Mikes
03-03-2010, 10:46 PM
From the Guardian article.... link to follow once I meet the post requirement, tee hee.
For myself, I'm with Terry Pratchett, A Short History of Nearly everything is also my favourite book of the noughties. Odd, my favourite was the one, non-fiction book I read in ten years. Just goes to show how well Bryson writes, I suppose.
Zadie Smith and Cormac McCarthy have both scored well in a poll to find out which authors writers themselves enjoy reading.
Authors including Terry Pratchett, Ian McEwan and Joanna Trollope were asked for their favourite book of the last 10 years by Sky Arts's The Book Show. The survey, to mark World Book Day this Thursday, saw Smith pick up two nominations, from A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian author Marina Lewycka, for her debut White Teeth, and from feminist writer Natasha Walter for her Orange prize-winning On Beauty.
McCarthy also garnered two nominations, from Simon Kernick and Joshua Ferris, both for his bleak story of a man and his son wandering through a post-apocalyptic world, The Road. Bestselling thriller writer Kernick said he went for McCarthy's novel because it "worked on so many different levels". "It was beautifully written; said so much in so few words about both the bond between parent and child, as well as the utter fragility of the natural world; and, at the same time, was an intense, page-turning and menacing thriller. In short, a masterpiece," Kernick said this morning. "It's definitely hard to choose a favourite from all the books of the last 10 years, because there are so many good ones, but in the end there are always a few you read that stand out in the memory head and shoulders above the rest, and for me The Road was one of them."
Other selections included Pratchett picking Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything and Trollope selecting Hilary Mantel's Man Booker prize-winning Wolf Hall. Orange prize-winning novelist Rose Tremain, who was chosen by John Boyne for her story of an Eastern European immigrant coming to London, The Road Home, picked Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, about the dysfunctional Lambert family. Ian McEwan was selected by Alastair Campbell for his novel Saturday.
McEwan himself plumped for Irčne Némirovsky's third novel Le Bal: "It's small and perfectly formed," he said of his choice. "It centres on a troubled relationship between a daughter and a mother. It's less than 20,000 words. It's a triumph of controlled, precise contained writing."
Bestselling author of One Day, David Nicholls, chose Michel Faber's Under the Skin, which sees a series of hitchhikers abducted for nefarious purposes. Nicholls called the novel "a terrific book". "I don't think I've ever read a book quite like Under The Skin – constantly surprising, terrifying and touching in equal measure," he said. "It's actually a tough book to talk about because I'm loth to give anything away, except to say that it contains an audacious, outrageous twist and somehow pulls it off. Beautifully written, melancholic and touching, it also contains images so violent, macabre and disturbing that I think they'll always stay with me. Fearless, original, word-perfect – and all in a first novel."
Like Kernick, Nicholls admitted that it had been difficult to select just one title for his book of the decade. "My main reaction was to realise how poorly read I am – I've yet to read The Lovely Bones, The Kite Runner, Brick Lane, The Time Traveler's Wife," he said. "But it's encouraging that some of the most popular books have also been ambitious or challenging – The Corrections, The Road, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I also nearly chose Muriel Spark's The Finishing School, a brilliant, sharp-witted novella, and a great 20th century writer just lapping over into the 21st century."
The authors and the books they picked:
Ian McEwan: Le Bal by Irčne Némirovsky
Joanna Trollope: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Antonia Fraser: Berlin: The Downfall 1945 by Antony Beevor
Marina Lewycka: White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Andrea Levy: English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
Terry Pratchett: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Rose Tremain: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Philip Pullman: The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh Vincent Van Gogh by Arnold Pomerans
Neel Mukherjee: Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
Nicky Haslam: A Strange Eden by Tony Duquette
Monty Don: Woodlands by Oliver Rackham
Lionel Shriver: As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann
Joshua Ferris: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Shirley Williams: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
John Boyne: The Road Home by Rose Tremain
Natasha Walter: On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Roddy Doyle: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
Alastair Campbell: Saturday by Ian McEwan
Simon Kernick: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
David Nicholls: Under the Skin Michel Faber
Joanne Harris: Perfumes: The A-Z Guide by Luca Turin & Tania Sanchez
Simon Armitage: Return to the City of White Donkeys by James Tate
George Pelecanos: Northline by Willy Vlautin
For myself, I'm with Terry Pratchett, A Short History of Nearly everything is also my favourite book of the noughties. Odd, my favourite was the one, non-fiction book I read in ten years. Just goes to show how well Bryson writes, I suppose.
Zadie Smith and Cormac McCarthy have both scored well in a poll to find out which authors writers themselves enjoy reading.
Authors including Terry Pratchett, Ian McEwan and Joanna Trollope were asked for their favourite book of the last 10 years by Sky Arts's The Book Show. The survey, to mark World Book Day this Thursday, saw Smith pick up two nominations, from A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian author Marina Lewycka, for her debut White Teeth, and from feminist writer Natasha Walter for her Orange prize-winning On Beauty.
McCarthy also garnered two nominations, from Simon Kernick and Joshua Ferris, both for his bleak story of a man and his son wandering through a post-apocalyptic world, The Road. Bestselling thriller writer Kernick said he went for McCarthy's novel because it "worked on so many different levels". "It was beautifully written; said so much in so few words about both the bond between parent and child, as well as the utter fragility of the natural world; and, at the same time, was an intense, page-turning and menacing thriller. In short, a masterpiece," Kernick said this morning. "It's definitely hard to choose a favourite from all the books of the last 10 years, because there are so many good ones, but in the end there are always a few you read that stand out in the memory head and shoulders above the rest, and for me The Road was one of them."
Other selections included Pratchett picking Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything and Trollope selecting Hilary Mantel's Man Booker prize-winning Wolf Hall. Orange prize-winning novelist Rose Tremain, who was chosen by John Boyne for her story of an Eastern European immigrant coming to London, The Road Home, picked Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, about the dysfunctional Lambert family. Ian McEwan was selected by Alastair Campbell for his novel Saturday.
McEwan himself plumped for Irčne Némirovsky's third novel Le Bal: "It's small and perfectly formed," he said of his choice. "It centres on a troubled relationship between a daughter and a mother. It's less than 20,000 words. It's a triumph of controlled, precise contained writing."
Bestselling author of One Day, David Nicholls, chose Michel Faber's Under the Skin, which sees a series of hitchhikers abducted for nefarious purposes. Nicholls called the novel "a terrific book". "I don't think I've ever read a book quite like Under The Skin – constantly surprising, terrifying and touching in equal measure," he said. "It's actually a tough book to talk about because I'm loth to give anything away, except to say that it contains an audacious, outrageous twist and somehow pulls it off. Beautifully written, melancholic and touching, it also contains images so violent, macabre and disturbing that I think they'll always stay with me. Fearless, original, word-perfect – and all in a first novel."
Like Kernick, Nicholls admitted that it had been difficult to select just one title for his book of the decade. "My main reaction was to realise how poorly read I am – I've yet to read The Lovely Bones, The Kite Runner, Brick Lane, The Time Traveler's Wife," he said. "But it's encouraging that some of the most popular books have also been ambitious or challenging – The Corrections, The Road, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I also nearly chose Muriel Spark's The Finishing School, a brilliant, sharp-witted novella, and a great 20th century writer just lapping over into the 21st century."
The authors and the books they picked:
Ian McEwan: Le Bal by Irčne Némirovsky
Joanna Trollope: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Antonia Fraser: Berlin: The Downfall 1945 by Antony Beevor
Marina Lewycka: White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Andrea Levy: English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
Terry Pratchett: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Rose Tremain: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Philip Pullman: The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh Vincent Van Gogh by Arnold Pomerans
Neel Mukherjee: Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
Nicky Haslam: A Strange Eden by Tony Duquette
Monty Don: Woodlands by Oliver Rackham
Lionel Shriver: As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann
Joshua Ferris: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Shirley Williams: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
John Boyne: The Road Home by Rose Tremain
Natasha Walter: On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Roddy Doyle: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
Alastair Campbell: Saturday by Ian McEwan
Simon Kernick: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
David Nicholls: Under the Skin Michel Faber
Joanne Harris: Perfumes: The A-Z Guide by Luca Turin & Tania Sanchez
Simon Armitage: Return to the City of White Donkeys by James Tate
George Pelecanos: Northline by Willy Vlautin