The New York Times just announced their list of Notable Books of 2010. I feel a little bit like a slacker for not having most of them. What's worse, there are several of which I know nothing. Considering the influence of the NYT over the book-buying habits of myself and other readers, I'm surprised by this. Anyway, here are a few Notable Books that are of note to me...
The Fiction & Poetry that I read:
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Larsson)
The Fiction & Poetry that I wanted to read (still want to read, and plan to read):
- The Ask (Lipsyte)
- Freedom (Franzen)
- The Imperfectionists (Rachman)
- The Lost Books of The Odyssey (Mason)
- Room (Donoghue)
- Solar (McEwan)
- Super Sad True Love Story (Shteyngart)
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet (Mitchell)
So that you don't think I'm a complete slacker, I would just like to point out that I've been waiting for some of these to come out in paperback before purchasing them. I've also downloaded e-book samples of more than a few of them. A small number of the rest don't strike me as being books I want to read, but a surprising number of them are brand new to me. Probably this is not the fault of the NYT or any of the other numerous magazines, blogs, and other book-related media--at least, not as much as it is my own fault for being an inattentive slacker. But it's a surprising number of them. A quick count reveals there are around thirty books on the Fiction & Poetry list that are brand new to me.
Also, I read exactly zero of the books that show up on the Nonfiction section of the list. And I've never heard of something like forty-three of them.
It's all a bit pathetic. But it's true.