Your Favourite Books of 2010

[LitNetIsGreat]

Your favourite books of 2010 and why? (New reads to you)

After a little thinking mine are probably as follows:

Favourite Fiction: On Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
Favourite Non-Fiction: In Defence of Food by Michael Pollan

I greatly enjoyed the Maugham book. Quite simply I thought it was a great story, very well written and I enjoyed following the highs and lows of the protagonist throughout. It was one of these books where you completely ignore everything (and everyone) you until you have finished it. A very enjoyable novel.

In Defence of Food I read last week and can certainly identify with Pollan’s, no-nonsense, common sense approach to food and diet – local, organic, no crap (my triple, not Pollan’s, but sums-up his thinking somewhat). If you live in the western world, or eat a heavily westernised diet and don’t want heart-disease or cancer, you should probably read it too. As the cliché goes if you are going to read a book on food health it should most likely be this one.

Feel free to share yours and together we might come up with a few more books to add to the pile.

Edit: Here is Michael Pollan talking about his book if you are interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-t-7lTw6mA

[Silvia]

Grapes of Wrath, by J. Steinbeck. I developed very strong feelings towards the members of this family, and my attachment to some of them in particular grew so intense that it surprised me. I wish every novel could do that.
Some days ago a found a very cheap copy of Maugham's Of Human Bondage (4 euros) but resisted buying it, for I had previously set a limit in order not to buy every single book in the bookstore. Maybe, if it's still there, I might give it a go! It's a Bildungsroman, isn't it?

[LitNetIsGreat]

Grapes of Wrath, by J. Steinbeck. I developed very strong feelings towards the members of this family, and my attachment to some of them in particular grew so intense that it surprised me. I wish every novel could do that.
Some days ago a found a very cheap copy of Maugham's Of Human Bondage (4 euros) but resisted buying it, for I had previously set a limit in order not to buy every single book in the bookstore. Maybe, if it's still there, I might give it a go! It's a Bildungsroman, isn't it?

Yes I suppose you could say so - bitter lessons!

[richardparker]

as always Harry Potter :d
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[LitNetIsGreat]

Come on let's have some of your best books of 2010 - spread the joy.

[Seasider]

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James Caan
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selena Hastings
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Beautiful Shadow by Andrew Wilson. Bio of Patricia Highsmith
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Nemesis by Jo Nesbo
Ur by Stephen King...the main character is a Kindle!!
Thai Cookery Secrets
The Hard Way Lee Child

There are others I've enjoyed...but all these via Kindle

[TheChilly]

My picks for favorite books of 2010:

1) "Imperial Bedrooms", by Bret Easton Ellis
2) "War and Peace", by Leo Tolstoy
3) "Glue", by Irvine Welsh
4) "Already Dead: A California Gothic", by Denis Johnson

[Emil Miller]

The Pit by Frank Norris
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
Sword of Honour by Evelyn Waugh
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selena Hastings
Mad World by Paula Byrne

I read The Pit to complete my reading of the trilogy which also comprises McTeague and The Octopus,
terrific writing about the conflict between men and money in 19th century America.
I bought both the Waugh books for the same reason as I had already read much of his work and wanted
to progress further with his novels.
I went into a bookshop to buy Paula Byrne's biography of Waugh because it had been well received and
I saw Selina Hastings biography of W S Maugham, so I bought them both: partly because I had read other
biographies on Maugham and I wanted to see if she revealed anything new but, apart from highlighting Thomas
Mann's homosexuality, which had already been hinted at in Donald Prater's book Thomas Mann a Life, Maugham's
promiscuity had already be adequately covered in the definitive Maugham biography by Ted Morgan

[KilgoreT]

Catch-22- Joseph Heller
For Whom the Bell Tolls- Ernest Hemingway
Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achebe
A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess
The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck
Into the Wild- Jon Krakauer

[baaaaadgoatjoke]

I think my choice for 2010 is The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. I hated this one my first try and gave up after about 30 pages. I even made a thread here dissing it. The second time though. Wow. I didn't really get into it until about page 115 when Jake and Bill go down to Spain. At that point in the book, the terse dialogue and description stopped feeling empty and started to feel like an honest reflection of the way people interact with with each other and perceive their environment. I have to admit I'm a big believer in Iceberg Theory now.

As far as nonfiction I'll go with What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell. It's a collection of vignettes that range from birth control to Enron. I always find his stuff thought provoking, even when it's not the most academic or thorough.

Other great reads were Cat's Cradle (which I almost chose instead of SAR), Siddhartha, Animal Farm, and Of Mice and Men.

[faithosaurus]

Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice. I like how she puts her point of view on how God and the Devil are with one another and their interactions while the Devil was still an archangel and so forth. Also, her interpretation of Heaven and Hell.

[JuniperWoolf]

I discovered Margaret Atwood this year, and read a ton. My favorite was Oryx and Crake.

[Desolation]

Oh, I see, favorite book that I've read in 2010, not necessarily favorite book that was released in 2010.

Finally finishing Anna Karenina was a big deal for me. The discovery of Stendhal was also pretty pleasant.

Ultimately, though, my favorite thing that I read this year was definitely Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.

[AlfredtheGreat]

Anna Karenina and Into the Wild (again)

[grace86]

I eased back into reading after graduating last December, so nothing on my list is of the most mind boggling or philosophical nature, but I really did enjoy some:

Fiction

Things Fall Apart - Achebe
Lady Chatterley's Lover - Lawrence
Wuthering Heights - Bronte
Jane Eyre - Bronte
The Face of Deception - Johansen

Non Fiction

Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracey Kidder
The Blue Sweater - Jacqueline Novogratz

The fiction I enjoyed for their story but also because I gained a lot from reading them...as well as the non fiction. Both of those are about people who came from humble backgrounds but used what they learned to help those around the world in need.