Lance Armstrong
-
The Corrections
– Jonathan Franzen
-
Life of Pi
– Yann Martel
-
Carter Beats the Devil
– Glen David Gold
-
Austerlitz
– W.G. Sebald
-
Noughts and Crosses
– Malorie Blackman
-
Atonement
– Ian McEwan
2002
-
The Lovely Bones
– Alice Sebold
-
Everything is Illuminated
– Jonathan Safran Foer
-
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
– Jon McGregor
-
The Crimson Petal and the White
– Michel Faber
-
Middlesex
– Jeffrey Eugenides
-
Fingersmith
– Sarah Waters
2003
-
Shantaram
– Gregory David Roberts
-
Persepolis
– Marjane Satrapi
-
Eats, Shoots and Leaves
– Lynne Truss
-
A Short History of Nearly Everything
– Bill Bryson
-
The Bookseller of Kabul
– Asne Seierstad
-
Inkheart
– Cornelia Funke
-
We Need To Talk About Kevin
– Lionel Shriver
2004
-
Dreams from My Father
– Barack Obama
-
Cloud Atlas
– David Mitchell
-
Suite Francaise
– Irene Nemirovsky
-
Runaway
– Alice Munro
2005
-
Arthur and George
– Julian Barnes
-
Never Let Me Go
– Kazuo Ishiguro
2006
-
The God Delusion
– Richard Dawkins
-
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
– John Boyne
-
The Secret
– Rhonda Byrne
-
Eat, Pray, Love
– Elizabeth Gilbert
-
The Tenderness of Wolves
– Stef Penney
-
Half of a Yellow Sun
– Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
2007
-
A Thousand Splendid Suns
– Khaled Hosseini
-
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
– Mohsin Hamid
-
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
– Junot Diaz
2008
-
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher
– Kate Summerscale
Auntie Doris says
I have read 8 of these and have another 3 on my bookshelf (or in boxes at the moment in preparation for the move!).
Think I might have to keep an eye out for some more of these in charity shops!!!