{"id":401,"date":"2006-12-11T13:34:55","date_gmt":"2006-12-11T13:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/index.php\/2006\/12\/11\/books-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2006-12-11T13:40:10","modified_gmt":"2006-12-11T13:40:10","slug":"books-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/2006\/12\/11\/books-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Books Of The Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the suggestion of Dublin Opinion<\/a>, there follows a selection of some of the books I most enjoyed this year. They are in no particular order, and I jot them down only from memory, so I may have left out something amazing which has but briefly slipped my mind. I also have included books that are not quite recent, but merely recent-ish. Partly from a fondness for paperbacks and partly from parsimoniousness, I am not a big reader of hardbacks, and consequently am rarely fully up to date with what\u2019s going on in the world of books. My apologies then if my books of the year are not, in fact, of the year at all.<\/p>\n

Though none of it\u2019s constituent volumes actually came out this year, I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention Neal Stephenson\u2019s Baroque Cycle<\/a>. Though he\u2019s best known as a science fiction writer, this vast trilogy is more a work of historical fiction about<\/em> science, with Gottfried Leibniz and Isaac Newton amongst the more prominent characters. Funny, erudite and often thrilling (many nights I was kept up way past bedtime by a compulsion to know what happened next) it was a good friend to me for much of this year.<\/p>\n

On the topic of swashbuckling, Arturo Perez-Reverte\u2019s Captain Alatriste<\/a> is a 17th Century Spanish swordsman with a taste for wine and poetry, and a character who will likely be around for some time to come. Volume two<\/a> of his adventures came out in paperback not long ago. When not churning out plays, poetry, history and philosophy, Voltaire led a rather raffish life too, and Voltaire Almighty<\/a> documents his trips in an out of prison, exile, royal favour and women\u2019s beds with gusto.<\/p>\n

Robin Lane Fox\u2019s The Classical World<\/a>, ideally for a relative newcomer like myself, is a one-volume history from Early Greece to Rome under Hadrian; Persian Fire<\/a> by Tom Holland focuses in fine style on one of the turning points of that period, the Persian Wars.<\/p>\n

I mentioned<\/a> Al Alvarez\u2019s The Writer\u2019s Voice some time ago, and though it\u2019s a slim volume, it told me much about reading and writing which will not be forgotten. I\u2019ve already re-read it once, and will undoubtedly do so again.<\/p>\n

Finally, I note that Dave Eggers\u2019 short story collection \u201cHow We Are Hungry???<\/a> (the particular paperback edition in my posession at any rate) bears a 2006 publication date. What\u2019s fascinating in all his work is the tension between cleverness and sincerity. On the one hand he displays that air of ironic detachment commonly associated (in the minds of the media at least) with his generation. On the other, he sees the dead end that such detachment can lead to, and searches, often awkwardly and naively for a sincere political or emotional voice. Still too clever by half, he\u2019s nonetheless a fascinating and entertaining read.<\/p>\n

That\u2019ll do it for now. My music of the year to follow sometime between now and January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the suggestion of Dublin Opinion, there follows a selection of some of the books I most enjoyed this year. They are in no particular order, and I jot them down only from memory, so I may have left out something amazing which has but briefly slipped my mind. I also have included books that are not quite recent, but merely recent-ish. Partly from a fondness for paperbacks and partly from parsimoniousness, I am not a big reader of hardbacks, and consequently am rarely fully up to date with what\u2019s going on in the world of books. My apologies then if my books of the year are not, in fact, of the year at all. Though none of it\u2019s constituent volumes actually came out this year, I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention Neal Stephenson\u2019s Baroque Cycle. Though he\u2019s best known as a science fiction writer, this vast trilogy is more a work of historical fiction about science, with Gottfried Leibniz and Isaac Newton amongst the more prominent characters. Funny, erudite and often thrilling (many nights I was kept up way past bedtime by a compulsion to know what happened next) it was a good friend to me for much of this year. On the topic of swashbuckling, Arturo Perez-Reverte\u2019s Captain Alatriste is a 17th Century Spanish swordsman with a taste for wine and poetry, and a character who will likely be around for some time to come. Volume two of his adventures came out in paperback not long ago. When not churning out plays, poetry, history and philosophy, Voltaire led a rather raffish life too, and Voltaire Almighty documents his trips in an out of prison, exile, royal favour and women\u2019s beds with gusto. Robin Lane Fox\u2019s The Classical World, ideally for a relative newcomer like myself, is a one-volume history from Early Greece to Rome under Hadrian; Persian Fire by Tom Holland focuses in fine style on one of the turning points of that period, the Persian Wars. I mentioned Al Alvarez\u2019s The Writer\u2019s Voice some time ago, and though it\u2019s a slim volume, it told me much about reading and writing which will not be forgotten. I\u2019ve already re-read it once, and will undoubtedly do so again. Finally, I note that Dave Eggers\u2019 short story collection \u201cHow We Are Hungry??? (the particular paperback edition in my posession at any rate) bears a 2006 publication date. What\u2019s […]","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[662],"class_list":["post-401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuppenceworth.ie\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}