Books you've read in 2020

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Note to moderators: can we please pin this thread and unpin the 2019 thread? Thank you
 
The first book of the '20s for me was Maurice by EM Forster. I'd previously been reluctant to get into his work - I suppose mostly because of A Passage to India. But this book is something else! It's beautifully written and paced. Not to mention ahead of its time. I had been familiar with the Hugh Grant film (never watched it) but there is a strong possibility that this book may open a door for me to discover more of Forster's work. :disco:

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Also, this piece by Julian Barnes in The Guardian a few years ago perfectly describes how I feel about this turn of events:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/02/julian-barnes-i-was-wrong-about-em-forster
 
Sounds great, I’ll add it to the long list of books, and especially classics that I should read.

I’ve started the new decade with Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. What a book! I’m halfway through, and I can barely put it off because it’s all too exciting.

I love the book cover too, it’s from the Vintage Classic Russian series, so I went on and ordered Doctor Zhivago and The Master and Margarita too (as they weren’t available in store :evil: ). Category is Russian textiles.

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edit: I’d love to read the Leo Tolstoy ones but they’re about 1000 pages each. :bruised:
 
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edit: I’d love to read the Leo Tolstoy ones but they’re about 1000 pages each. :bruised:
I had this 'goal' of reading War and Peace before I turned 30, which never happened.

So I decided I'd read before I turned 40, which, unless I get on with it stat, won't be happening either :(
 
You can do it!

One thing though; it’s kind of unfair that big books count as one in a book challenge... not that it’s the book challenge that is the goal, but you know what I mean.
 
Got my copy of our Februari book, The Blue Fox (will be reading it in Swedish). Also next batch of the year, hopefully will finish all by March (or even before).

 
If you like pretty books you should check The Folio Society.
 
Huns how have you got time for books?

Y’all need to get on the love island train x

@Rita
 
I tried watching that dreary shit but who’s got time for straight’s mating habits? They don’t even fuck properly on the show.
 
Yes. I’m a Love Island watcher myself but we don’t want to see it (or Rita) in this haute literature topic.

And when you grow up and realise that love is a neurochemical con job its easy to find the time to read because you’re not on the hunt five nights a week.
 
So far this year I've read 'Swimming in the dark' by Tomasz Jedrowski - a gay 'coming out' tale set in Communist Poland in the later part of the 20th century - 4 out of 5

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and also 'My sister the serial killer' by Oyinkan Braithwaite - a darkly comic tale set in Lagos about a nurse and her sister (who is a serial killer, obviously) - again 4 out of 5

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I’m liking this very much. It’s what you might describe as a bit ‘arsh. Also, “pig-flashing the lights to persuade them to linger” in ‘Bait’ is currently my favourite line ever

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So I finished DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT which was REALLY GOOD and now I'm reading

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I must say I haven't much enjoyed the ROTH I've read previously but this is a BIT MORE LIKE IT

Also COMING SOON as a MINISERIES starring WINONA RYDER :disco:
 
Currently reading:

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Pamuk is fast becoming one of my favourite authors of all time. This is quite the tome (but I do like those in January) and he's already sucked me right in.
 
I’m currently on

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I feel my early 2020 is going to be obsessively working through the work of Joan Didion. What a woman!
 
I think I’m going to alternate between her fiction and non-fiction. They’ve handily published all her essay books in one edition.
 
By the way I read Jack Kerouac's On the Road a couple of weeks ago. What a load of overrated shite! The cover is pretty I guess (if you're into that sort of thing aesthetically) but the book itself is just.. ugh. I'm not here for this myopic white man "isn't diversity great? I wish I was one of them *******s!!" narrative.

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you know what, I want to read some more Mann this year. got my eye on Buddenbrooks
 
I don’t know how to post pictures anymore but I finished The Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb (very nice fantasy but not much happens really), Conviction (trashy quick crime fiction that ended up being just bad) and started Cleanness by Garth Greenwell.
 
I don’t know how to post pictures anymore but I finished The Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb (very nice fantasy but not much happens really), Conviction (trashy quick crime fiction that ended up being just bad) and started Cleanness by Garth Greenwell.

Thanks for the heads up - I didn’t realise there was a new book by Garth Greenwell
 

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