Five best books:
—Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays by David Foster Wallace [Titular essay among the best; you are allowed to skip the essay about the porno convention if so inclined.]
—Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert [A decidedly feminine bent; those of the masculine persuasion may better enjoy The Last American Man by same.]
—Hellfire and Herring: A Childhood Remembered by Christopher Rush [Life and times growing up in a Scottish fishing town in the 1950s; excellent description of place. Bonus for Americans: scoop your friends! US edition doesn't release until March.]
—Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer [Come for the hook story of good old-fashioned, God-compelled, cold-blooded murder of women and children; stay for the fascinating look into Mormon origins and...um...fanaticism.]
—Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North by Stuart Maconie [Percentage of references/slang I don't understand: 60. Percent of references/slang I wouldn't understand if I didn't live here: 95.]
Five books I seriously disliked:
—London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd [Surprised my eyeballs are not frozen in permanently rolled back position; Amazon reviewer: "never met a metaphor he didn't like."]
—Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver [Hoping I like her fiction better come Poisonwood Bible time (cf. George Orwell).]
—The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History by Jonathan Franzen [Would perhaps had made it farther if I were reading rather than listening and so could have read fast enough to get to the presumably good part(s) before boredom/disinterest set in.]
—The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell [Just the last half when he starts pontificating about Socialism; first half was okay.]
—To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf [How is it possible to write an entire book in which nothing is ever said or actually happens? I can only take so much stream-of-consciousness/omniscient musing. I get that it's one of the Best Novels Of All Time, but it is So Not For Me.]
