Lassie Come-Home by Eric Knight is an early example that fits my criteria. The copy I have was a treasure of my mother’s (© 1940).
Reading feeds me. I’ve been a vacuum cleaner for books since I was a little girl. I remember when I could only ‘read’ the pictures, and would figure out the story from them. Dagwood comics come to mind; before I could read the words, I thought the strip was all about the dog, Daisy (who is in every cell). I graduated to chapter books in grade one, when I was handed Fun with Dick and Jane. (It’s only gotten better since then.) But I still love to read the comics, words and pictures (Cul de Sac, current favourite).
I could dredge more of the past, but it doesn’t seem necessary (the list would be so long!). There is too much to read now, I feel this whenever I wander into a book store (there are still a few). I’ll never read everything that catches my interest, but I thought it would be good to have a bit of a record that I have managed to read some things recently.
It’s all subjective, what interests me, what I like, and what I think is good. So for this little corner of the ether, I’m changing my criteria slightly. These are all books I’ve read, fairly recently, that I think are very, very good. (Some are brilliant, in my humble…).
I think I’ll try and stick to this then; that whenever it happens that I get to the end of a book and think wow, what a gift, and that I spend some time afterwards thinking about the story, mulling it over (and when I remember one from past years) I’ll add it in.
2013
| State of Wonder by Ann Patchet (breathtaking) What Matters Most by James Hollis (non fiction) Casual Vacancy by J K Rowling Zero History by William Gibson number9dream by David Mitchell Freedom by Jonathan Franzen Dear Life by Alice Munro a whole slew by John Harvey (British detective series, excellent) … |
2012
| The Messenger by Stephen Miller Ru by Kim Thúy (translated by Sheila Fischman) The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes Room by Emma Donoghue Canada by Richard Ford Wildlife by Richard Ford Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson Hark, a Vagrant by Kate Beaton (this was just fun) The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion … |
And earlier, in no particular order
| Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell Black Swan Green by David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden Paris Stories by Mavis Gallant Middlemarch by George Eliot Spending by Mary Gordon Ever After by Graham Swift Shirley by Charlotte Bronte (how could I resist that one?) … |
continually to be continued
word after word after word 