(From 3 January 2008): What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008? Something new being published this year?
Not being one to read much in the way of 'modern' literature and authors, I don't think there is anything coming out this year that I would be particularly interested in (not for another 10 years anyway - which is about how far behind I am in my reading!)
Something you got as a gift for the holidays? Anything in particular that you’re planning to read in 2008 that you’re looking forward to?
I got The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield for Christmas, which I'm really looking forward to. Hopefully I'll get around to reading it in a few months. I'm also really looking forward to reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray and A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Hopefully I'll get through most, if not all, of them this year!
A classic, or maybe a best-seller from 2007 that you’re waiting to appear in paperback?
Yes! Last year, Penguin published On The Road: The Original Scroll by Jack Kerouac. It is, according to Penguin, 'the first ever publication of Kerouac's original draft for the book - transcribed from the famous 'scroll': hundreds of typed pages which constitute the manuscript taped together by Kerouac himself'. It was released in hardback so I'm waiting for it to come out in paperback, which may not be until 2009. I have the 'other' version so I can't wait to get this new version in order to compare them.
There was also a hardback book published last year called Northern Songs by Brian Southall, which 'traces the story of how Lennon and McCartney lost the most valuable song publishing catalogue in the world' (from the Dymocks website). This is an area of The Beatles endlessly fascinating story that I've always been interested in but never known much about - can't wait to get my hands on this one!
2 comments:
Okay Kylie - I confine myself to two books I read and enjoyed last year - one fiction - Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi. It is the story of a dwarf growing up and living through the interwar years and during World War II in Germany. Okay - it doesn't sound a barrel of laughs but it is very very good. Non fiction - Douglas Jardine, Spartan Cricketer by Christopher Douglas. No - I'm not being provocative for the fun of it ;-). It is an interesting insight - sympathetic but critical, into a complex individual.
Thanks for the recommendations white rabbit!
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