2006 in Review

January 6, 2007 · Posted in 2006, Books, best, worst 

I’ve got hopelessly behind in my reviewing, and it’s time to wipe the slate clean. My friend Shane Richmond has invited me to take part in his new group blog called 26 Books. The idea is that each of the six authors should read and, crucially, review at least 26 books over the course of 2007 (i.e. one book every two weeks). In 2006 he did this on his own blog, easily completing the 26th book before Christmas.

Of course, it’s not a competition, but I aim to read and review roughly double that number of books in the same time. Anyway, this will be my last post on this blog for the foreseeable future. I thought I would sign off with my list of the best and worst of 2006. I should stress that I’m choosing only from the books I’ve read this year.

Best New Novels

  • The Road by Cormac McCarthy
  • Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan
  • House of Meetings by Martin Amis
  • Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland

Worst New Novels

  • Kingdom Come by J.G. Ballard
  • Theft by Peter Carey

Best Contemporary Novel in Translation

  • Vertigo by W.G. Sebald (trans Michael Hulse)
  • Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (trans Edith Grossman)

Worst Novels in Translation

  • The Life of Hunger by Amelie Nothomb (trans Shaun Whiteside)
  • Your Face Tomorrow II: Dance and Dream by Javier Marias (trans Margaret Jull Costa)
  • Embers by Sandor Marai (trans Carol Brown Janeway)
  • White by Marie Darrieusecq (trans Ian Monk)

Best Novels in Translation

  • In Search of Lost Time (Vols IV-VII) by Marcel Proust (trans John Sturrock, Carol Clark, Peter Collier and Lydia Davis; ed Christopher Prendergast)
  • The Trial by Franz Kafka (trans Richard Stokes)
  • Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb (trans Len Rix)
  • Doctor Glas by Hjalmar Soderberg (trans Paul Britten Austin)
  • The Class by Hermann Ungar (trans Mike Mitchell)
  • A Sad Affair by Wolfgang Koeppen (trans Michael Hoffman)

Best Short Story Collection

  • Matters of Life and Death by Bernard MacLaverty
  • Mothers and Sons by Colm Toibin

Best Non-Fiction

  • A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous (trans Philip Boehm)
  • How to Read Wittgenstein by Ray Monk
  • The White Cities by Joseph Roth (trans Michael Hoffman)
  • The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Others that are worthy of a mention that don’t fit or otherwise didn’t make it onto the list

  • Amongst Women by John McGahern
  • The Dark by John McGahern
  • Death in Danzig by Stefan Chwin (trans Philip Boehm)
  • Hotel Savoy by Joseph Roth (trans John Hoare)

On the whole I read very few books that I didn’t enjoy or find some pleasure in. I have hundreds of books waiting for me to read, so I’d better get on with it. See you on www.26books.com, I hope.

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