ILX BOOKS OF THE 00s: THE RESULTS! (or: Ismael compiles his reading list, 2010-2019)

Hey, I liked the film too - though I found some of the big set-pieces totally jarring, like the baseball bit or the climbing trees really fast. While they looked pretty crappy to me, I kind of assumed that there were teenage reasons why these would've been really cool, and that I'd just forgotten what they were. But maybe they'd just been badly done. It'd be interesting to read the book and see if that made any difference.

58. Youth - JM Coetzee (2002)
(41 points, two votes)

http://www.proteatours.de/fileadmin/media/suedafrika/reiseinfos/Literatur/Youth_by_J.M._Coetzee_-.jpg

jabba hands:
i read this book when i was, like the main character, a recent graduate who had moved to london and wanted to be a writer. man, it was depressing as hell, let me tell you! and this book didn't help at all. but it did kinda make me laugh at the whole situation i guess. i'm not actually sure it's trying to be funny. anyway, great book!

I read it in fairly similar circumstances. I liked it, but not as much as Disgrace. Almost uniquely I've lost my copy and can't remember a thing about it. Except a description of some secretaries moving around an office with an easy familiarity with one another's bodies, like animals in a burrow - that's stayed with me for some reason, and I trot it out myself from time to time.

in what possible context?

Hm, now you mention it I couldn't give you an example - I must have to crowbar it into some curious conversations. Maybe folk on a dancefloor while I wallflower, or people comforting one another - I'm not a very touchy-feely type, just a bit of a creepy one.

When chatting up secretaries?

Now this isn't the impression I should be giving of myself at all.

thread derailing again, godamnit. apologies

Liked this book a lot, and indeed the whole trilogy. Summertime, my favorite of the three, has made me wonder if there were obviously untrue parts in the first two books that I was too obtuse to recognize.
This one was odd for me to read though, as I was just then feeling really sad because I had a job as a programmer in a company that I didn't feel morally comfortable with. I think the book made it slightly easier to think about quitting the damn job -- which I actually just did a few months ago.

My problem with Coetzee is that his books are so easy to read that I storm through them and probably miss a bunch, and certainly end up forgetting way too much! But I'm looking forward to re-reading him; "Foe" will probably be the first.

Oh man Foe made my head hurt. (But then I couldn't read RC and was studying too much/going through minor family-related trauma, so maybe try it again? Wait, no no.)

Hoping low placing of "White Teeth" (which I liked!) indicates it gets beaten out by "On Beauty" (which I liked even more!)

Actually I voted "Youth" #7 but oddly, like Ismael, I remember almost nowt about it, except that, as with everything JMC writes, the sentences were perfect. And maybe there was a lot of boredom in it. DFWallace is getting lots of attention for posthumous novel all about boredom but I think it is a big subject for Coetzee as well.

By the way, I took creative writing from Coetzee in college. He was soft-spoken and terrifying.

Wow. That really is impressive - Martin Amis vanity course it ain't. What was he like, in terms of learning rather than fear?

I'd never seen a picture of him 'til I searched for that image. He looks really thin.

I have decided on the basis of today that books are better than people, so it's good to start the countdown again.

nice to hear it, Gamaliel

57. Saturday - Ian McEwan
(41 points, three votes)

http://www.pierretristam.com/images/112606-mcewan-saturday.jpg

caloma:
I can't quite remember exactly why I liked it, but I do remember that I really enjoyed following the story. I listened to the audiobook and that really made the language stand out for me.

It's never a good idea to for an author to start off a book with ten pages of boring, overly technical descriptions of a middle aged brain surgeon's work week. Fortunately things have gotten slightly more interesting since those early pages, but how couldn't they have?
― Jeff LeVine (Jeff LeVine), Sunday, March 26, 2006 2:59 AM (3 years ago)

I think Saturday has significant strengths as well as weaknesses, but I have to agree with those criticisms - with the further observation that the portrayal of the blues musician son totally undermines any confidence you might have in McEwan's ability to write about anything he hasn't experienced directly. I know enough about the music scene to know that the son's musical "career" is a total absurdity. I know very little about brain surgery, but the suspicion must be that if McEwan's perception of the music scene is so ridiculously wrong, his perception of what it is like being a brain surgeon is equally daft.
― frankiemachine (frankiemachine), Tuesday, October 17, 2006 10:18 AM (3 years ago)

Saturday by Ian McEwan. It is a signed copy. I looked at a few signed copies and the signatures were all completely different.
― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, January 23, 2006 11:25 AM (4 years ago)

I haven't read "Youth" but would like to after enjoying "Disgrace" which I thought shared some similarities with Roth's "The Human Stain".

I like it that Ismael got in on the joke list too by including "Twilight"; Abbot won't be pleased though.

"Saturday" was excellent I thought. The first book to examine that strange day on Feb 15th 2003. I liked the way McEwan placed the day within the life of a troubled surgeon. It worked well for me.

I still haven't read a McEwan book that wouldn't have been improved by tearing out the last ten pages.

I don't agree with Jeff's slating of the first ten pages of Saturday though - I thought the descriptions of the surgeon at work were lovely and dead interesting, and really unusual with it to see so much attention paid to going about one's work. Then I read McEwan interviewing Zadie Smith, or vice versa, and they went on about how all that stuff was really about writing, not surgery, and it was all horribly self-congratulatory.

"I still haven't read a McEwan book that wouldn't have been improved by tearing out the last ten pages."

so OTM

56. No One Belongs Here More Than You - Miranda July (2007)
(41 points, four votes)

http://asset3.venuszine.com/article_image/image/4241/viewer_wide/MirandaJuly3.jpg

Miranda July is an excellent writer

The cover of the 9/18/06 New Yorker shows a couple in Central Park and is rendered in pastel colors. Besides the Clinton profile, the issue has articles on the science of neuroeconomics, the perils of imperfect French (Sedaris), and a dirty and engaging short story by Miranda July.
― Eazy (Eazy), Monday, September 25, 2006 3:04 PM (3 years ago)

I'm reading Miranda July's new collection. Is it just me or do her narrators all come across as wise, worldly five year olds? It's starting to bother me.
― franny glass, Monday, September 3, 2007 3:40 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
Miranda July comes across as a wise, worldly, preachy five year old.
― remy bean, Monday, September 3, 2007 7:59 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I wanted to like that book more than I did. Some of the stories were very good, but it didn't quite have the greatness promised by the inventive ad funny website (of all things).
― James Morrison, Tuesday, September 4, 2007 3:46 AM (2 years ago)

I saw Miranda July at a vegetarian restaurant in Chelsea (which wasn't very good). She was with some dude, and she was making the same over-deliberate "endearing" faces she makes in the film.
― Hurting 2, Saturday, March 31, 2007 2:09 PM (2 years ago)

someone just told me that my voice sometimes sounds like miranda july. i have no idea what she sounds like, so i don't know what that means.
― Juulia (julesbdules), Friday, September 2, 2005 7:23 PM (4 years ago)

*Nobody Belongs Here More Than You van Miranda July. Ai, dit is pijnlijk. Ik had na haar film wat meer verwacht dan dit. Het lijkt wel alsof ze haast had om deadlines te halen..laten staan dit.
― EvR, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 9:21 AM (1 year ago)

I'm trying to remember if I like Miranda July or not.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, June 24, 2005 2:33 AM (4 years ago)

Miranda July can seriously go to hell. It's like listening to a retard.

Miranda July can seriously get in my pants.

i seriously hope ur pants are filled with lava

lol @ twilight bein the least worst thing posted 2day

I'd never heard of book or author and was taken aback to find her all over the archives in magazines, films, books, restaurants and whatnot. It did occur to me that there might be more than one Miranda July - hopefully at least some of those quotes are relevant.

Yeah, those all sound like her. I really liked this book, more than I like most books of what I take to be its kind. Here's what I said on the thread you linked:

Occasionally the stories are too schematic but more often the simplicity (why do people think she's pretentious or affected or jokey or twee?) works for her, as in "This Person", one of the best stories I read last year. It is really hard for me to see her as anything like Lorrie Moore except that they're both women and both write stories with jokes in them, I guess. Maybe she's like a much better Judy Budnitz or a less bleak Gary Lutz. In any event she writes in the manner of someone whose last name ends in "tz".

55. Perdido Street Station - China Miéville (2000)
(42 points, three votes)

http://cache.io9.com/assets/resources/2008/02/newcrobuzongordillo.jpg

Just finished Perdido Street Station (I swear it was 700 pages when I started, but it was 850 by the end), by China Mieville, which is brilliant ... The chapter where they meet the Ambassador is pretty much perfect.
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, January 14, 2003 6:08 PM (7 years ago)

It's supposedly great, but I gave up a couple hundred pages in because I didn't give a fuck about what was going on.
― otto, Wednesday, February 4, 2004 6:48 PM (5 years ago)

I'd second the recommendation for China Mieville's Perdido Street Station (which I loved and spent a whole weekend reading rather than spending time with loved ones).
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Thursday, February 5, 2004 12:21 PM (5 years ago)

lint (Jack) wrote this on thread Reading Two Books at Once? Combine Them on Apr 7, 2004:
"By Perdido Street Station I Sat Down and Wept" - Extraordinarily long story of doomed love during attack on fantasy city.

It's a bit like discworld played straight, and that makes it all the more ridiculous.

― poster x (ledge), Friday, 25 December 2009 22:53 (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I haven't read this so don't know where that image is from, but I'm seeing a bit of similarity with our no.76:

http://i46.tinypic.com/vdlv2q.jpg

Is bare-chested-standing-on-a-crag-over-a-ruined-city a genre of its own now?

xp well given that discworld is fantasy played with a twist........

Yeah but all the stuff with the weaver, and ambassador from hell, and insectoid sex, all seemed more ridiculous than normal fantasy. but hey it's not a genre i normally bother with so feel free to ignore me.

heh we've done all this above so not much point in doing it again after every fantasy (may there be 40 more imo)

54. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling (2000)
(45 points, four votes)

http://blondierocket.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/harry_potter_and_the_goblet_of_fire.jpg

Harry Potter: Classic or Dud?
the new harry potter movie, harry potter and the goblet of fire

LBS:
Unbeatable, brings you back to childhood and makes you feel the magic all around

I said this on the children's lit thread already, but here it goes. A zillion times better than most adult genre fiction. Significant character development, incredible tempo which never flags nor speeds to far ahead, just the right amt. of suspense, and a fairly decent set of morals which aren't scrawled over the book like bad graffiti. juve lit is the only lit these days where we can fantasize about playing a pivotal role in world events (too fantastic a thought for "mature" lit) and Potter's melding of the mundane and the tremendous (cf. anime, Tenchi in particular) presents a sort condensed release for the frustrated desire to do something which matters. Uh. Compare to worst offenders in this realm (the tail-books of the Enders Game set, as I recall) and get a sense of the adeptness which Harry's special status w/r/t schoolmates is dealt with.
― Sterling Clover, Thursday, August 16, 2001 12:00 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I agree. The people you expect to be villians are heros and vice versa. The satire is sharp and clever. The girls are as important as the boys. Alot of it is so funny. The plot is not at all bare bones. The use of langauge and puns is sophistacated. It talks to kids about a whole slew of tough issues( mortailty ,loyalty, "the other" ) without being pendandtic . It is playful with its conventions. I think with everything i have read in the past 6 months the 8 or 9 days with Harry Potter were the most enjoyable. Oh and i read ALOT !
― anthony, Thursday, August 16, 2001 12:00 AM (8 years ago)

rereading the books at the moment, in fact I'm about 40 pages from the end of Goblet of Fire. I'd say I enjoyed them just as much second time around, though this may be cos a) the film's just come out, b) it's a while since I read them first or c) cos I'm just a big kid.
― Andrew Williams, Wednesday, December 5, 2001 1:00 AM (8 years ago)

Franz Ferdinand cancelled their roles in the upcoming Harry Potter movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Alex, Bob, Paul and Nick were planned to play a guest role as a band named the 'Wyrd Witches'. British newspaper Mirror reports that the tensions in the band, which caused arguments between Alex and Nick this week, were the cause for this decision. But a spokesperson of the band demented: 'There has been a little argument, that's normal. They can't act in the movie because they don't have the time for that.' The role of the 'Wyrd Witches' will now be played by Radiohead members Jonny Greenwood and Jarvis Cocker."
I assume they meant 'commented,' but you never know.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, November 19, 2004 11:47 PM (5 years ago)

oops, massive - but I do prefer the old drawings, before the brand got all cinematic and 'dark'

it's a not-very-well-written book, even for a teen fantasy.

Is the fact that this was the only Harry Potter nominated (of the four released last decade) meant to indicate it's considered the best of the four?

I probably enjoyed reading The Order of the Phoenix the most of those, and think the end of the last one is pretty much perfect.

(didn't vote for this though as I had to cut off somewhere)

I struggled with these books, particularly The Goblet of Fire, which just seemed so leaden. They feel paradoxcally both bloated and lacking in space, the writing feels monotonous, almost like it's not supposed to be read too closely, but just skimmed as a sort of muzak. I also don't believe the magic. A lot of this comes from comparing it to the Earthsea novels, which may be unfair, but the subject matter invites the comparison.

Favourite out of all the franchise is probably the film of Prisoner of Azkaban.

Oh and, er, sorry for the drunken Miranda July posting. But really, I went to see that film and felt like blowing my brains out - the self-conscious kookiness, that horrible version of twee, really grated, and when I read something by her, without realising it was by her, I immediately recognised the voice, which I guess is actually quite a good thing, but it's not a voice I like at all.

I agree that the magic is a disappointment. For such an important part of the story, it's an uncommon lack of imagination on her part. What does a wizard do to make something happen? He says it in Latin! Even Latin is such a dull choice, and is one of the times when the public-school ethos of the whole series really bugs me. I'm surprised the films didn't correct this - in fact they're even worse, now the wizard just shouts it in Latin.

There was one magic class I remember from the early books where they had to roll up their sleeves and slog away concocting potions or somesuch, and all the pupils hated it 'cos it was so boring. I thought that was great! It took me back to endless months of connecting rubber tubing and heating water, before finally graduating to burning a tiny piece of magnesium near the end of term and it seeming like the coolest thing ever

hard to say if the films are worse than the books, from memory- i think the films get better as you go along, whereas the series of books lags badly in the middle.

the individual books lag badly in the middle too, if you get me.

I don't really want to waste my precious reading time reading a kid's book about wizards. So I have no idea if this is good for what it is or not. But it was bound to be on the list, and I don't particularly begrudge it being so, having been very much a 2000s cultural phenomenon.

I'm guessing Selby Jr's Waiting Period didn't get in then -- shame I was away while voting took place...

Agree that the film of the third one is perhaps the best of any of the books or films.

I think the books are more interesting for their retelling of the star wars story than for anything like their use of magic. Harry is a convenient fusion of the parts of luke and anakin skywalker with the most story potential.

Thought the film of Goblet of Fire was pretty weak, incidentally.

That reminds me, e.mily: I went to see Martin Amis give a reading in 2000. The Q&A afterwards was mostly pretentious students sucking up to him ("Do you see your role as to chronicle the pornography of the quotidian?") but someone did have the guts to ask him if he liked Harry Potter. I'm sure he was as disdainful as you'd expect, but I wish I could remember exactly what he said - I'm sure I'd never get tired of repeating it.

I don't think Selby Jr got nominated, but I was pretty amazed to find out that he (and Saul Bellow - maybe Burroughs as well?) were still alive and producing in the 2000s

Oh I think you copied and pasted the Selby from an ILB thread so I assumed it was nominated.

xxp to waitresses in nightclubs, presumably....

No, you're right, he was nominated, I just had him slightly out-of-place on my alphabetical list. You can draw your own conclusions from my uncertainty.

xp no no, that's all wrong - quoting Amis in those circumstances is something Amis would do

53. Netherland - Joseph O'Neill (2007)
(45 points, four votes)

http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n49/n247540.jpg

Talk to me about 'Netherland'

Finished Joseph O'Neil's Netherland yesterday. I wanted to start a thread called "'We courted in the style preferred by the English: alcoholically' Joseph O'Neil's Netherland" but was afraid no one cares/has the read the book/would post.
I loved it so much I'm reticent to give form or shape to my enthusiasm because I'm not sure I can describe the why w/o falling into hyperbole and/or incoherence. A big part of the pleasure in reading, for me, is stumbling on moments where an author makes explicable thoughts and feelings that I've had but have never been able to formulate and Netherland is filled w/those moments. When he's describing the formation of players on a cricket field, or applying for a driver's license or the drunken logic which dictates a boozy night out, O'Neill's prose is perfect. I just loved this novel so much.
― Lamp, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 11:57 PM (1 year ago)

OK, am now reading 'Netherland', and it's wonderful. Realised about 50 pages in that I read another book by this chap years and years ago--'The Breezes', which was a very funny novel about "the unluckiest family in Ireland".
― James Morrison, Monday, June 16, 2008 10:55 PM (1 year ago)

Iemand Joseph O'Neills Netherland gelezen? Is één van mijn favoriete boeken van het afgelopen jaar, zo niet het favoriete. (De grote favoriete van de 'kenners' ook trouwens: als het om boeken gaat ben ik een keiharde rockist.) Mooi geschreven boek over cricket, de draad in het leven een beetje kwijt zijn, post-9/11 New York (zonder dat het vermoeiend actueel probeert te zijn) en nog meer cricket. En een beetje cricket in Nederland ook.
― Martijn Grooten, Monday, December 8, 2008 10:56 AM (1 year ago)

Netherland, which is knocking it outta the park. I don't want to reach the last page.
― Jaq, Monday, August 25, 2008 2:58 PM (1 year ago)