Book Review....
22nd Aug 06
In the warm after-glow of radiothon, I imagine you’ll be thumbing
idly through the list of possible prizes: fantasising about where
you’ll ride on your new scooter, daydreaming about who you’ll
take to India with you or musing on what cut of meat will be
first onto your Rinnai BBQ. But what if you win the big one?
$2000 to spend at Readings Books and Music. How to spend a cool
two grand in the one bookshop? You could buy a whole lot of
cookbooks. Do your back carrying a 12 volume dictionary out the
door. Buy 80 copies of Players by Tony Wilson. Or…you could buy
the following:
This list isn’t definitive. This list isn’t going to make you
smarter, or mean that you’ve read everything you have to, or stop
you suffering from hangovers, or make those new shoes stop
rubbing. It is, however chock-full of terrific reads. $2000 worth
of considerable entertainment. I’ve only included one book by
each author (sometimes arbitrarily) and will argue to the death
with anyone who disses any of them. Apologies for favourites that
I’ve missed. Happy Shopping.
Michael
Last Chance to See Adams, Douglas
Alias Grace Atwood, Margaret
Pride & Prejudice Austen, Jane
The Regeneration Trilogy Barker, Pat
Life of Samuel Johnson Boswell, James
Wuthering Heights Bronte, Emily
The Lost Continent Bryson, Bill
In Cold Blood Capote, Truman
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Carver, Raymond
If On a Winter's Night a Traveller Calvino, Italo
The Plague Camus, Albert
Heart of Darkness Conrad, Joseph
Home at the End of the World Cunningham, Michael
The Witches Dahl, Roald
The Deptford Trilogy Davies, Robertson
The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Regions De Berniers,
Louis
The Leopard De Lampedusa, Giuseppe
Underworld DeLillo, Don
Great Expectations Dickens, Charles
Middlemarch Eliot, George
Four Quartets Eliott, TS
The Black Dahlia Ellroy, James
Middlesex Euginides, Jeffrey
A Multitude of Sins Ford, Richard
The Corrections Franzen, Jonathon
The Forsyte Saga Galsworthy, John
The Princess Bride Goldman, William
Carter Beats the Devil Gould, Glen David
The Secret River Grenville, Kate
Curious Incident of the Dog in Nighttime Haddon, Mark
Catch 22 Heller, Joseph
Child's Play Hill, Reginald
High Fidelity Hornby, Nick
Artist of the Floating World Ishiguro, Kazuo
What I Loved Hustvedt, Siri
Unreliable Memoirs James, Clive
Moral Hazard Jennings, Kate
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy LeCarre, John
To Kill a Mockingbird Lee, Harper
The David Lodge Trilogy Lodge, David
Stiff Maloney, Shane
Life of Pi Martell, Yann
Blood Meridian McCarthy, Cormac
Atonement McEwan, Ian
Love in a Cold Climate Mitford, Nancy
The Windup Bird Chronicles Murakami, Haruki
Lolita Nabokov, Vladimir
The Time Traveller's Wife Niffeneger, Audrey
In the Skin of a Lion Ondaatje, Michael
Collected Essays Orwell, George
A Confederacy of Dunce O'Toole, John Kennedy
Bel Canto Patchett, Ann
The Shipping News Proulx, E Annie
Black & Blue Rankin, Ian
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Rowling, JK
The God of Small Things Roy, Arundahti
Empire Falls Russo, Richard
Austerlitz Sebald, WG
The Lovely Bones Sebold, Alice
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim Sedaris, David
We Need to Talk About Kevin Shriver, Lionel
On Beauty Smith, Zadie
The Man Who Loved Children Stead, Christina
Of Mice and Men Steinbeck, John
Perfume Suskind, Patrick
Gulliver's Travels Swift, Jonathon
The Secret History Tartt, Donna
The Broken Shore Temple, Peter
The Heather Blazing Toibin, Colm
Anna Karenina Tolstoy, Leon
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (Aged 13 3/4) Townsend, Sue
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men Wallace, David Foster
The Cutting Room Welsh, Louise
The Solid Mandala White, Patrick
Players Wilson, Tony
The Turning Winton, Tim
Old School Woolf, Tobias
Mrs Dalloway Woolf, Virginia
Collected Poems Yeats, WB