Reflections on the puddle of life

As the year is nearly at an end I thought it was about time to post the list of books I've read over the course of the year. There's a lot of them; I'm lucky enough to spend 1 hour 30-40 minutes on the train every week day which is prime reading time. I'll probably make a fairly good start on The Sign of the Four tomorrow, but I doubt I'll finish it. Even I'm not that quick.

I've also been lucky to have read some truly brilliant books this year. There are some which stand out and others which have just been good, but mainly they've been great. Or perhaps I'm not a very discerning reader, who knows

So here's the list, in no particular order:

The Atom Station – Halldor Laxness
Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco
As I Lay Dying – William Faulkener
The Quickening Maze – Adam Foulds
The Heart of a Dog – Bulgakov
The Fish Can Sing – Halldor Laxness
The New York Trilogy – Paul Auster
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
After the Quake – Haruki Murakami
So the Wind Won’t Blow it All Away – Richard Brautigan
Snow Country – Yasunari Kawabata
The Double – Jose Saramago
Slow Man – J M Coetzee
The Fall – Albert Camus
In the Country of Last Things – Paul Auster
World Light – Halldor Laxness
Hunger – Knut Hamsun
The Man in the Dark – Paul Auster
The Lacuna – Barbara Kingsolver
Teach Us to Outgrow our Madness – Kenazaburo Oe
The Fall – Albert Camus
The Cave – Jose Saramago
The Reprieve – Jean Paul Sartre
Naïve Super – Erland Loe
The Illustrated Man – Ray Bradbury
The Age of Reason – Sartre
Lost Paradise – Cees Nooteboom (x3)
The Hawkline Monster – Richard Brautigan
Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury
The Body Artist – Don DeLillo
Rituals – Cees Nooteboom
Grendel – John Gardner (x2)
Victoria – Knut Hamsun
Death at Intervals – Jose Saramago
A Thousand Cranes – Yasunari Kawabata
The Plague – Albert Camus
Diary of a Mad Old Man – Junichiro Tanazaki
Beauty and Sadness – Yasunari Kawabata
Underground – Haruki Murakami
The Key – Junichiro Tanazaki
The Unlimited Dream Company – J G Ballard
Age of Iron – J M Coetzee
The Woman Destroyed – de Beauvoir
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ – Jose Saramago
Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy
Number9Dream – David Mitchell
A Confederate General at Big Sur – Richard Brautigan
The Path to the Spider’s Nest – Italo Calvino
Dreaming of Babylon – Richard Brautigan
Death and the Penguin – Audrey Kurkov
An Unfortunate Woman – Richard Brautigan
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J K Rowling
The Castle – Franz Kafka
The Disaster Area – J. G Ballard
Anthem – Ayn Rand
The Dark Labyrinth – Lawrence Durrell
Crash – J G Ballard
Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto
Candide – Voltaire
Anil’s Ghost – Michael Ondaatje
Therese Raquin – Emile Zola
Audition – Ryu Murakami
The Raw Shark Texts – Steven Hall
The Third Policeman – Flann O’Brien
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana – Umberto Eco
Sombrero Fallout – Richard Brautigan
On the Road: The Original Scroll – Jack Kerouac
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price – J K Rowling
Mr Palomar – Italo Calvino
A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

The x2 on Grendel and x3 on Lost Paradise is the number of times I've read them. You might not be surprised to learn that I found both of those books amazing.

I've discovered some fantastic authors: Jose Saramago, Halldor Laxness, Knut Hamsun, J M Coetzee, Ray Bradbury, J G Ballard, Simone de Beauvoir, Junichiro Tanizaki, Cees Nooteboom; and discovered some great works by old favourites: Yasunari Kawabata, Jean-Paul Sartre, Camus, Haruki Murakami, Richard Brautigan. I'll be reading more by all of them (if I have the time).

I've been giving some thought to my reading list for next year too. I'm definitely going to get Mysteries by Knut Hamsun, and continue to read more Japanese authors: Natsume Soseki, Naoyo Shiga, Banana Yoshimoto. I'd also like to read something by Saul Bellow, John Updike and Dostoevsky...and, who knows what else.

Any recommendations?

Happy New Year to you all. May 2010 bring you joy and great reading and health and happiness and love


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edit - I finished The Sign of the Four