Some of the 47 books I read this year

At the start of 2010 I resolved to read one book a week. Well, the year is over and I didn’t quite meet that goal.

I read 41 books in 2010 (Update: I realized that I didn’t add my sprint read of the Scott Pilgrim series to the tally. That would bring it up to 46 47. Close, still no cigar) It’s a pretty respectable number but well short of 52. The problem isn’t the lack of time it’s simply because after a day of reading tweets, blogs, news stories and the odd magazine article the last thing I want to do is read.

My friends Sarah Millar and Emma Woolley are both trying 52 in 52 it this year and in solidarity with them I’m going to try 52 in 52 again in 2011. I’ll probably fall short again and frankly that’s OK. If you read one more book than you would’ve because you made it a resolution in January, your year is already better.

A few things will probably be different this year. I got a Kobo in early December and the last four or five books I read this year were read on Kobo. It’s actually increased the amount of reading I do because it’s let me have dozens of books on hand instead of the two or three I can schlep with me up to the office.

Anyways, if you’re interested, I list some of the highlights of my year in reading on the Afterword.

I also noticed a few themes cropping up in my reading:

1) Dad books

I read Michael Chabon’s Manhood for Amateurs, Ryan Knighton’s C’mon Papa, and Todd Babiak’s novel Toby. All of them look at fatherhood. It’s not that I’m going to settle down and start having kids next week but it’s no longer something that’s out of the realm of possibility. So you might as well try to figure out what lies ahead.

2) Animals

John Vaillant’s the Tiger, Philiph Hoare’s the Whale, Allisa York’s Fauna, all looked at our relationship with animals. As a pretty urban guy I don’t think much about animals and I really should just because  I think it would teach me more empathy and also because animals are fucking awesome.

Weirdly enough two books I read this year, Yann Martell’s Beatrice and Virgil and Melissa Milgrom’s Still Life both had taxidermy as a theme. And of course I can’t forget Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, which briefly made me think about vegetarianism, again.

3) The internet

I read, back-to-back, Nicholas Carr’s the Shallows and Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus. Carr’s thesis is that the internet is killing our ability to focus for long periods of time and form complex and drawn out arguments. Shirky argues that the internet is ripping us away from TV and thus freeing up all this free time to do things like create Wikipedia and tag photos on Flickr (and also play A LOT of Angry Birds and post cat videos, just sayin’). Jury is out which of these guys are right, probably both of them in some way.

I do know one thing…. you should probably read Tim Wu’s the Master Switch, an amazing look at communication monopolies (think AT & T, Microsoft, cable) and how they rise and fall.

[Note: I'm actually not behind in my reading, but I am behind in writing about these books. Whoops.]

Nicolas Dickner’s Nikolski was the only book that grabbed me from this year’s Canada Reads list and after giving it a read I want it to win the whole damn thing.

Nikolski is the story of three young people drawn to Montreal and the book explores ideas of personal identity, family, history and place. Leavened with the author’s healthy obsession with marine life, archaeology, maps and pirates. It all sounds heavy but Dickner’s playful writing makes it a real joy to read.

In fact, all these themes are why it makes a perfect candidate for Canada Reads. Immigrants, long-time Canadians, First Nations, Quebecers, non-Quebecers, Western Canadians, Eastern Canadians, all have a stake in this book and in some small way are all represented. This is a big country and Dickner tries to cram it all in, to strange yet beautiful effect.

One of the key objects in the novel is an odd book made up of parts of three others stitched together to create a unique object. I couldn’t think of a more beautiful metaphor to describe this book or the country that it’s trying to sum up.

Note: Pal Nic Boshart is defending this book as part of the Keepin’ It Real Book Club. Go Nic.

Sometime in the early 2000s karaoke, a fringe activity that was firmly in the domain of Asian people and pseudo-exhibitionists, went mainstream. I always had some idea as to why this happened but culture writer Bryan Raftery has done a better job of telling this story.

To him it was the great confluence of reality TV (especially American Idol), the rise of teenybopper pop such as the Backstreet Boys, faux nostalgia and a growing comfort around amateur performance. Don’t Stop Believin‘, is part personal memoir and part cultural history. He talks about a long-gone and once beloved karaoke bar in New York’s Lower East Side, binging on karaoke and more. Yes, I got jealous that he got to fly to Japan and sing karaoke with his  best friend as “research” for this book.

For me, a self-confessed karaoke junkie, parts of Raftery’s book are very familiar. Don’t Stop Believin’ is not unlike hearing a stranger at a karaoke night belt out a song that you love. You can’t help but sing along and you sure as hell applaud at the end of the song.

As an aside, check out this great blog post from Flickr, what else, karaoke.

52 in 52 is a project to read a book a week in 2010

After two novels to start the year, it was about time I sunk my teeth into some non-fiction. I wanted something light and fun and this book hits the spot. Victoria Moore, the Guardian’s wine columnist, has given us a delightful little book on drinking well throughout the year. And she doesn’t just write about booze. Moore has written a very nice primer on juices, coffees and, that most British of drinks, tea.

Of course, some parts of the book were a bit like torture. The recipes on summer drinks had me aching for bike rides to the park and picnic (also, large pitchers of Pimms and mint juleps). But I’m probably more likely to start with some of the winter drinks. Some of you might be lucky to see them at a dinner party soon.

Moore should also send a thank-you card to her book designer, Heredesign, for elevating this book with dozens of charming letterpress-inspired illustrations throughout the book. I’ve embedded the Google Books excerpt for your perusal.

Margaret Atwood just might be Canada’s best science-fiction author. She probably won’t like that label but this book and Oryx & Crake, the novel that closely dovetails with The Year of the Flood, is science-fiction at its best.

The novel tells the story of two women, Toby and Ren, and the God’s Gardeners, a survivalist eco-cult. They are all trying to survive in a dystopian world where the social fabric has been torn apart by rampant consumerism, environmental damage and bio-technology run amok. So basically, Las Vegas.

Atwood is grimly serious and if you don’t steel yourself, Year of the Flood can be a difficult read in many ways. Sometimes I found sections of the book a bit didactic and preachy. But the horrors that she writes about just have enough grounding in reality that to simply dismiss them would be wrong.

Further reading:

The Year of the Flood’s official site

Margaret Atwood on Twitter

52 in 52 is an unofficial challenge to read one book a week this year. I tried this last year but lost track somewhere in the 30s. So we’re trying this again for 2010.

Book the first? Ian Weir’s novel of pugilism, faith and Victoriana, Daniel O’Thunder. The book is also the first selection of the Afterword Reading Society so you’ll be hearing more about it in the coming weeks.

Weir’s novel is a fun, well-paced and well-plotted book about an Irish street preacher and boxer who challenges the devil to a boxing match. C’mon, how can you not like that summary?

Some of my favourite books in the last few years have been novels that played with the conventions of the historical novel (i.e. the Man Game). This one fits that bill and is probably a bit more accessible than Lee Henderson’s novel, with its crazy patois and slightly more outrageous, MMA style fighting.

My co-worker Brad and a few others have said this book was an overlooked title of 2009 and I agree. Daniel O’Thunder is a manly, meaty book. I’d recommend it to those who enjoyed Quirk’s Jane Austen mash-up series or those who enjoy their Victoriana a bit rougher around the edges.