These are not the best books I read in 2009. Nor are these the books I enjoyed reading the most. There is Pynchon's last novel which I enjoyed reading and it is a good book but…
These are the books that either had a strong effect on my writing –including choice of subject, style and taste, or a strong effect on the author that is beyond the writing (that is me...). The books I can hold "responsible" for starting 2010 with a somehow changed outlook on life...
Poetry: | |
Anne Ranasinghe - At What Dark Point | Geroge Bacovia- Plumb/Lead (English translation by Brenda Walker) |
TS Eliot: The Waste Land (reread) | |
Reiner Maria Rilke- Duino Elegies | Gingatao (the blog) |
Fiction: | |
Salmad Rushdie "Satanic Verses" | Milan Kundera "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" |
Iris Murdoch –"the Black Prince" | Iris Murdoch –"The Sea, the Sea" |
Azir Nafisi –"Reading Lolita in Teheran" | Jeanette Winterson- "Oranges are not the only fruit" |
Orhan Pamuk- "My Name is Red" | Nava Semel –"And the Rat Laughed" |
Kathryn Lasky -"The Diary of Zipporah Feldman"(YA) | Toni Morrison –"Song of Solomon" |
Non-Fiction : | |
Jeffrey Liker: "The Toyota Way" | Elyahu Goldratt –"The Goal" |
Bill Creech "The 5 Pillars of TQM" | Doug McKenzie-Mohr –"Community Based Social Marketing" |
Richard Rorty- Contingency, Irony &Solidarity | Tom Dolby &Melissa de la Cruz (editors)"Girls who like boys who like boys"(essay) |
Books I started to read in 2009 and hope to finish by the end of the year | |
Susan Sontag :"Against Interpretation" | Assem Kaul –"Etudes" |
Marjanne Satrapi"-"Persepolis" (French) | |
The books are not listed in any particular order, but they are grouped by 4 major categories. There might be books I forgot to mention here*. There is a lot more in terms of articles or disparate poems I found in magazines or collections I chose not to mention.
And again :
Gingatao the blog is not a book per se, but can be read as one.
The Diary of Zipporah Feldman is not a better book than , let's say Bruno's Dream. But its topic : immigration and adjusting to American life style and culture had a stronger impact than Bruno did.
And if you stopped by and read this post, please do accept my invitation and tell me about the books that changed your 2010 – and leave a link to your post on the comments.
*Edit: I forgot to mention books such as Sloan's GM history : American industrialism seen through the eyes of one of its most successful CEO's , the one that lead the US symbol-manufacturer before its decline and failure. Or books such as Faulkner's The Sound and a Fury, at the confluence between poetry and narration.
7 comments:
Holey mackeral! What amazing company gingatao is in. Thankyou, I am overwhelmed and blushing.
Well Paul, all it implies is that your readers have good taste. Or so they think...
Eu am în bibliotecă Pamuk, dar am fost desumflată de dimesiuni. Dar dacă atâta lume o laduă, o să încerc şi eu în viitorul apropiat.
În rest, nu ştiu, pe mine una Satanic Versese nu prea m-a impresionat, ştiu, e o chestie de gust. N-a fost nici rău, a fost o lectură plăcută, ca şi Kundera.
De Toni Morrison n-am citit nimic, şi vreau să pun mâna pe ceva de ea, deasemenea.
O să încerc şi altele de pe lista ta. :)
@Simona,
Da, si Pamuk si Rushdie scriu bine, dar nu sunt singurii care scriu bine -e chestie de gust :)
La Kundera nu m-a atras atat de mult povestea cat ideile/filosofia din substrat. Ca si poveste "Cartea rasului si a uitarii" m-a atras mult mai mult.
Plus ca pe lista se regasesc si carti care au o populatie tinta foarte bine delimitata, de exemplu "The Goal" -care e de fapt fictiune , e un roman pe cat se poate de prost, dar e o excelenta introducere in operation management. "Reading Lolita" mi se pare o carte excelent scrisa, de citit pentru ea insasi, dar are multe elemente de non-fictiune - memoir si critica literara. Tie ce ti-a placut mai mult si mai mult din 2009?
Pai am scris deja la mine pe blog. :) Roberto Bolano, "Die Wilden Detektive". Si stii de ce?! Pentru ca, cu cit citesti mai mult, cu atit esti mai satul de brodarile artificiale de fictiune, pe care le-ai mai vazut si citit de nenumarate ori, iar cind dai peste ceva autentic si din stomac, sari in sus, si-ti zici, danke, danke, in sfirsit! :) (tradus: de cind astept un aer prospat!! ceva diferit)
Mi-au placut si alte carti, dar o sa le uit curind. Nu dureaza mult pina se scufunda alaturi de celelalte in uitare.
Ok, s-a notat.
Imi place "din stomac" :)
Aceasta tema este pur si simplu fara pereche:), este foarte interesant pentru mine:P Bravo !! vreau sa mai vad in continuare discutii pe tema asta!
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