Books

Last year, in early February, I made a list of books I wanted/had to read and, miraculously, I managed to keep to the list and even add a few throughout the year...and read a few that weren't listed. I know, I'm wild.

This year I want to do the same thing but before I do so, I'd like to see if I still remember the books I read last year (in no particular order...)

Edward W. Said Culture&Imperialism and Orientalism

Ibn Warraq Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism

Mohsin Hamid The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Noam Chomsky Language and Responsibility

Chomsky & Foucault On Human Nature: Justice vs. Power

Alain Soral Chute! and Misères du désir

John Le Carré A Most Wanted Man

Goethe Faust

Stendhal A Life of Napoleon

Mungo Park Travels in the Interior of Africa

Stephen King Duma Key

Byron Childe Harold Canto III

Catherine Sanderson Petite Anglaise

Michel Onfray La raison gourmande, philosophie du goût

Nick Davies Flat Earth News

That's all I remember.

Now this year I want to read a lot more fiction, preferably in French and contemporary. (Feel free to recommend something). I started the year reading Atonement, despite having watched the film, and even though the first 2 chapters made me think I would be bored stiff I carried on. It's pretty good once the plot appears in earnest.

I still haven't got many to add to this year's list (it could be something to do with the fact that I spent two months reading very little and not talking about books at all...) so what I'll do is list a few now (if I can think of any) then add to it during the year.

Books i feel i ought to read this year:

I really should read a few classics this year, but where to start? And from where? France, Russia, Brazil, Portugal?

The ones I can see on my (husband's) bookshelves have become too familiar somehow, and everytime I look at them I have the same feeling I used to get when I was a child and trying to fall asleep when I wasn't sleepy and didn't want to go to bed but had to, and so I'd just stare at the bookcase in the bedroom, where the grown up books were kept, and would wonder what the books were about from the title. It was very boring; I'm sure I should just have opened any of them and started to read, but I was supposed to be asleep, and I did not know that reading is a good way to fall asleep (sometimes...depends on the book).

The books that belong to me have either been read or are non-fiction/reference books. I could just go by a best-sellers list but that seems depressing as I just *know* that most people read rubbish most of the time, especially books from those lists. Self-help books. Nails on blackboard.

So! OK, back to the list (or, rather, to the list!):

Stendhal La Chartreuse de Parme and The Red and the Black

Claire Castillon Les Cris

Luis Fernando Verìssimo any

Ruben Fonseca any

...to be continued

(continued)

Marc-Édouard Nabe L'homme qui arrêta d'écrire

Franz-Olivier Giesbert Un Très grand amour

Alain Soral Vers la Féminisation?