The idea is that I’m going to read these books in the order that I wrote them down, which is quite random, and already I’ve broken this rule. Anyway, I’ve read some of these before (*) but they’re deserving of a re-read, and others just sound interesting because of their author, title, film or celebrity.

  • *A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess (Watched the film afterwards. Rather more disturbing than the book)
  • The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides (The book I wish I’d written)
  • Oscar and Lucinda – Peter Carey (I started it but lost interest. Will get back to it)
  • The Satanic Verses – Salmon Rushdie (Started this but totally lost the plot – literally. Will try again later)
  • The Bonfire of the Vanities – Tom Wolfe (Totally dug this)
  • *Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez - To be re-read
  • Less than Zero – Bret Easton Ellis (The Catcher in the Rye of the 80s)
  • Beijing Confidential – Jan Wong (June 08)
  • On the Road – Jack Kerouac
  • The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis – Jose Saramango
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
  • *The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
  • If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller – Italo Calvino
  • Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett
  • *Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  • Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – Philip K Dick
  • The Electric Koolaid Acid Test – Tom Wolfe
  • Labyrinths – Jorge Luis Borges
  • Catch 22 – Joseph Heller (I don’t remember a thing about it and I read it last year – need to re read)
  • The Tin Drum – Gunter Grass
  • Lolita – Vladimir Nobokov (I hope the rest of the book is better than the first pargraph)
  • The Last Temptation of Christ – Nikos Kazantzakis
  • The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
  • The Labyrinth of Solitude – Octavio Paz
  • In Sicily – Elio Vittorini
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
  • *Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
  • *They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? – Horace McCoy
  • *Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
  • Moby Dick – Herman Melville
  • *Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
  • *To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
  • Life of Pi – Yann Martel
  • The Prophet – Kalil Gibran
  • The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
  • The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri
  • The Nun – Denis Diderot
  • Faust – Johann Wolfgang Von Guethe
  • No Logo – Naomi Klein (July 08)
  • The Shock Doctrine – Naomi Klein
  • Dry, A Memoir – Augustin Burroughs. And so begins my love affair with Burroughs.
  • Running with Scissors – Augustin Burroughs – just arrived from Amazon
  • The Millennium trilogy – reading the first one now – finished. Seriously though, what drivel. Don’t know if I’ll get to the second one but it’s on the shelf.
  • Status Anxiety – Alain de Botton – love love love! Deep and not a wanker.
  • Hollywood Ending (aka John Belushi is Dead – in the US) – Kathy Charles. Happened to start talking to a friend of the authors as JJ and I were dining at Tiamo on Lygon Street. Ran into Readings and bought their last copy. Yay! Freaking awesome. Review is here.
  • *Madame Bouverie – Gustav Flaubert – I’ve got a story idea and this is research.
  • Just Kids – Patty Smith – Ahhhh
  • Neon Angel - Cherie Currie
  • Transformer (Lou Reed) Brilliant
  • *A bunch of Agatha Christie books
  • Red - Belinda Missen - fun holiday read
  • The Trial - Kafka
  • Animal Farm
  • Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
  • The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
  • L’Etranger (The Stranger) - Albert Camus - I’ve read this in French and English and it continues to blow my mind.
  • Notes from the Underground - Feodor Dostoevsky
  • The Death of Ivan Ilvich - Leo Tolstoy
  • As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner
  • The Picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde
  • The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - Read it but didn’t appreciate it. Someone I liked recommended it as their favourite book so should read it again to understand.
  • Fathers and Sons - Ivan Turgenev - Read it at uni. No recollection at all!
  • Candide - Voltaire - Can’t remember much but I studied it at uni and remember wanting to kill it!
  • Lord of the Flies - William Golding
  • Girl in a Band - reading
  • On Beauty - Zadie Smith
  • A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - re-read
  • The Museum of Modern Love - Hanya Yanagihara
  • My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh - currently reading
  • The Communist Manifesto - re-read
  • Freedom from our Addictions - Russel Brand - Ugh - how to make he 12 steps interesting - YOU CAN’T RUSSELL
  • The Immortalists - Chloe Benjamin
  • The Restorer - Michael Sala
  • The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
  • Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman - Gah
  • The Girls - Emma Cline - I enjoy a good cult book
  • The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood - loved it.
  • A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
  • The Cuckoo’s Calling - Robert Galbraith (actually JK Rowling)
  • The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai
  • The Sense of an ending - Julian Barnes
  • The Eight - Katherine Neville
  • A Season in Hell - The Life of Rimbaud - Jean-Marie Carre
  • The Post Birthday World - Lionel Shriver
  • The Things We Wish Were True - Marybeth Mayhew Whalen
  • Big Magic - Elizabeth Gilbert - LOVED IT
  • The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz - Should be on every reading list
  • The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins - Ugh - Page turner but still ugh
  • The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt - YES
  • Priestdaddy - Patricia Lockwood - Haaaaa the best!
  • Requiem for a Dream - Hubert Selby Jr. - not right now
  • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck - Mark Manson - pretty sure I’m already there - read it it; you’ll give even fewer fucks.
  • Verlain’s Rimbaud - D.J. Carlile
  • White Teeth - Zadie Smith - she write alright, this one!
  • The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Murakami - cannot keep reading it. Just as annoying as Lolita but not as well written