Books I Love

Since I started this blog three and a half years ago, there have been some recurring themes/posts: Signs of Ageing, Adventures in Publishing, Things I Have Seen at the Theatre That I Only Mention in the Hope of Appearing Cultured and Intelligent (there isn't a tag for that one), Dogshit, Haiku... lots and lots of fascinating subjects, in fact. But I never mention (other people's) books, except in my annual List of Lovely Things, a terse mnemonic that doesn't explain why I enjoyed the books I read that year.

Nik Perring, author of Not So Perfect, recently challenged anyone reading his blog to recommend some books. I started compiling a list - not a show-off list, just a list of books that I had enjoyed - and it became so unwieldy that I decided to break it up a bit and sprinkle suggestions at random through this blog in the coming months.

Reading is such a personal, private experience that it really doesn't matter to me if someone else likes or doesn't like a book. I only care if I like it. However, the way I find them in the first place is via recommendations - from the review pages in newspapers, from blogs and from friends. I also use the Granta anthologies as a way of finding new writers. I always think I'm being really cunning when I do that, but of course that's the whole point of them.

If you don't like the sound of any of these books - or you have already read them and you hated them - don't feel awkward about it. I won't like you any less. I can't imagine disliking anyone because of the books they read, though I also can't imagine being friends with anyone who doesn't read at all. I have slept with men who don't read books - but that's different. Though intelligence is a factor when falling in love, I have never lusted after a man because of the size of his library.

In fact, the only disastrous relationship I have ever had was with a man who used to quote poetry to me in bed. When he texted me one night to say, 'the world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold,' I thought, if you have made that up I'm going to marry you. But it turned out it's a line from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Books I Love
These are books I have read recently:

Me Cheeta by James Lever - it purports to be the autobiography of the chimp who starred in the Tarzan films. Outrageous, clever, filthy and funny. I have given copies of this book to several friends and family members as presents, and recommended it all over the place in the Amazon forums. I can't imagine anyone not liking it.

My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time by Liz Jensen - a book about time travel. Clever and witty. It's the first of her books that I have ever read. I liked it so much I felt as if it could have been written especially for me. I read it a few weeks ago and I'm going to go through and read everything else she has ever written.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid - an exquisitely written, involving fable with elements of a thriller and plenty of dry humour in it. I hated the title as it put me off the reading the book, thinking it would be worthy and dull. But even that turns out to be a witty pun. After I read this, I went straight out and bought his first book, Moth Smoke.

The City & The City by China Mieville - a gripping sci-fi murder mystery with lots of clever similes in it. What I liked most about it was the construction of the world; the way the inhabitants of his story live is an analogy for the way the citizens of big cities live, selectively filtering out things or people they don't wish to see, or have been trained not to see. But I was pretty impressed by the similes, too. I have picked up The Scar to read next.

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There. That's the first lot. I read Me Cheeta about a year ago. The others I have read over the last few weeks. I am quite old now and I have read lots and lots of beautiful, brilliant books, both obscure and well-known. I look forward to sharing some of them with you.