This is A Great Novel.
You know you’re reading a great novel when everything about it feels urgent and vivid. . .and it’s about cricket. It makes you want to learn to play cricket. You could devour it in one sitting, but you force yourself to read slowly because you don’t want to run out of novel.
Paging every bookstore in the city: You need to put Netherland on your shelves. For now you’ll have to order it online or ask friends abroad to get it for you. If you’re going to read one novel this year, this is the one.
Each December, we ask a bunch of serious readers to name their favorite books of the year. While the committee members agonize over their choices, why don’t you list your best books of 2008?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
December 14th, 2008 at 23:14
Side Effects (Woody Allen), Paperweight (Stephen Fry), and Naked (David Sedaris). All three made me laugh.
December 14th, 2008 at 23:37
Oh, I’ll order this one right away. This year, among others, I’ve read all the published titles by Alexander McCall-Smith (light reading, sanity break) and W.G. Sebald (serious, contemplative). These days though, I’m reviewing Calvin and Hobbes.
December 15th, 2008 at 00:27
I liked The White Tiger by Aravind Ariga. I was rather disappointed with Mr. Rushie’s Enchantress of Florence that I looked for something to compensate for my Indian lit craving. It didn’t occur to me to read Ms. Lahiri’s latest collection though. What I remember was Anita Desai commenting that Ms. Lahiri “should stick to writing short stories.” I guess somebody didn’t like The Namesake.
December 15th, 2008 at 01:22
argh. The only novel published this year that I’ve read is Soledad’s Sister by Butch Dalisay.
The most entertaining would be Good Omens by Gaiman and Pratchett.
The most interesting would be Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut.
December 15th, 2008 at 12:33
I guess I will be ending the year with The Beautiful and Damned by F Scott Fitzgerald and We The Living by Ayn Rand.
The best book I’ve read this 2008 is The Possessed by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
December 15th, 2008 at 13:08
published this year…Outliers by Sideshow Bob (Malcolm Gladwell)…
no millionaires born in the 70’s….
read this year (published way way 2004), Places in Between by Rory Stewart.
December 15th, 2008 at 14:20
Best books of 2008, eh?. I get most of my books from Booksale and other similar establishments so I havent read anything of recent vintage. I did however find Tom Robbins to be the perfect antidote to Salman Rushdie. This year I found his book Villa Incognito (Bantam, 2003) in a bargain bin for 99 pesos, buy-one-take-one, and I highly recommend it. The very first sentence floored me.
December 15th, 2008 at 14:41
“Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz (not published this year, but I got to read a few months ago)
“Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell
December 15th, 2008 at 17:06
I, Claudius. A 2008 book? Too expensive. I usually wait for the paperback.
December 15th, 2008 at 19:47
Haven’t read any novels this year. Too busy. I’m sure they weren’t released this year, but I just read Bob Ong’s books, and they’re still occupying much of National Bookstore’s shelves.
I’ve been wondering about this question for ages: WHAT DOES JESSICA THINK ABOUT BOB ONG?
By the way, I’m surprised nobody replied any of the Twilight books yet.
December 15th, 2008 at 22:41
I’ve read “Yes Man” by David Wallace (I wonder how Jim Carrey would pull this off in the movie) and currently reading “Running with Scissors” by Augusten Burroughs – both quite entertaining and must-reads… AND I got them on sale, P50 and P100, respectively.
December 15th, 2008 at 22:43
I can relate to The Shack by William P. Young.
December 16th, 2008 at 00:10
I usually don’t buy really new books, unless a book gets a lot of hype and I’ve known/read the author previously, or some publication/book I read give fairly encouraging reviews. I also usually check around the Web for synopses and reviews, which doesn’t mean I get my opinions from them (well, at least not every time). One of the best books I’ve read lately though is Bertrand Russell’s ‘The Conquest Of Happiness’ :)
Here’s a quick review of the book:
“The books of Bertrand Russell are a modern substitute for the Bible.”—Time
:)
December 16th, 2008 at 10:52
My highlight of the year in books in Joshua Ferris’ Then We Came to the End. It’s funny, it’s heartbreaking, and it’s not just an American novel, it mirrors “the office” generation we’re living in now. Other great reads I had this year: Strange Tribe, a Hemingway family memoir; Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex and Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, which I read for the first time.