Reverse psychology

Tired of being made to feel like an ignoramus every time you happen upon one of those 'books you must read....' lists - you know the drill - populated largely by 1980s school texts, unreadable 'classics' and generic bile-factory blockbusters?
This might make you feel better:
Not the 50 Books You Must Read

Upcoming releases 2011

Looking for some goods reads in 2011? The Millions has released its list of new books to look out for this year: The Great 2011 Book Preview. There are 76 recommendations so you should find something of interest among them.
I'm thinking I might venture into Geoff Dyer's Otherwise Known as the Human Condition. I wasn't a huge fan of his much vaunted novel Jeff in Venice Death in Varanasi but perhaps this compilation of essays and reviews will restore him in my favour.
Have been wanting to read some David Foster Wallace so his novel The Pale King, to be released posthumously in April, is on my list. After Wallace died in 2008, the fragmented manuscript he'd been working on was pulled together by his editor Michael Pietsch and may go someway towards satisfying the insatiable appetite of Wallace's widespread fan base for previously unseen work. Nice cover art too.
And having devoured Bel Canto when it was first published in 2001, I can't go past Ann Patchett's upcoming novel State of Wonder, set in the heart of the South American jungle and centred around 'an inspiring student-teacher relationship similar to the bond she had with her own writing teachers, Allan Gurganas and the late Grace Paley.'
What are you thinking? 

One paper's pick

Those ernest and well-read scribes over at The Guardian have put together their pick of 'five of the best lines from fiction in 2010'. I give you theirs below - what do you think of them? 
The Will Self line is a cracker, I'm still thinking of what my others would be.... What are yours?

'A precocious anarchist, at 13 Sherman told me he was going to strip naked, except for a skullcap and an attaché case, then stump into Grodzinski's, the Jewish bakery in Golders Green. When challenged he would say only this – in a thick mittel-European accent: "Can you tell me the way to Grods?"'

- Will Self Walking To Hollywood

'I find now that I can more or less acquit myself from any charge of having desired Martin carnally. (My looks, by then, had in any case declined to the point where only women would go to bed with me.)'

- Christopher Hitchens Hitch-22

'This is a complete story called: "Idea for a Short Documentary Film": Representatives of different food product manufacturers try to open their own packaging.'

- Lydia Davis Collected Stories

'There's a hazardous sadness to the first sounds of someone else's work in the morning; it's as if stillness experiences pain in being broken.'

- Jonathan Franzen Freedom

'There was something exquisite to Treslove in the presentiment of a woman he loved dying in his arms. On occasion he died in hers, but her dying in his was better. It was how he knew he was in love: no presentiment of her expiry, no proposal.'

- Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question

Best with a twist...

So it's the last day of the first decade of the 21st century and lists abound around the world of who thinks what books were the best in 2010. Here's a round up of from a few corners of the literary globe...:
The Daily Beast 
SMH 
The Guardian 
The New York Times 
But maybe you're thinking yeah yeah we've heard about these books all year, give me something new...? 
So here's a list you may find distinctly more useful around this time of year:
Top 10 Best Non-fiction for Winning Family Arguments
Good luck!


Illustration by Aaron Meshon on the NPR website.

Classic Australian reads

I've been reading a lot of Australian authors this year, past and present, discovering some true treasures in our own backyard (I won't mention the trash). 
If I were to suggest a classic homegrown summer read for the holidays - one that is engaging irrespective of gender, beautifully written, captures the imagination, an easy yet intelligent read, slim enough to read from cover to cover over a long weekend and has achieved international literary success - it would be Jessica Anderson's 1978 Miles Franklin Award winning novel, Tirra Lirra by the River. 
After Anderson passed away in July this year aged 93, the book was re-published and copies virtually walked out the door.
I love the title - I'd tell you what it means but it's more fun for you to find out for yourself when you read it.
For some more quality Australian reads, check out this selection from Susan Wyndham in the SMH. Incidentally, Ruth Park, whose The Harp in the South is a well deserved inclusion, and who many a high-schooler in the 1980s would remember for Playing Beatie Bow, passed away this month, also aged 93.
It's not the definitive list in my opinion but there are some sterling authors among them...all of which I recommend bar one (regular readers can you guess who that might be?...;)

Signed editions...

One of my favourite websites - AbeBooks - has come up with its Top 30 most requested signed books for 2010. The usual suspects are there, with the outright leaders according to demand being Jonathan Franzen's Freedom and David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Also cracking the nod, a couple of non-fiction hits, Just Kids by Patti Smith and the story of a real life rare book thief The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover, which I've been eyeing off for a while...it sounds like a pretty good read. Which signed edition would you go for?

A handy little stocking filler...

An update on the world's most expensive book, first talked about here in September....and an excuse to show you this exquisite illustration again! The complete volume of John James Audubon's The Birds of America went to auction in New York on Tuesday and fetched US$10.3m, claiming a new record for literary treasures. It's no small volume either, The Economist says the book measures 91cm x 61cm and includes 435 life size hand-coloured illustrations of birds from North America.
The newspaper produced a chart tabling the top ten most expensive books (excluding four other copies of The Birds of America which would have made the list). Click on the chart to enlarge.

Industry top tens

American trade mag Publishers Weekly has produced lists of its top 10 books of 2010 in the categories of fiction, poetry, romance, sci-fi, non-fiction, religion, lifestyle and children's books. 
PW's overall Top Ten Books of the Year contains a mix of genres, some of which might be worth a read:
1. A Visit From The Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
2. Freedom, Jonathan Franzen
3. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
4. The Surrendered, Chang-rae Lee
5. The Big Short, Michael Lewis
6. The Immortal Life of Henriette Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
7. Just Kids, Patti Smith
8. Man In The Woods, Scott Spencer
9. The Lonely Polygamist, Brady Udall
10. The Warmth Of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
Jennifer Egan's first-placed novel is about an ageing music producer and is described as 'unpredictable' and 'brilliant'. It's also earned some notoriety for containing a chapter written completely in PowerPoint.

Lists of Literary Lists

To conclude this self-proclaimed Literary List Week, I bring you Top 20 Top 10 Literary Lists, courtesy of one of my favourite websites, AbeBooks. 
Put together by the staff of AbeBooks, who search high and low to unearth out of print and rare reads for insatiable bibliophiles, this compilation explores delightful and obscure fields such as: Top 10 Beloved Animals in Fiction; Top 10 Egg Books; Top 10 Most Expensive Irish-Authored Books Ever Sold on AbeBooks.com; and, Top 10 Books In Which Things End Badly.
Enjoy!

Top 5 Famous Literary Hotels

Which literary residences have outlived the authors they inspired? And who keeps track of things of importance such as this?
It has been reported that the Grand Hôtel des Bains — Thomas Mann’s residence on the Lido and the backdrop for his novella Death in Venice — will close its doors to be converted into luxury apartments.
Coming to you from the world wide web's inexhaustible supply of 'lists', a writer by the name of Chelsea Bauch nominates five famous hotels that have earned their place in literary history. You can check out her list here.
Take a look at two of her top five:

New York's Hotel Chelsea: 'A go-to residence for artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers for more than a century — many of whose non-monetary payments still decorate the walls — this infamous landmark has inspired as many scandals as it has stories. Dylan Thomas lived and died on the premises, poets Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso matched intellectual wits within its walls, Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey there, and other literary guests (both short and long-term) have included Thomas Wolfe, Eugene O’Neil, and William Burroughs.'

The Stanley Hotel, Colorado: 'Although accounts vary regarding the basis for the Overlook Hotel — the isolated and endlessly creepy setting of Stephen King’s The Shining — it’s widely reported that King conceived the basic novel idea while staying at this out-of-the-way Colorado hotel with his wife. The Stanley Hotel’s Georgian style is just one of several accommodations that King reportedly drew from for his chilling house of horrors, but this is apparently where it all started.'


Can you add to the list?

Top 10 Classic Literature Video Games

Did you know that somebody, somewhere, has turned The Great Gatsby into a video game?! 
'Spend a summer on a jazz-fueled adventure based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s legendary novel. Experience the Roaring Twenties first-hand as you uncover secrets behind the richly decadent facade. Explore one of the most tragic tales in literary history,' says the spiel.
'...Recreate Fitzgerald’s famous prose, assemble your own library and earn trophies to share with friends on Facebook.'
I have zero interest in gaming but perhaps it's a welcome relief from the bizzare role-play world of Halo: Combat Evolved, Metroid Prime et al.
Discovering the evolution of Gatsby from Penguin Classic to video game console inspired Flavorwire to dream up a list of: 10 Unlikely Classics That Would Make Great Games. 

Best Dressed Literary Figures

Reading an article in the SMH by novelist John Marsden, whose Tomorrow series is apparently epic among teenagers (?) and is on its way to the big screen, I was curious when he said: 'I'm not a visual person. I see words not pictures. I don't notice faces, clothing, hairstyles. There are few descriptions of such things in my books. I can have an hour's conversation with someone I've just met, run into them an hour later and not recognise them.' 
Maybe that's why I haven't read any of his books? The idea that a person can look at something and not perceive some dual impression of form as well as function is incomprehensible to me.
Especially when it comes to characters and their clothes! Today's list comes courtesy of Flavorwire, whose writer Judy Berman had the brilliant idea to nominate Literature's 10 Best Dressed Characters. Bravo! I do admire most of the inclusions and am particularly pleased that Madame Bovary got a guernsey - however it must be said - there are a couple of glaring omissions. 
Where is Anna Karenina? 

And Marguerite Duras' nameless girl in The Lover, the girl with an imagination that surpasses her grim reality and who goes to school wearing evening shoes?:
"I'm wearing a dress of real silk, but it's threadbare, almost transparent. It used to belong to my mother...It's a sleeveless dress with a very low neck. It's the sepia color real silk takes on with wear. It's a dress I remember. I think it suits me. I'm wearing a leather belt with it, perhaps a belt belonging to one of my brothers...This particular day I must be wearing the famous pair of gold lamé high heels. I can't see any others I could have been wearing, so I'm wearing them...Going to school in evening shoes decorated with diamanté flowers... These high heels are the first in my life, they're beautiful, they've eclipsed all the shoes that went before...

Here's a couple from Flavorwire's list:

In Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote writes of Holly Golightly: “She was still on the stairs, now she reached the landing, and the ragbag colors of her boy’s hair, tawny streaks, strands of albino blond and yellow caught the hall light. It was a warm evening, nearly summer, and she wore a slim, cool black dress, black sandals, a pearl choker. For all her chic thinness, she had an almost breakfast-cereal air of health, a soap and lemon cleanness, a rough pink darkening in the cheeks. Her mouth was large, her nose upturned. A pair of dark glasses blotted out her eyes. It was a face beyond childhood, yet this side of belonging to a woman. I thought her anywhere between sixteen and thirty; as it turned out, she was shy two months of her nineteenth birthday.”

Gustave Flaubert describes Emma in Madame Bovary: “She would come directly, charming, agitated, looking back at the glances that followed her, wearing her flounced gown with gold eyeglass, her dainty shoes, all sorts of elegant trifles that he had never enjoyed, and exhaling the ineffable seduction of yielding virtue.”


Who do you think should have made the cut?