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Saturday, December 09, 2006
A Year in Reading: The Bibliosphere
Thanks Brandon!I couldn't resist joining in on the fun of all the best-of lists making the rounds: the New York Times Book Review printed its own list, as did Publisher's Weekly. My reading is pretty varied, but I always seem to be a few years behind: the most recent books I read this year were published in 2004.
2006 was more of a year for me to play catch-up - Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and Albert Camus' The Stranger were among my favorite books this year. They exemplified everything I love about literature; they were thought-provoking, obsessive, and deeply unsettling. Franz Kafka's The Trial disturbed me on a level no horror novel can reach. Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, while treading a fine line between pretentiousness and genius, obliterated the very idea of what a novel is supposed to be. And Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time gave me one of the freshest and most sympathetic heroes I've come across in a long time.
But Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day is, without a doubt, the best book I read this year. It's funny, infuriating, tragic, and beautifully-written. Neither too long nor too short, this book is, in a word, perfect.
- C. Max Magee @ 7:21 PM ~ comments: 2 ~
A Year in Reading 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005
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Visit The Millions Book Review Index
Anonymous @ December 10, 2006 4:20 PM 
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