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Best book of 2008 - can you do it?


Michelle

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I think it's the book you read, whenever it came out.

 

It's a toughie - lots of good books this year, I thoroughly enjoyed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a great ripping yarn and a close second, but for sheer quality, I would have to pick This Sweet Sickness by Patricia Highsmith - a tense psychological thriller, brilliantly written.

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Well, I re-read several favourites this year—Borges, Joyce, Melville, Nabokov, etc. Excluding those, the best books I read for the first time were:

 

Time Arrow, Martin Amis

The Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton

Don Quixote, Cervantes

Mary, Vladimir Nabokov

Islands in the Stream, Hemingway

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I think my favorite from this year would probably be The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. It's just so beautifully written and has such a powerful message!

 

I realized something from thinking about what my answer to this question would be. I think that in 2008 I didn't allow books to "speak to my soul" as much as I would have liked. I approached them more intellectually than personally, and so I had a hard time thinking about which book I would choose as the one which impacted me the most (rather than just being my favorite). (I know that's not exactly what this thread is about, but that's where my musings took me.) I think I would like to start thinking more about what life lessons I can take from the books that I am reading, in addition to reading for all of the more intellectual elements. So here's to a New Year's resolution to read more deeply for personal meaning! :)

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I've thought about this and have decided I just can't pick one ... it needs to be two :lol:. They would be 'The Sinner' by Tess Gerritsen and 'The Rosary Girls' by Richard Montanari. Both these books led me to read two great series' of books which were the highlights of my reading year :lol: Both authors I would wholeheartedly recommend :)

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I think I'm going to have to say Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. Muggle recommended this and I can see why. To me it was on a par with To Kill a Mockingbird.

But I would also have to give very honourable mention to Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen and Small Island by Andrea Levy, both excellent books.

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