Books I read in 2006

And now I present the long-awaited follow-up to 'Books I read in 2005'. Since 2005, I've been keeping a record of the books I've read each year. Unfortunately this habit kind of fell apart around the end of 2007, but I'm going to try to resurrect it as it's always good to catalogue these things, I find...

Introducing Critical Theory - Stuart Sims & Boris Van Loon

Generation of Swine - Hunter S Thompson
(The great Gonzo journalist's take on the 80s. Lots of stuff about Iran-Contra as I recall.)

Hunter S Thompson

The Plague - Albert Camus
(Supposedly a metaphor for the French resistance to the Nazi occupation, but for me it's more effective as a straight up story about the human condition. It's quite a straightforward narrative about a town that is hit by the plague. First the disease emerges, and then the town is quarantined, and we are treated to an account of life under quarantine and the constant threat of infection. I had high hopes for this book, as The Outsider is one of my favourite books of all time. I'm glad to say that Mr. Camus did not disappoint.)

Tar Baby - Toni Morrison (an audio book)
(This was an amazing book - one of the best I've come across. I've read a couple of Morrison's other books since then and they had nothing on this. But I wonder if that was because it was an audio book? Lynne Thigpen read the text and did a great job of it. But the content of the book was really great. It's centred around the interactions between six characters living in close proximity, along with flashes back and forward from this core setting. There's an elderly white rich guy; his seemingly shallow former beauty queen wife; two of his black servants, themselves a married couple; their niece, a fashion model; and an additional stowaway. The action is primarily set on an island where the elderly rich guy lives in colonial-style luxury. Each of these six characters is drawn in exquisite and believable detail, with all their motivations and inclinations immediately accessible to the reader (or listener). The story basically illustrates how the different filters through which our identity is formed - such as race, gender, age, and social class - shape our interactions with each other. The dynamic between all the characters and the little conflicts between them portray these tensions beautifully.)

Toni Morrison

Reading Lolita in Tehran
(Excellent, but hard not to notice that it's very one-sided politically.)

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
(This was a great account of a society's colonial transition.)

The Cherry Orchard - Anton Chekhov adapted by Tom Murphy
(I went to see this in The Gate. Irish playwright Tom Murphy had adapted this classic to bring in some Irish lingo, most memorably when one of the characters exclaims "Merciful Hour!!")

Roadkill - Kinky Friedman
(Didn't like this at all.)

Beloved - Toni Morrison

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress - Ross O'Carroll Kelly

Inside Track - John Francome

The Namesake

The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
(This is an absolutely beautiful book about an Indian couple who emigrate to the USA, and about their son's travails as a man who is neither Indian nor North American. Really captures the immigrant experience (not that I've first hand experience of this, of course).)

Firestarter - Stephen King

The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe
(Another very worthwhile read.)

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things - John McGregor
(A promising book throughout absolutely ruined by a crappy, saccharine, cop-out of an ending. Total rubbish.)

Dancer - Column McCann
(A novelisation of the life of Rudolf Nureyev. McCann is one of the best writers around, and one of the few novelists all of whose books I've read. This was very interesting but I prefer his other books. However, my Russio-Lithuanian friend Sasha assures me that he really captures what Russia is like.)

Nureyev

The LBJ Brigade - William Wilson
(An engaging account of the Vietnam conflict.)

Last Exit To Brooklyn
(Bleak and brilliant - touches what it means to be human.)

Ghostwritten - David Mitchell

Clockers - Richard Price
(A great book made into an even better film by the maestro, Spike Lee.)

Woody Allen - Interviews

From Hell - Alan Moore (a graphic novel)
(This is about Jack the Ripper and was made into a film I really like, directed by the Hughes Brothers, who made a pretty impressive transition from portraying the African American urban ghetto of the US in 'Menace II Society', to the Whitechapel district of 19th century London.)

V for Vendetta - Alan Moore