Read 50 books in 2005

Year: 2005
Books Completed: 56

Goal Achieved!

Fairly easily achieved in the end, and with two major breaks for sudoku addiction, so I’m ready to up this goal to 75 books in the year 2006. This might be made more difficult, though, because I have two parallel aims:

1. Read more “good” books and less rubbish. I don’t know what a good book is, but suffice to say I would like to read fewer 3rd rate autobiographies and absolutely no spiritual or “improving” books at all.

2. Read 12 “classics” in the year 2006. To include anything published by Penguin Classics or similar, anything old and still well known and anything with at least 3 film versions. Last year 4 (Pride and Prejudice, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Armadale and Brideshead Revisited this year 12. First up is Emma.

So I probably won’t make 75 since Emma is the easiest classic of them all and seems to be taking me forever, but I want to spend more time reading and less time wasting time, so that’s the aim.

Book 56: A Prison Diary II. Wayland: Purgatory by Prisoner FF8282

The blurb: Jeffrey Archer is a former British politician and member of the House of Lords. In July 2001 he was convicted of perjury and sentenced to four years in prison. He served a little over half of his sentence before release, and during that time, wrote a trilogy of books describing life in prison. This is the second of the trilogy, covering his time in the Category C prison of Wayland.

The verdict: Obviously still enjoyable and easy reading, but I felt like this was the least good of the three: it feels a bit like marking time until something happens as it lacks the shock value of his first days in prison or the longevity of almost two years at North Sea Camp. Still definitely worth reading though, even if only for completeness.

Book 55: The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

The blurb: When Eddie dies in a tragic accident on his 83rd birthday, he realises that heaven is not the lush Garden of Eden he asssumed it to be, but a place where you meet five people who will explain your life. They might be loved ones or distant strangers, but each one changed your life forever.

The verdict: Pseudo-spiritual would not normally by my genre of choice, but I was fooled by the (deliberately?) ambiguous blurb on the back. As a complete novice in the genre, I can’t comment on that aspect, but with a bit of artistic interpretation, I was just about able to enjoy this as a story, not as a self-help book. Taken as such by a hardened cynic, though, I’m forced to conclude that the book is very short, with large print and multiple spaces, and the plot while very gentle, is not really at all gripping. If it hadn’t been for a prolonged journey on the Northern Line, I would have struggled to find the enthusiasm to finish this one. As it is, I whizzed through it in a couple of hours, and was left with no desire to read his next offering.

Book 54: The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

The blurb: The five beautiful Lisbon sisters were entrancing, mystical creatures, worshipped from afar by boys who now tell their story. The only surprising thing about them was how normal they seemed on the one and only date they were ever allowed on. Until they started killing themselves.

The verdict: I loved Middlesex, and have yet to find anyone who didn’t, so I was perhaps inevitably disappointed by Eugenides’ first novel. The plot is laid out in the first page, and from then on, it’s less a question of how or why, than a long, drawn out eulogy for girls who are already dead. Not a bad read, and I was never in danger of giving up, but not even close to Middlesex. Having said that, the film has gone on my to-watch list.

Book 53: Before I Say Goodbye by Ruth Picardie

The blurb: When Ruth Picardie died from complications following the misdiagnosis of breast cancer in September 1997, leaving a young husband and two-year-old twins, 1000s mourned who’d never met her. Ruth’s column in “The Observer” recorded the progress of her illness and her feelings about living with terminal cancer. This text brings together these pieces, Ruth’s e-mail correspondance with friends, selected letters from readers, and accounts of Ruth’s last days by her sister, Justine, and husband Matt.

The verdict: I don’t ever want to read another terminal illness book again. That’s two now, and try as I might to find them uplifting, they just depress me. This is not even a book, it’s a collection mainly of emails and even leaving aside the depressing subject matter, I didn’t really enjoy it as a good read. If you want to read this genre, I recommend C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too by John Diamond or Like A Hole In The Head by Ivan Noble instead.

Book 52: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The blurb: Amid the foggy streets of sinister London and the even more sinister countryside, Holmes and Watson once more solve the unsolvable. This book is a collection of stories, including – “A Scandal in Bohemia”, “A Case of Identity”, “The Red-Headed League” and “The Boscombe Valley Mystery”.

The verdict: My first Sherlock Holmes since The Hound of the Baskervilles about 10 years ago, and having sworn off them for life after that experience, I might be prepared to reconsider… The short story format in general still doesn’t really suit me, I don’t think, as it doesn’t grip as much as a full length novel, but for these it was just enough time for me to enjoy the solution without worrying too much about the inevitable “well, that’s not very plausible, is it?!” aspect.

Book 51: Leviathan” by Paul Auster

The blurb: The explosion that detonates this novel ends the life of its hero, the writer Benjamin Sachs, and brings two FBI agents to the house of his oldest friend Peter Aaron. What follows is Aaron’s attempt to document Sachs’ story: an investigation into another man’s life.

The verdict: Recommended to me as “the greatest novel ever written”. This is almost certainly an over-statement, but I did enjoy it. The style is distinctive, and definitely an acquired taste, but one that’s rapidly growing on me, and largely thanks to the vastly improved plot, Leviathan takes pride of place as my favourite Auster novel – so far.

Book 50: About A Boy by Nick Hornby

The blurb: 36 year old Will is terminally cool: unmarried, knows what music to listen to, what clothes to wear and how to live life without doing anything at all. The only problem is how to meet attractive women, up for short term relationships, and leave guilt free? Then inspiration strikes: single mothers. As Will re-invents himself as a single father, the plan seems flawless – until reality intervenes, and he meets Marcus, a 12 year old with a suicidally depressed mother, out of touch with the modern world. If Will can teach Marcus how to be a child, can Marcus finally show Will how to grow up?

The verdict: Nick Hornby books are just not aimed at me, I don’t think, but this seems a softer, less male-orientated book with more universal appeal. Possibly I just found it more accessible because I’d seen the film. But either way, a good read, ideal for filling lazy weekends.

Anyway, that sees this goal COMPLETED! Now back to the pile of books I’ve wanted to read this year but rejected on grounds of being too long…

Book 49: Starter For Ten by David Nicholls

The blurb: Brian Jackson heads to university with three expectations: to lose his virginity, to be approached by MI5 and to start in the BBC quiz show University Challenge.

The verdict: It emerges David Nicholls is one of the writers of Cold Feet – and that surprises me, because I really didn’t enjoy this as much as I should have done. It is clever, and in some places funny, but the constant parade of entirely unpleasant characters just made me irritated with the whole experience of reading the book.

Book 48: A Prison Diary, Volume 3 – Heaven by Jeffrey Archer

The blurb: Jeffrey Archer is a former British politician and member of the House of Lords. He was jailed for four years in 2001 for perjury during the course of an earlier libel trial. This third volume of his prison diaries covers his time in the Category D open prison of North Sea Camp, including his brief return to the notorious Lincoln prison, up to release in 2003.

The verdict: Well, I like them. And even though they are probably largely fictionalised to sell more copies, it does make you want to know more about (and do something about) the whole flawed penal system.