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The Best Book You Read In 2009

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#1

The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 11:16am

A big fat tie between HIS DARK MATERIALS and Antony Sher's autobiography, BESIDE MYSELF.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali
#2

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 11:35am

A Prayer For Owen Meany.


oh, and I LOVE the His Dark Materials Trilogy. I need to give it a good re-read sometime.
"I'm an American, Damnit!!! And if it's three things I don't believe in, it's quitting and math."
#3

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 11:41am

The one that really stands out is Cormac McCarthy's BLOOD MERIDIAN. I was really knocked out by it, and am reading it again only a few weeks after my first read. Todd Field is apparently working on a film adaptation, I can't imagine it.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#4

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 11:44am

I read His Dark Materials this year, too, and I'd put that near the top of the list. I was so sad when it was over.

#5

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 11:51am

I really enjoyed the His Dark Materials trilogy, but had only read the first when I saw the film and I was hoping they would film the other two. After reading The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, I realized what a monumental task the editing and adaptation would be to attempt to continue to market them as family-friendly and understand why they will probably never reach the big screen unless the trilogy is totally re-imagined.

My favorite book this year is probably The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Predictable choice, I know, but I was so pleasantly surprised by it. The Girl Who Played With Fire was a little disappointing, though.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#7

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 12:32pm

Olive Kitteridge and Winesburg, Ohio.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#8

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 12:37pm

I'm in the minority on HIS DARK MATERIALS. I liked the first in the series very much indeed, but the following books didn't measure up at all. And that vile film, what a mess. Ian McKellen shouldn't have gone near that role.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#9

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 1:01pm

Did you read them all at once, or did you have a lag in between? I read them one right after the other, which I think may have contributed to my enjoyment, because it was this long sprawling tale.
#13

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 1:15pm

Going Rogue, by Sarah Palin
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson
#14

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 2:04pm

Nope, I read all three DARK MATERIALS books back to back, and found myself less and less interested as the pages turned.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#15

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 2:06pm

His Dark Materials will be filmed in its entirity one day, it's too good of a story to pass up. It took thirty years before the Lord of the Rings movies were made.

I've read too much this year to come up with one off the top of my head; I'll have to think about it.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how
#19

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 2:22pm

The Enemy by Charlie Higson. My favourite YA author, writing about zombies, referencing the Iliad? HELL YEAH!

I also decided to buckle down to the works of Henning Mankell. I'm halfway through and loving Return of the Dancing Master, but I also adored Faceless Killers, The White Lioness, and Before the Frost. I loved the entire Wallander series a whole bunch actually, but Firewall broke my heart a little bit. I can't wait for The Troubled Man to get an English translation.

I also reread Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines quartet. I love the works of Pullman, but Reeve will always be my favourite author named Philip. He makes me cry SO SO MUCH. D:
Notes from the Earlham Street Gutter
#20

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 3:29pm

I only read a few books a year and really should read more. I read about 4 this year. The book I enjoyed the most this year was "The Silver Shoes" and can't wait for the second book. "Wishful Drinking" came in a very close second.
Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder
#21

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 3:32pm

Danmag, I just started reading Olive Kitteridge. I decided to join a book club and that's the first selection we'll be discussing in January.
#23

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 3:50pm

In seriousness, though, I finally got around to reading Isaac's Storm -- not everyone's cup of tea, I know, but I actually liked it better than The Devil in the White City (probably because I grew up so close to the source material).
#24

re: The Best Book You Read In 2009

Posted: 12/11/09 at 3:59pm

I also enjoyed Pynchon's INHERENT VICE a good deal. Very fast and very funny, his most accessible book since THE CRYING OF LOT 49.

I'm glad that I read Philip K. Dick's FLOW MY TEARS THE POLICEMAN SAID and VALIS. I don't think I loved them as much as the brilliant A SCANNER DARKLY, though.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/

Updated On: 12/11/09 at 03:59 PM

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