Instead of lamenting about the books I have not read (at least 95%) in various 'books of the year' lists, I thought I would lament over the books that made an appearance on my bookshelves last year but are still waiting to be opened. Here's the top six:
* The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple. I picked it up in June and as I walked through the tombs in Delhi in December I wished I'd read it and was not so ignorant.
* M had promised to lend me his copy but after An Unexpected Light, I definitely wanted a Mirrors of the Unseen by Jason Elliot of my own. S is captivated by the mountains he's seen from a flight but I want to fill in the colours in the images that cropped up in my mind every time an aunt said, "When we were in Iran..."
* 'If you don't think you want to read a book about Uzbekistan, think again' it says on the blurb of Chasing the Sea. I didn't think again before picking it up but when I will get around to Tom Bissell's first book is another think altogether.
* M said -- and I quote "Probably teh best foreign correspondent ever' while handing me Kapuscinski's Another Day of Life. He keeps asking me if I've read it (as you can see the answer is a shamefaced no. But please don't send me to Bangladesh).
* No one at work wanted Ken Follett's World Without End. Unbelievable. But then as Follett himself says Pillars of the Earth was a word-of-mouth book and certainly not the thriller that most associate him with. Will it live up to the 12th century world that I inhabited for almost a month years ago? I'll let you know. Soon.
* When I wanted info on Istanbul, C said read Orhan Pamuk. That was very helpful, C. But nevertheless, will I read it before or after Turkey? Only time will tell.
There's others that remain unread but one of the books that I 'did' read and count among the best buys of the year is Frances Mayes' A Year in the World. It was a companion as I went around the south of Italy, and even now, just the word Pescara conjures up fish with lemon juice, long walks and longer drives in a beautiful country. And every time you reach the end of a chapter, you turn the page with anticipation: Where next?
* The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple. I picked it up in June and as I walked through the tombs in Delhi in December I wished I'd read it and was not so ignorant.
* M had promised to lend me his copy but after An Unexpected Light, I definitely wanted a Mirrors of the Unseen by Jason Elliot of my own. S is captivated by the mountains he's seen from a flight but I want to fill in the colours in the images that cropped up in my mind every time an aunt said, "When we were in Iran..."
* 'If you don't think you want to read a book about Uzbekistan, think again' it says on the blurb of Chasing the Sea. I didn't think again before picking it up but when I will get around to Tom Bissell's first book is another think altogether.
* M said -- and I quote "Probably teh best foreign correspondent ever' while handing me Kapuscinski's Another Day of Life. He keeps asking me if I've read it (as you can see the answer is a shamefaced no. But please don't send me to Bangladesh).
* No one at work wanted Ken Follett's World Without End. Unbelievable. But then as Follett himself says Pillars of the Earth was a word-of-mouth book and certainly not the thriller that most associate him with. Will it live up to the 12th century world that I inhabited for almost a month years ago? I'll let you know. Soon.
* When I wanted info on Istanbul, C said read Orhan Pamuk. That was very helpful, C. But nevertheless, will I read it before or after Turkey? Only time will tell.
There's others that remain unread but one of the books that I 'did' read and count among the best buys of the year is Frances Mayes' A Year in the World. It was a companion as I went around the south of Italy, and even now, just the word Pescara conjures up fish with lemon juice, long walks and longer drives in a beautiful country. And every time you reach the end of a chapter, you turn the page with anticipation: Where next?
posted by Monica at 12:58 AM
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