Sunday, July 6, 2008

I Love Books




I am supposed to be making a booklist for my pregnant Melbourne buddy, the only smart one from school (apart from moi, in our circle of jocks and social climbers anyway). I loathe going to Borders without knowing what to get, finding myself frazzled  by all the designer dust jackets and busting to go to the loo, it must be just the smell of books that makes me want to 'go'. At home we have Gabriel Garcia Marquez short stories as a loo read. At age 18 a family friend put together a great list for me of 'must reads', they were all fantastic, none of which are included below.

On this list there might be one you like or have not read yet. After trolling our fiction section these fell on me. Must get shelves. Authors with an asterisk I've found good for more than one book:


'The Time Traveler's Wife'  - Audrey Niffenegger
'The Mists of Avalon' -  Marion Zimmer Bradley
'The Dice Man' - Luke Rhinehart
'Moon Palace' - Paul Auster *
'The Way I Found Her' - Rose Tremain *
'Lost in a Good Book' - Jasper Fforde
'The Clan of the Cave Bear'  - Jean M.Auel (series) * 
'Atomised' - Michel Houellebecq *
'Eucalyptus' - Murray Bail
'The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency' - Alexander McCall Smith *
'The Red Tent' - Anita Diamant
'Year of Wonders' - Geraldine Brooks
'Staring at the Sun' - Julian Barnes *
'The Restraint of Beasts' - Magnus Mills  *
'The Old Patagonian Express' - Paul Theroux * - non fiction but hilarious and also excellent fiction writing depending on where you start.


In bookstores I find myself wistfully looking at all the books I've already read, wishing I'd never read them yet, and wonder what the fuck I'm supposed to read now. Please return me a list of your favourites (doesn't have to be the definative list as mine isn't), but I've loved all these books.


No comments: