Nov. 20th, 2007 09:01 am
Attack of the flat books
I have a bad conscience in bookstores these days. Whenever I'm browsing the literature section, a nagging voice is asking me Why are you buying more fiction when you still have so much lying around unread at home? Ever since
mollpeartree had the inspirational idea of a "reading confessional" to turn social pressure into a motivation for making her way through neglected titles, I've been thinking of doing something like that myself. Before I could solicit votes, however, I'd need to pare the possibilities down to a short list.
So here are ten titles in the category "20th/21st century novels in English", most of which I bought in the past year or two. What they all have in common is that they intrigued me enough for me to sacrifice at least $2, the energy to lug them home, and shelf space to store them. Tell me what you think--it doesn't matter whether you've familiar with the authors or not.
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So here are ten titles in the category "20th/21st century novels in English", most of which I bought in the past year or two. What they all have in common is that they intrigued me enough for me to sacrifice at least $2, the energy to lug them home, and shelf space to store them. Tell me what you think--it doesn't matter whether you've familiar with the authors or not.
- Felipe Alfau. Locos.
- T. Obinkaram Echewa. I saw the sky catch fire.
- Michael Frayn. Headlong.
- Abdulrazak Gurnah. By the sea.
- Alan Hollinghurst. The line of beauty.
- Rohinton Mistry. Family matters.
- Bharati Mukherjee. The holder of the world.
- V.S. Naipaul. A bend in the river.
- Audrey Niffenegger. The time traveler's wife.
- M.G. Vassanji. Book of secrets.
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