Yup, it’s that time of year again: here’s my 2010 books wrap-up!
I’ve read 29 books in total, which is six less than last year and approximately brings me back to the level of 2008.
I’ve made a photo of some (not all!), of the books I particularly liked!
Two of the books read this year were comics, five graphic novels, meaning 22 were either novels, novella’s or collections of short stories.
It took me a while to decide on my favourite read of the year. There were two candidates but I finally figured it out. So… let’s hear the drumroll!
Best Book of 2010
The Very Best Book I read in 2010 is The Wasted Vigil, by Nadeem Aslam. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I hate myself for not picking it up earlier, since I’ve had in on the shelf from the moment it came out in 2008. I had equally loved Maps for Lost Lovers when I read it so Aslam now deserves to be listed among my (few) favourite authors! That’s a spot right along David Mitchell, Barbara Gowdy and Haruki Murakami: novelists of whom I’ve read, or will read, each and every book. So I’m waiting for Aslam’s 1993 début to arrive in my mailbox: Season of the Rainbirds. Don’t you just love that title? ;)
Second Best Book of 2010
Close upon the heels of The wasted Vigil is (not surprisingly) The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, the latest novel by my all-time favourite David Mitchell. It was a real tiebreak but I figured I was probably a teeny weeny bit unfairly favoured to Mitchell just because I love his work so much and had been looking forward to his new book since Black Swan Green, in 2006. Then again, that might speak in favour of ‘Jacob de Zoet’ because novels eagerly anticipated often disappoint.
List of books I read in 2010
For those of you who are curious, or just plain addicted to lists (like me), here’s the complete pile of books I read in 2010. The ones that particularly stand out looking back on my reading adventures, I’ve given a bold title.
- Trespass, Valerie Martin (2007)
- The Best of Mutts, Patrick McDonnell (2004)
- The Housekeeper and the Professor (Hakase no aishi ta sūshiki 博士の愛した数式, translated by Stephen Snyder), Yoko Ogawa (2003/2008)
- De avonden (1) (The Evenings), Gerard Reve; Dick Matena (1947/2004)
- The Rapture, Liz Jensen (2009)
- In the Shadow of No Towers, Art Spiegelman (2004)
- Careless in Red, Elizabeth George (2008)
- I Am a Cat III (Wagahai wa neko de aru 吾輩は猫である, translated by Aiko Ito; Graeme Wilson), Natsume Sōseki (1907)
- Een stoomfluit midden in de nacht (Yonaka no kiteki ni tsuite / ‘A Steam Whistle in the Night‘, translated by Jaques van Westerhoven), Haruki Murakami (2003 (2006))
- Het Hoofdkussenboek van Sei Shōnagon (Makura no Sōshi 枕草子 / The Pillow Book, translated by Paul Heijman), Sei Shōnagon (1002/1986)
- Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (Mekurayanagi to, nemuru onna, translated by Philip Gabriel; Jay Rubin), Haruki Murakami (2005)
- Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger (2009)
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell (2010)
- Silence (Chinmoku 沈黙 , translated by William Johnston (?)), Shusaku Endo (1966)
- The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch (1978)
- Affinity, Sarah Waters (1999)
- The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
- The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger (1951)
- Persepolis (translated byMattias Ripa), Marjane Satrapi (2003)
- Persepolis 2 (translated by Blake Ferris), Marjane Satrapi (2004)
- Remainder, Tom McCarthy (2007)
- Mutts: Dog-eared, Patrick McDonnell (2004)
- Het volgende verhaal (The Following Story), Cees Nooteboom (1991)
- Isabelle Avondrood: Isabelle en het beest (Adèle et le bête, translated by René van de Weijer (?)), Jacques Tardi (1976)
- Isabelle Avondrood: Allemaal monsters! (Tous des monstres, translated by René van de Weijer), Jacques Tardi (1994)
- Soulless, Gail Carriger (2009)
- Het Gouden Paviljoen (Kinkakuji, translated by C. Ouwehand), Yukio Mishima (1966)
- The Wasted Vigil, Nadeem Aslam (2008)
- The Christmas Quilt, Thomas J. Davis (2000)
Which of these books have you read? Did you like them?
There are several classics in the list, including Japanese. Graphic novels and comics were a new adventure in 2010; although I tried my first during the October 2009 read-a-thon, I read many more this year — upgrading my level from Beginner to Intermediate in the Graphic Novel Challenge.
Other genres outside my usual reading nook: Apocalyptic (The Rapture), GLBT (Affinity), paranormal romance (urban fantasy) / ghost stories (Soulless, Her Fearful Symmetry).
All of these I particularly enjoyed!
More statistics
Original language
Read in translation or the original language?
Gender author
Century of publication
Except for a challenge wrap-up post, that’s about it for 2010. Book-wise I mean: I’ll need to work on my list of movies next! How are you doing evaluating last year?
The Sunday Salon is a virtual gathering of booklovers on the web, where they blog about bookish things of the past week, visit each others weblogs, oh — and read ;)
Graasland 
14 reacties
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zondag 9 januari 2011 bij 20:57
leeswammes
Nice to see all your pie-charts. You do, as I expected, read quite a few Japanese books, about 25%. I can guess which is the 11th C. book! The one that took you longest to read, I think.
Jacob de Zoet made it into my top-10! I also enjoyed The Rapture, but not as much as you.
Happy reading in the new year!
zondag 9 januari 2011 bij 23:27
Gnoe
Yup, The Pillow Book is the one indeed!
I saw Jacob de Zoet was in your top-10 (I hope I commented? If not, I was surfing on my phone again ;) Is it really the only one, with The Rapture, that you ave read of these books?
zondag 9 januari 2011 bij 23:34
leeswammes
No, I’ve read a few more of these:
Soulless (nice)
Her Fearless Symmetry (nice but odd ending)
The Poisonwood Bible (not the best of Kingsolver, I thought)
The Catcher in the Rye (enjoyable)
and I’ve got Het volgende verhaal on my shelf, to be read.
zondag 9 januari 2011 bij 23:45
Gnoe
Dôh. I knew you had read these… My brain just doesn’t seem to be working properly!
maandag 10 januari 2011 bij 00:00
mee
I actually read less in 2010 than in 2009 too, much less. Even less than 2008. But the quality far exceeded the previous years so I’m a happy reader! I have The Fearful Symmetry, The Housekeeper and the Professor, and the Poisonwood Bible on tbr and I’ve been meaning to read David Mitchell. Hopefully this year will be the year :). Have a great reading year!
maandag 10 januari 2011 bij 00:38
chasing bawa
I just finished Soulless this evening and really enjoyed it. So much fun :) Can’t wait to get my hands on her next book. This year I’m also planning to catch up on my two David Mitchell’s (I can’t understand why I haven’t yet;P) And it looks like I should really check out Nadeem Aslam too. You’ve read a nice mixture of books Gnoe.
maandag 10 januari 2011 bij 00:54
Novroz
Finally, I met someone who reads less books than me :)
Every book blogger seems to read more books tham me…they are such a fast reader.
I have just posted my top5 book of 2010. It’s great that you can choose 2 out of that many books.
What do you think of the catcher in the rye? I am curious about it but still not sure whether to read it or not
maandag 10 januari 2011 bij 14:17
Gnoe
Hi mee, Sakura & Novroz, thanks for stopping by!
@mee: Ha! You’ve got some great books waiting on the shelf :) Like you I am totally happy with the books I read: there’s not one I wanted to abort at the 100 page decision line. It’s just that I’ve know years in which my pile of books read grew into 40+ and seeing the amount of books most bloggers read makes me feel small sometimes ;) Not that I suffer, LOL ;)
@chasing bawa: I really want to read the sequel to Soulless too! I think I’m up to it now; couldn’t do it right away because of the… ‘fluffyness’ that would have been too much for me if I’d had read on. A girl can take only that much light-headedness at a time ;)
And yes, please read Nadeem Aslam: I’d really like to know what you think of his books. I promise you won’t be disappointed ;)
@Novroz: Haha! I’m glad I made you feel good (/better) about yourself! I’m a slow reader as well as a slow blogger and I have too many interests and too little time. Going to check out your top-5 reads (of course)!
I liked The Catcher in the Rye. I didn’t feel like reading it but I found it quite entertaining. Still I’ve forgotten most of it already… (aaargh I should have written that blogpost!) So it wasn’t one of the best reads for me. Maybe if I’ll get to writing a short ‘review’ someday anyway and look up my notes and browse the book again. Haha.
maandag 10 januari 2011 bij 17:58
Novroz
I remember Stephen King said that he is a slow reader, he can only read 70/80 books a year…what are we then? snail reader ;)
It’s nice knowing that someone else is as slow as I am *highfive with Gnoe*
Do you think that book really inspired people to be a killer? << this is the one that makes me really curious about the book, how could a book turn people into killers?
donderdag 13 januari 2011 bij 14:16
Mari (Bookworm with a View)
I’m so happy I read this post! I am adding The Wasted Vigil to my list to read. Thank you!
Do you have a suggestion for a book set in Japan that I must read?
donderdag 13 januari 2011 bij 15:07
Gnoe
Hi Mari, I’m glad to have made you happy. If you don’t mind detailed descriptions of food and ceremonies, I can highly recommend The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery. I absolutely loved it! It makes me sad I’m such a slow reader because it prevents me from re-reading :(
donderdag 13 januari 2011 bij 21:14
litera
From your list I’ve read “I’m a Cat” – one of my favourite books now!:) And I wish to read any book by Yoko Ogawa, but she wasn’t translated into Polish (so I have to look for an english version). I also would like to read something by Mishima and Endo this year.
Looking at your statistics, you know Japanese? I mean, you read an original Japanese version?
donderdag 13 januari 2011 bij 21:47
Chinoiseries
(Totally missed this post, should check my rss feeds more often :S)
So cool! I love graphs and I love lists, so this was a really fun post to read. Of this list I have read The Housekeeper and the Professor (which I enjoyed immensely, became an instant Yoko Ogawa fan) and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. I also have this fondness for Japanese books, Mishima is also on my list. Though atm I have to resist adding even more books to my Goodreads list..
Just curious, where did your love for Japanese lit. come from?
donderdag 13 januari 2011 bij 22:10
Gnoe
@Litera: Nooooo I can’t read Japanese! I wish I could :) I’ve either read them in Dutch or (mostly) English. It’s just a chart of the country of origin of the book/author. I read Yoko Ogawa in English; here’s what I wrote about it.
@Chinoiseries: I have no idea how that could have happened either ;P
I only occasionally add books to my Goodreads wish list, I prefer to submit books that are actually already on my shelf.
You know I’m not particularly sure where my interest in JLit came from??? It just sorta happened… After watching Japanese movies, Mr Gnoe getting totally submersed in jpop/shibuya-kei music for a while and having read some Japanese authors it just became more and more interesting. Oh, and discovering bento might have something to do with my love for Japan too ;) And doing origami as a child (love those fancy papers) etc etc. It’s pretty weird though because I grew up learning about ‘the Japs’ of WWII because my father and his family were imprisoned in Japanese camps in Indonesia.