So, 2010 has only a few days left doesn’t it? It’s that time of year people when start to get all nostalgic about what they’ve done and start to plan all the things that they’re going to do for next year. I’m not really one for doing that stuff. In terms of planning, I don’t like to plan anything too far ahead (a month at most). I’m more of a ‘let’s just see what happens kind of guy’, rather than watch long-made plans crumble around me. There are exceptions to this rule but not many. I’ve achieved more than I thought I would this year, so all I can hope for is more of the same in 2011.
I’ve decided to list the five best and five worst books I’ve read this year. I’ve read some of the best and definitely some of the worst ever written.
Top five worst first:
(1) The Secret Crown by Chris Kuzneski. This is a contender for the worst novel ever written. I could go into detail, but I’ll just make myself angry. Avoid it.
(2) Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel. A steaming pile of shite. Martel is up his own arse with the success of Life of Pi and this follow-up was a joke of a book.
(3) Greybeard by Brian Aldiss. The fact that I read a re-print, and it was still full of grammar mistakes, is not even the start of the problems of this ‘classic’. With lines such as, ‘The moon hung like a undescended testicle low in the belly of the sky…’ on page 146, you can get the drift of how bad this one is.
(4) Novgorod the Great by Andrew Drummond. This novel was just so boring. I had to force myself to finish it.
(5) The Postman by David Brin. Seemed like a first draft and dragged on and on. It was between this and Margaret Attwood’s Oryx and Crake , but this just edged it.
And the five best are:
(1) The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I finished this book on the 1st of January 2010, so it just made it. McCarthy’s best novel to date, and one of the best novels ever written.
(2) Night Sessions by Thomas Glavinic. A close second, and one of my all time favourites.
(3) The Raw Shark Texts by Stephen Hall. An outstanding novel.
(4) White by Marie Darrieussecq. A unique novel set in the Antarctica. Beautifully written.
(5) Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist. An excellent novel that was a fresh outlook in the zombie sub-genre.
That’s it.
Happy end of the year/ Christmas
