Looking ahead

I realized that today, being the last day of August, means that the year is now officially two-thirds over. Or, to put it another way, there are only four months of reading left in 2009. I’m getting a little panicy that the year is almost done, and I haven’t gotten into all of the books that I want to read – not to mention that I may be missing out entirely on all of the great books that haven’t even made it onto my radar. So I put it to our readers, what are the best books that you’ve read in 2009 so far? What are the books that you hope to read in the months ahead?

Here are the titles sitting on my desk right now that are must reads:

It Feels So Good When I Stop by Joe Pernice (and I need to get the accompanying CD “novel soundtrack”, naturally)
This Wicked World by Richard Lange
Andromeda Klein by Frank Portman (will there be a novel soundtrack?)
The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Two of these novels are written by musicians. What does that mean? And Nick Cave has a new novel that comes out tomorrow…

Books | Tim | August 31, 2009 8:19 am

3 Comments

By Murray Browne, August 31, 2009 @ 2:58 pm

I’m about 1/3 through Pynchon’s Inherent Vice, which qualifies as both best book read and the book I hope to finish reading this year. Thanks for posting the Pynchon play list link earlier this month.
By Tim, August 31, 2009 @ 6:56 pm

I’m still 350 pages into the last Pynchon, but its the first I haven’t finished. I keep eyeing Inherent Vice suspisciously. Glad to hear that it is very good.
By JillieZ, August 31, 2009 @ 9:21 pm

I get panicky too, that i won’t get through as many books as i want in a year, and then nervous because i have about 100 books on my ‘to read’ list and how will i ever get thru when i’m constantly adding more! That being said, ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ and ‘The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society’ were my favorites this year. ‘Dragon’ because it was so dark and the main character so gripping, and ‘Potato Pie’ because it’s just such a gem of a book. And a quick read, always a bonus. Next is ‘the Historian’ – heard nothing but great things.