The End of the Year's Approaching

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

...and with it will be a thousand "What were your favorite books of 2004" questions. What should I try to cram in by the end of the year to answer this intelligently?

― Jessa (Jessa), Monday, 8 November 2004 21:59 (twenty-one years ago)

What I've loved thus far this year:

Philip Roth's The Plot Against America
Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers
Michelle Tea's Rent Girl
James Kelman's You Have to Be Careful in the Land of the Free
Enki Bilal's The Beast Trilogy

― Jessa (Jessa), Monday, 8 November 2004 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

America (The Book).

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 8 November 2004 22:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the only other book from 2004 that I read was "Saskatchewan: The Roots Of Discontent And Protest", which was a pretty good argument against traditional economic studies told against the backdrop of Saskatchewan. But I realize I have specialized tastes here.

"Best book of the year" lists should not ever be written until at least fifty years later. "Best album of the year" can wait fifteen years.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 8 November 2004 22:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, who's brilliant enough to absorb it all PLUS read the stuff they're trying to catch up on from centuries past? If somebody asks me that, I'm likely to hem and haw and finally say "the best book I read this year was [book from ten years ago]."

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Monday, 8 November 2004 23:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Of the books I've read released) this year, The Line of Beauty was the best. I seem to have read a total of 5 published in 2004, so my frame of reference isn't all encompassing.

Everyone at my book club hated The Line of Beauty for some reason so perhaps contrariness was my reason for liking it? I dunno.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 09:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmm, missing bracket.

Are you doing a Bookslut poll, Jessa?

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 09:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't read new books. I did read GB84; it was flawed. Whether it was noble I am uncertain. It was quite long, anyway.

I read a couple of books from last year: Morley and Marqusee.

― the bellefox, Tuesday, 9 November 2004 14:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (no secret there). And You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon was also a great book.

― bookdwarf, Tuesday, 9 November 2004 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll second bookdwarf on Cloud Atlas.
Also: Natasha And Other Stories by David Bezmozgis, which I thought was quite nice.

On the non-fiction front: The Genius of Language: Fifteen Writers Reflect on Their Mother Tongues edited by Wendy Lesser (though I haven't yet read the whole thing myself).

― zan, Tuesday, 9 November 2004 20:45 (twenty-one years ago)

i wont third you on Cloud Atlas which i found seriously lacking even though i admire Mitchell as a writer.

The Line of Beauty is stunning though.

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 9 November 2004 22:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not doing a Bookslut poll, I was asked to participate in an End of the Year panel on publishing, and I know they're going to ask what I read this year.

― Jessa (Jessa), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 02:04 (twenty-one years ago)

The only book I've read which (I think) is from this year was Love All the People. However, the best book I've read this year was Of Mice and Men.

Frankly, I can't wait until totalitarian society appears and starts getting rid of books so I can soley devote myself to new books.

― K G M, Thursday, 11 November 2004 08:54 (twenty-one years ago)

This has been the year that I've got into Gombrowicz, got through all of them except the Diaries and Trans-Atlantyk. As to stuff actually released this yea, I'm still catching up on the last few...

― Matt (Matt), Saturday, 13 November 2004 14:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, wait. Best books published this year: Complete Peanuts vols. 1 and 2. I don't even have Vol. 2 yet but I guarantee its brilliance.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 13 November 2004 17:41 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.