2010 in books

[wwidsith]

2010 was an amazing year for books for me. I read several brilliant authors for the first time, including DH Lawrence, Hilary Mantel, Laurence Durrell, and Maupassant, and also got some in from favourites like Pynchon. Weirdly and uncharacteristically, I also found myself reading several ‘celebrity memoirs’ last year - about four in a row, mostly

Comments

[hobnobofjoy]

What did you think of The Fry Chronicles? I loved it. Not as much as Moab, which really struck me, but quite a lot. It made me really wish I'd been at Cambridge at that time!

Is the Victoria Coren one the one about making the porn film? I have that waiting in Leeds for me when I go back. I have a weird love for her. My housemates and I are semi-seriously considering going on Only Connect!

And Frankie Boyle... I assume you weren't keen?

What was the Historical Introduction to Romance Langs like? I don't know much about it.

I got a book on fonts in my stocking which was excellent. It was mostly a series of anecdotes about different fonts or about the progress of printing and typeface design. I loved it!

This has turned into a minor essay, sorry! Merry Christmas, etc! xxx

[wwidsith]

This is weird, I already wrote a big reply to you, but somehow it seems to have disappeared. Either it's vanished, or you're about to get it all again, only in a more condensed and irritable form.

I do agree with you about Moab being better than Chronicles. He seems to keep apologising for himself which annoyed me a bit. But I did enjoy it, and it was a really good one to read on the iPad because it was full of embedded videos of Stephen looking at old photos or reflecting on his former self.

I just love Vicky Coren. What's not to like, her professional career involves poker, etymology, journalism and amateur porn, it's perfect. Plus she always replies to me when I send her Facebook messages about her Observer column. But no, the one I read was her poker memoir, I think the porny one is called Once More With Feeling or something -- I haven't read it.

Happy New Year Kate! You should come to Paris sometime!

[hobnobofjoy]

Nope, just the one message. That happens to me a lot, but I think it's a problem at the brain end of the commenting process rather than the technical end.

I really loved when he was talking about how much he loved Emma and Hugh, it gave me warm glows and flappy hands. I didn't know the iPad had all that - please to be giving me an iPad.

She's my hero. Her, and Caitlin Moran. I gave my brother the poker book last year but I haven't read it. My housemate tells me that in Once More she talks abut how she ended up in a relationship with one of the porn stars.

Happy new year! Don't tease, I would love to but am so short on money and time. ONE DAY!

[herself_nyc]

We both read about the Civil War this year, and we both read Lawrence Durrell!

[wwidsith]

Oh yeah, how weird. I feel that you didn't love Durrell like I did...

[herself_nyc]

I loved parts of it. Parts of it were baffling and others felt laughable or horribly sexist. But I want to read the other 3 parts before I decide how I really feel.