Best of N lists: Books
The lists are trickling in for the past year's best books. The Economist, New York Times, and LA Times have all produced their lists. For taste overseas, check the list from The Guardian and BBC. I'm hoping to write soon about the book I enjoyed most this year but in the meantime, I'm planning some of the impulse purchases for next year from Amazon.
David Mitchell, whose Ghostwritten I just finished, has a new book, Cloud Atlas. David Foster Wallace has two new books, Oblivion, which is a collection of stories and probably doable, and Everything and More, which is about the mathematical concept of infinity, probably too abstruse for the likes of me. For something completely different I'd like to try Alice Munro. She writes a lot about rural life and her book Runaway makes a few "best" lists. I'll be more aggressive next year about trying to understand rural psychology. Another best in the fiction section, Florence of Arabia, was my brother's gift to me for Christmas. I'm looking forward to reading and laughing aloud.
In politics, I'm hoping to get a used copy of Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward. Many have called this book an excellent recount of what led up to "Operation Iraqi Screwup Freedom." Another book making the list is Against All Enemies, the Richard Clarke book that created quite a fuss. Many people have shrugged at me saying that they "don't have the information that 'W' had" and yet here we have two detailed accounts, one from an insider and the other from a respected journalist.
Too many books, too little time.
4:59:57 PM 
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