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19.Apr.2010 Jackie’s Best Books Ever

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I mentioned my plan at the beginning of the year to ask some book bloggers who read A LOT for their best books ever, then I choose one from their list to read. The idea is for them to do the filtering. Hah! My guinea pig is Jackie of Farm Lane Books Blog.

Jackie is one of the bloggers who reads really fast, a lot of them award winning books, like how I like my books to be. Her reviews are brave and concise. She’s not worried to say she doesn’t like a book, Booker prize winner or not. I sometimes wish I could write my review as concise as her, but alas, I read slow so I like to ponder on one book for a while and write down almost all my thoughts. If I read as fast as her, my reviews would probably be a lot shorter too!

Jackie compiled her list of favourite books last year with the total of 16 books. They are in order so here’s the first 5:

A Fine BalanceBlindnessFingersmithIngenious PainDuncton Wood

A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
Blindness – Jose Saramago
Fingersmith – Sarah Waters
Ingenious Pain – Andrew Miller
Duncton Wood – William Horwood

I had not read any of them! Have you?

I was especially surprised to see Ingenious Pain and Duncton Wood as I had never heard of them prior. And Duncton Wood is about moles!

For this time around, I picked A Fine Balance. I’ve finished reading it and was very impressed. My review will be up soon.

I plan to read Blindness and Fingersmith fairly soon. What do you think of Jackie’s list? Check out the complete list for her short summary for each book.

Update 26/04/10

Silly me, I forgot to include the couple of questions answered by Jackie. It would’ve been more convincing with these.

How many books do you read per year in average? (rough estimate)

I read 144 in 2009, but probably only about 70 a year before that.

How many books do you think you have read in your lifetime? (possibly very rough estimate)

50 *20 = 1000 Assuming I only started reading adult books at 11 and I know I didn’t read that many fiction books when I was at university.

Impressive numbers, no? Thanks again Jackie, for playing along!

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There are 20 Comments to "Jackie’s Best Books Ever"

  • Mark David says:
    19 April 2010 at 11:26 pm

    My problem all the time is figuring out what to say ;)

    I’ve long been curious about Blindness… one of these days, one of these days…
    .-= [Mark David´s last blog: Review: Rue de la Nuit] =-.

    Reply
  • vivienne says:
    19 April 2010 at 11:57 pm

    Not surprised to see Fingersmith on there. It is such a popular book. I do hope to read it myself this year.
    .-= [vivienne´s last blog: Monday Mailbox] =-.

    Reply
  • Jackie (Farm Lane Books) says:
    20 April 2010 at 12:34 am

    Thank you for featuring me – it is lovely to see my favourites all in a row like that!

    I’m really looking forward to seeing your review for A Fine Balance and hope that you enjoy the others as much.

    Ingenious Pain is quite an obscure book and I would love to see more people read it. It is all about a man who can no longer feel any pain, so the big theme is whether it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.

    I read Duncton Wood as a teenager. I’m not sure what I’d make of it now, but back then I was captivated by those cute little moles and their complex lives. I am scared to re-read it as I don’t want to ruin those wonderful memories, but perhaps one day I’ll read it again.
    .-= [Jackie (Farm Lane Books)´s last blog: The Long Song – Andrea Levy] =-.

    Reply
    • mee says:
      20 April 2010 at 11:06 pm

      Jackie, thanks for participating! Duncton Wood interests me very much as I saw that it also got raving reviews in Amazon. Also, how good moles life can be? I’m very curious! :)
      Ingenious Pain sounds like it has similar angle to Blindness–what happens if?
      I hope to read all of them in the future and I’m glad to have known them now from you!

      Reply
  • Steph says:
    20 April 2010 at 1:21 am

    I’ve only read one of these books – Blindness by Saramago, which I read earlier this year. It’s not actually my favourite Saramago that I’ve read, but it is a crazy good book, and very provocative! And like you, I’ve never heard of Duncton Wood or Ingenious Pain! But isn’t that what we love about Jackie – the fact that she’s always highlighting books we’d never hear of otherwise!
    .-= [Steph´s last blog: Steph & Tony turn 3!] =-.

    Reply
    • mee says:
      20 April 2010 at 11:13 pm

      Steph, yes I read your review a while back. I’ve never read Saramago so Blindness sounds like a good place to start!
      You’re right about Jackie, and I trust her recommendations! I’m hoping that with this project I get to know more obscure good books along the way. It is somewhat more exciting than to see overtly popular books :)

      Reply
  • Claire (Paperback Reader) says:
    20 April 2010 at 2:12 am

    Great idea!

    I have read and loved both Fingersmith and A Fine Balance and have both Blindness and Ingenious Pain (at the recommendation of both Jackie and another friend) to-be-read at some point. I remember seeing mention of Duncton Woold on Jackie’s blog so I shall have to discover more about it.
    .-= [Claire (Paperback Reader)´s last blog: Recent Acquisitions] =-.

    Reply
  • mrdes says:
    20 April 2010 at 2:03 pm

    I have never heard of the books mentioned, except for “Blindness”, amazing! Honest, “Blindness” is a difficult book to read (with the longest sentences possible!). We used to discuss this on highbrowse…Perhaps you will like “Blindness” more than “The Road”…

    Reply
    • mee says:
      20 April 2010 at 11:23 pm

      mrdes, I would be interested to see how long the sentences are lol. The longest so far that I found was Atonement. I do hope that I will like Blindness more than The Road.

      Reply
  • Bellezza says:
    21 April 2010 at 12:05 pm

    I think it’s wonderful how you glean suggestions from others, specifically those you most admire. From the list I’ve only read Blindness, which has to be one of the most thought provoking books I read last year. I’ve heard wonderful things of A Fine Balance, but I’ve steered clear of it for awhile…after A City of Joy it’s hard for me to read such tales of sorrow.
    .-= [Bellezza´s last blog: Hotel On The Corner of Bitter and Sweet] =-.

    Reply
    • mee says:
      21 April 2010 at 10:19 pm

      Bellezza, thanks for mentioning The City of Joy. I looked for it a bit on the net. The main difference is that it is written by a foreigner, while A Fine Balance is written by Indian-born Canadian (which matters for me). But I know what you mean by tales of sorrow and how you need a break from it sometimes. I’ve finished A Fine Balance a week ago and I’m still feeling down until now..

      Reply
  • Michelle (su[shu]) says:
    21 April 2010 at 3:47 pm

    I’m about a quarter of the way through A Fine Balance, and loving it so far. Will definitely be looking out for your thoughts on it.

    I’ve also heard much wonderful things about Saramago, though the problem with him is I don’t know where to start…
    .-= [Michelle (su[shu])´s last blog: Books that have come my way] =-.

    Reply
    • mee says:
      21 April 2010 at 10:30 pm

      Gosh Michelle, can our reading taste be more similar? I’d be excited to talk about A Fine Balance with you!
      I think Blindness will be as good as any to start Saramago, don’t you think? I hope it will be one of the best start even.

      Reply
  • Stujallen says:
    18 May 2010 at 6:22 am

    great see jackies favourite books i like saramago ,mistry too ,all the best stu
    .-= [Stujallen´s last blog: world cup of writers -Slovenia] =-.

    Reply

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