a blog about a lot of things

Youth is a short novel, less than 200 pages. Yet the ability to convey in a few sentences what would take other writers paragraphs continues to be evident in J.M. Coetzee’s writing. Youth tells a familiar story for people who live in the Commonwealth and what was even more widespread during the 1950’s and 1960’s when the story is set. It deals with migration and immigration. The narrator dreams of going to London to get away from his home country; when he gets there he will be able to live fully and truly be an artist. The opening portion of the book is set in the University of Cape Town. The Sharpeville massacre, civil unrest and the possibility of a military draft finally give the narrator enough excuses to leave for London. Just like the immigrant tales we are accustomed to, the gap between real London and fantasy London was too large to be bridged. The narrator takes a job as a computer programmer, which is monotonous but still he knows that must strive to...

These are inclined to change order depending on the day, so there's no ranking system. It might not even be these same writers all the time. But that's who it is today. Pretty easy list to make, I just have to look at the bookshelf. Novelists only since I don't read enough non-fiction or poetry these days, unfortunately. 5. Orhan Pamuk - Turkish Reference Novels: Snow; The Museum of Innocence; Istanbul: Memories and the City Why: I have always been of the opinion that love stories cannot be serious literature (in modern times, anyway) unless it's unrequited love. Snow disproved that for me, despite its complex politics and heavy symbolism it's essentially a tragic love story.  The Museum of Innocence ( a book I found accidentally in Shakespeare&Co) I also love because of the emphasis on obsessive love and the importance of things (garbage, really) in fueling obsession. 4. Ian McEwan - English Reference Novels: Atonement; On Chesil Beach; The C...

There are some books you can read in one sitting. The ones you don't feel like putting down and you can't wait to get back to. I'm not including novel series in this, because those are a whole other thing and if I did I'd be forced to fill the list with Ian Fleming and Tom Clancy Novels. I'm going with books published after 1960 as well. I'm only allowing books I managed to finish in a week. Only novels, no short stories and poetry, memoirs, non-fiction etc in no particular order : 15. Portnoy's Complaint - Phillip Roth - 1969 - USA Quick Summary: Comedy, sexual frustration and self-consciousness. Portnoy's Complaint is one long monologue to a therapist about different stages of his life. This could get depressing but thankfully his life is hilarious. 14. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro - 1989 - UK Quick Summary: Mostly flashbacks of a butler from the time preceding World War II, in which his master was heavily involved in appeasement. The inte...