Thursday, January 07, 2010

2009 in books

In terms of books for 2009, it was the year I became a fan of Meg Cabot, Sophie Kinsella, Hilary Clinton, PG Wodehouse (genius!!), Haruki Murakami, Malcolm Gladwell, and Jeff Kinney.

Generally, I noticed that I got a lot of non-fiction books about social psychology - trying to understand people. I'll let you know if I ever figure that out haha. The books I read just reaffirmed what I know but kind of denied. We cannot control or change the people around us. The only people who we have that power over is ourselves. We are in charge of our own happiness. We cannot let people define us or let their actions affect us deeply. Nothing comes easily it takes time and hard work and the right environment to grow and become successful (10,000 hours right Malcolm?).

I actually avoided serious, soul sapping novels such as Khalid Hosseini novels (exception: My Sister's Keeper I had to entertain myself on the plane somehow). I was drawn to light-hearted stories like the chick lit and PG Wodehouse and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books (Soo entertaining!!).

My reading resolution for 2010 is to read broad and wide topics and try to learn as much as possible about the world :). Book suggestions welcome!

5 comments:

nourish-n-cherish said...

I re-read R.K.Narayan and loved it! Jane Austen is fun too. Also, I'm reading Shantaram now - it's great so far!

Best of luck reading in 2010

PS: I added you on my blogroll.

shrooty said...

yay! I'm adding those to my list. I'm currently working on a really serious book which I will write about when I finish!

and you're on my blogreader too :)

Nil said...

thanks shrooti! =)

i've been avoiding serious stuff as well, but i did read:
- bill bryson's shakespeare, which is great! it's short but a really good biography
- the apologist. not sure by who, it was pretty entertaining, the guys basically has to go make apologies from the un, its making fun of politics.
- a heartbreaking work of a staggering genius by dave eggers. he rambles a lot, which makes sense, he is 18 in this book. it is funny but there are times you think he's over-doing it a bit, and its just blah, not funny.
- copenhagen. it's a science played about neils bohr and this german scientist. pretty short, but talks about world war 2 and the holocaust and science and ethics during war.

can't think of anything else, but will let you know what else i read. i'll be checking your blog for suggestions too! hope you had a great new year! =) guess who's turning 24 this month??

shoba said...

P.G.W is the best. No one can beat him in dry humor.My latest fad has been historical or literary fiction.If you have not already read it, I would suggest Ken Follet's "The Pillars of Earth" and "World without end". Just to import you into fictional world every now and then.. :-)

shrooty said...

@Nil: I went to Borders the other day and got really excited by all of Bill Bryson's books! I like his humorous writing style.

@shoba: I will definitely add those books to my list! Thanks! :)