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Next to a circus there ain't nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit.


Very little action at the bus stop. Campbell Street, Hobart. December 2010.

Boxing Day? BAH! The Easter eggs will be out soon.

This year - excluding picture books - I've read eighty-five books! Jen guessed at sixty, I was thinking seventy, so eighty-five is a sounf tally that leaves me a good selection for today's Sunday Top Five: My Top Five Books That I've Read This Year! Bear in mind that these are books I've read and enjoyed this year, not books released this year. Let's see if this year's crop can top last year...


  • Fatelessness by Imre Kertész

  • Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

  • The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

  • Popular Music from Vittula by Mikael Niemi

  • The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills


Just missing the cut, and again in chronological order (in terms of my reading it): The Quiet American, Graham Greene; Closely observed trains, Bohumil Hrabal; Mercedes-Benz, Pawel Huelle; The Middle Parts of Fortune, Frederic Manning; The End of the Affair, Graham Greene; The Millstone, Margaret Drabble; Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Alan Sillitoe; The Ice Palace, Tarjei Vesaas; A Kind of Loving, Stan Barstow; A Season in Sinji, J.L. Carr; and An Artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro.

I'd happily recommend all of these. What are you waiting for?
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Sue said…
Books given to Cody and Zac for Christmas 2010:

*Gorgias by Plato

*Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle

*Here On Earth: An Argument For Hope by Tim Flannery

*Weather Makers: Our Changing Climate And What It Means For Life On Earth by Tim Flannery

*Junky by William S. Burroughs

*Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis

*Life by Keith (Keef) Richards

*Tasmania - Lonely Planet Guide

*The Australian Road Atlas 2011

*RACV Tourist Park Guide

* Australian Bush Cooking by Cathy Savage

*An Explorer's Notebook by Tim Flannery

Guaranteed to keep 'em quiet for a while.
27 December 2010 at 12:36
smudgeon said…
85? My word. I think I managed 15 at most. Which does make a top 5 list a pretty easy exercise...
28 December 2010 at 09:07
Kris McCracken said…
Sue, lots to read there. Needs more Joseph Heller.

Me, I haven't watched a movie that doesn't involved animation for a good few years though...
28 December 2010 at 20:55
Sue said…
Only ever read Catch-22. A very, very long time ago.
28 December 2010 at 23:29
Kris McCracken said…
It should be read every six (6) years.
30 December 2010 at 13:06
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