When things are about to end, one tends not to look forward and wonder what might be beginning. Instead, we human beings love looking back on everything that’s already passed. A couple of years ago, I decided that I didn’t really like those let’s-pick-the-best-books-of-the-year lists, so I compiled a list of worst books of the year. This year, however, I read so many beautiful books, that I conceded. So yes, I made a list of the five best books I’ve read this year. Want to know which ones I picked? Read on!
I don’t think that I will remember this year as being a very good one. I was stressed a lot, tired a lot, saw loved ones hospitalised and dying (which resulted in being forced to reread a novel I absolutely didn’t like). I had some conflicts with students, their parents, my superiors, even some family members. There are wars all over the world, society is going crazy, and the elections were quite disappointing. Thankfully there are books. Here are five that made me forget the world for a while:
Firstly, there’s all the children’s books I reread this year. I read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, those books I love above all others, those books about all the important themes in the world. I still love Lyra and Will, and their dæmons, and the witch Serafina Pekkala, and Lee Scoresby, and oh I could go on. They’re the love of my literary life. But I also reread Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, another trilogy. And while commented only last week how I don’t think these books were as good as when I first read them, they still hold a very dear place in my heart. And of course I’m still determined to find that part of me that is still hiding in these children’s books.
Secondly, there’s a book I read four times this year: The Promise by Damon Galgut. I am not averse to rereading books, but usually not twice in the same year, let alone four times. I had a reason for it, of course: I had to give a lecture on it. Thankfully, I had a lot of fun reading it, and even more preparing the lecture. And it taught me so much about South-Africa, too.
Here’s another book I read before. But this one is so beautiful, so flawless, so shocking but simultaneously comforting, that I simply had to include it in my list. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf was published in 1925, which means it’s almost a hundred years old, but nothing about it feels outdated at all. This is the book I wish I could have written, and it is the book I want recommend to every person who is interested in feminist literature.
Finally! Here’s a book I read for the first time this year. It’s science-fiction without the space wars, it’s philosophical without being overly intellectual (although its protagonist would definitely disagree), and I was moved to tears when I had finished it. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is such a profound novel that I feel ashamed I haven’t written a by the book about it yet. I have been trying to make up for it by recommending it to all my students.
Here we go… the best book, or the most moving one, or the one which I regularly thought about from time to time, or whatever I just had to think of something or come to think of it I still hate those best-of lists so just pretend all these books ended up in first place or fifth place anyway they were included in my favourite books of the year so just drop it already will you? The last book included in this list is Saturday by Ian McEwan. It takes place in just one day, but on that day lives might end, lives actually end, and lives will never be the same again. It’s about science and about art, and it’s about why we’re here. I loved it.
So, that’s it, five books (but of course I’m cheating, for there are in fact ten books in this list) that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. There were many, many more, just as there were many, many more literary highlights this year: my first lecture series, my second lecture series, my first literary performance, an interview with an author, my Dutch blog, and my very own bookshelf at the library. It was quite a long, stressful and at times frustrating year. But as you can see, there were so many good things, too.
Thankfully, there are books.
What’s the best book you’ve read this year? Do you like those end-of-the-year lists? Do you have any books that you wish you hadn’t read? Please let me know in the comments! Also, don’t forget to follow me for more book-related posts!
The Open Book 