Book of the Decade

Plowman

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K4t

The Human Stain, Philip Roth (2000)

MikeC101

Plowman wrote: »

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There's four books from Stephenie Meyer in the top 40 :eek: !
No...just no.

Have to have a think about my own top books of the last decade, I'm actually not that sure how many books from this decade I've even read have been all that memorable.

kraggy

The Kite Runner? I think it's an absolute gem anyway.

Burning Eclipse

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I know they're both hugely popular. I'd find it very difficult to pick one over the other.

The Bull O'Shea

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I know they're both hugely popular. I'd find it very difficult to pick one over the other.

A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini even better than the Kite Runner

corblimey

The Lemon Tree and/or The Book Thief. Both stunning.

Dades

Off the top of my head, Shantaram is the one that stands out.

Corkfeen

Twilights liable to get number 1 by looks of things. Would probably choose "The Road".

Notorious

No Country for Old Men is the first one off the top of my head.

buck65

Life of Pi would have been my favourite read for a long time even though it has it's detractors.

Denerick

Probably 'The Road' by Mc Carthy. That'll be read in 100 years to come still.

Sconsey

First book that popped to mind was Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre, will have to think about it a bit more.

lemon_sherbert

Hm, this is a very tough one, in terms of the books I've got the most enjoyment of in that time, it would probably be the later Harry Potter books, or The Amber Spyglass, the last of His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman.

I will say in my defence I was only 11 in 2000 so what can you expect. :P

Hermy

Without really thinking about it the first book that occured to me was
That They May Face the Rising Sun by John MacGahern

emeraldstar

Hermy wrote: »

Without really thinking about it the first book that occured to me was
That They May Face the Rising Sun by John MacGahern

Great book, read it a couple of years ago. The prose is fabulous.


I can't think what I'd pick for book of the decade; that's a really tough question actually. Maybe some of the Harry Potters.. or I really like Neil Gaiman too.

No, actually, I don't know!

im_invisible

My favourites would have to be Cloud atlas by David Mitchell (fiction), or Brian Greene's The fabric of the cosmos, (seeing as The elegant universe was published in '99) for non-fiction

miec

Walk the blue fields by Claire Keegan
That they may face the rising sun - John Mcgahern
Glimpse of the devil - M Scott peck and any of his books that he wrote in the noughties, I have them all.
Thats all I can think of for now.

FouxDaFaFa

The first one that popped into my head was "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.It really made an impression on me.

boidey

The_Amazing_Adventures_of_Kavalier_&_Clay by Michael Chambon
The Great War for Civilisation by Robert Fisk
A Problem From Hell by Samantha Power
We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families by Philip Gourevitch
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
That they may face the rising sun by John McGahern

Morzadec

I think the Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor certainly deserves a mention. Other ones I very much enjoyed were The Secret History by Donna Tart and A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

FishFingers

Lunar Park - Bret Easton Ellis

Bodhidharma

I'm finding it hard to argue against The Road, but I would say its not an easy or pleasant read. Not the most enjoyable but probably the best.

Eliot Rosewater

This is an easy one for me - That They May Face the Rising Sun, by John McGahern.

Why so easy? Well quite simply I havent read any other book from the current decade! But I still thinks its a great book, one I thoroughly enjoyed.

Lame Lantern

I'll echo McCarthy and McGahern. It's largely been a poor decade for literature.

I'll also add that Ian McEwan's Saturday is both the worst book of the decade and the worst book I have ever read ever.

Plowman

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calamative

Anyone for William Boyd's 'Any Human Heart'?

drunkmonkey

The Diceman by Luke Rhinehart (1971) has to be one of my favourite books, it can really change your life.

Eliot Rosewater

Plowman wrote: »

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I think Amsterdam is essentially a study of character, and I found it quite intriguing. I think the ending is quite significant, as we see two characters at loggerheads over pride etc doing the exact same thing to one another. I think it is a lesson in how people who are quite similar may never get on.

I cant comment on its worthiness, or otherwise, to win the Booker prize in 1998 as I havent read any other books from that time. However when one considers the morality issues it deals with I dont see why it shouldn't win it.

All prizes are controversial in some sense. Notice that the two books repeatedly mentioned here - The Road and That They May Face the Rising Sun - never won the Booker prize and that two books by Irish authors that did in the last decade - The Sea and The Gathering - havent been mentioned much (if at all).

Ponster

im_invisible wrote: »

My favourites would have to be Cloud atlas by David Mitchell (fiction)

+1

I have been waiting 3 years to have forgotten enough of the the story so that I could re-read it.

DonnieScribbles

This article in the Irish Times raises a few interesting titles from the past decade:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/1202/1224259882847.html

I've only read four of the ten here. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was fairly self-indulgent on Eggers' part but I enjoyed it nonetheless! Hated The Corrections though, over-rated with horrible characters. I just didn't care about any of them.

I'm not sure about what books I liked from the past decade.... Maybe Zadie Smith's White Teeth, or Sputnik Sweetheart was pretty good but I prefer earlier stuff that Haruki Murakami has written.

There's just way too many books to pick just one really