January 4, 2011

Reading List 2010

So here is the list of books I read in 2010:
  1.  A Self-Portrait in Letters by Anne Sexton
  2.  The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette by Carolly Erickson
  3.  Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
  4.  Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
  5. An Education by Lynn Barker
  6. A Memoir of Iris Murdoch by John Bayley
  7. I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe
  8. My Life in France by Julia Child
  9. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
  10. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert 
  11. Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney 
  12. Little Children by Tom Perrotta
  13. Swimming Sweet Arrow by Maureen Gibbon
  14. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
  15. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
  16. The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
  17. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares 
  18. Girls in Pants by Ann Brashares
  19. Forever in Blue by Ann Brashares
  20. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
  21. Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
  22. Gentlemen and Players By Joanne Harris
  23. Nesze neked Terézanyu by Rácz Zsuzsa
  24. Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger
  25. Sex and the City by Candance Bushnell
  26. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
  27. My Sister's Keeper by Joudi Picoult
  28. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
  29. Macskaköröm by Sohonyai Edit
  30. Szerelemlék by Sohonyai Edit
  31. Révfülöpi Nyár by Demény Ottó
  32. Mocsok Csillag by Sohonyai Edit
  33. Twilight by Sophie Meyer
  34. The Graduate by Charles Webb
  35. The Dying Animal by Philip Roth
  36. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
  37. Lipstick Jungle by Candance Bushnell
  38. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
  39. The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster
  40. Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
  41. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
  42. Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith
  43. Sok hűhó Emmiért by Aszlányi Károly
  44. Aranyeső by Janikovszky Éva
  45. Asszony a fronton by Polcz Alaine
Again, I am not sure whether I have included everyhing? Still, not bad, not bad, I guess, but not too good either. I did not manage to complete my goal: to read one book per week, in fact, I missed it by 7 volumes... Never mind, I give it another try in 2011; hopefully this time I will be able to cross at least the great 50-book line. Anyway, what I loved the most was Gentlemen and Players without a doubt (what a twist in the plot!), I also utterly enjoyed Julia Child's memoir just as well as I did The Reader and Little Children. I am glad I finally gotten around reading the two great classics, On the Road and Lolita, neither one was an easy read, but it was definitely worth it, because I carried away so much from them, especially from Kerouac's book. I must also mention Bright Lights, Big City and Writing Down the Bones, since the former made a big influence on my writing and gave me a great idea regarding narration (meaning: how the narration will be in the novel I have in my head once I get down to it and write the darn thing), while Goldberg's book is very inspirational and gave me several good ideas on creative writing. I am rereading it  and taking notes at the moment, I will probably write a post about it. 
Most boring book of the year? Diary of a Nobody.
Worst book of the year? Twilight, without the slightest doubt. 
I regret every single second I wasted on this rubbish that I would not even call a novel. I seriously do not get what hundreds of millions of teenagers (and so many sane adults!) like about it. It is written incredibly poorly, Meyer's style is unbearably annoying and sentimental, the narration is utterly boring (seriously, even my pathetic little diary is more interesting and has more action than this junk), not to mention that the ever so lame and extremely dumb plot (or that non-existent thing that Meyer presents as the plot) sucks every bit of blood *whoops* life (no pun intended!) out  of you as you proceed through the book, and you cannot do anything better than cry out loud with your last breath as you finish the final sentence: "Thank God, I am done with this bulls*t!"

 Hopefully, this year I will not bump into such rubbish as Twilight, but I will indulge in such marvelous pieces of literature as Gentleman and Players and On the Road.
What was the best thing You read in 2010? 

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