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

"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)

Deserved better in my view. It just never got any momentum. Looking at my own ballot I see that I only gave it 13th spot, and I feel ashamed.

Ooh that looks v. good. Want to read it now. Nice to see some actually positive quotes beneath one of the placegetters!

I'm also ashamed that Lamp's thread title is so much better than mine.

Hm, maybe I've been going a bit overboard in trying to pick sceptical quotes, rather than gushing ones - but I've never read a bad word about Netherland. I think it even won some sort of 'cricket book of the year' prize here, which is usually reserved for things like Atherton's autobiography.

Netherland has a sluggish plot, ultimately unconvincing characters and a charmless, overly passive narrator, but is so astonishing on a sentence level that pretty much all is forgiven. It's remarkable that anyone's prose could be good enough to overcome flaws that in any other novel would make me throw it across the room. Some of the people I recommended it to, however, did just want to throw it across the room.

I'm a big cricket fan and, cricket literature definitely being a genre, have been meaning to give this a go for a while - this shd prompt me I reckon.

I didn't really get the Harry Potter phenomenon. I watched about three of the films but didn't find them very interesting. I suppose they are aimed at children though so that is probably not surprising. A good piece of business from Rowling though; well done her.

I thought this was an interesting read. However, I couldn't see what would propel it from "interesting" to "great". Can someone explain. I noted that the book got a lot of publicity following Obama's revelation i the summer that he was reading it.

The prose, the prose - literary critics go months waiting for sentences this beautifully crafted so they get understandably excited.

I agree with Lamp that the prose was excellent and there were some good insights. I just didn't think the story was all that strong. Nothing really happened in it of great consequence. Perhaps O'Neill was trying to evoke the atmosphere of a rained off fifth test dead rubber? It was like being in purgatory.

I thought everyone loved Netherland and it was a good shout for #1! I am evidently not one with the ILX zeitgeist.

never heard of it ;_; i love beautiful prose so it's shot to the top of my must-read list.

^^

(well i'm not crying but the rest of it)

During my research I found out that the author spent part of his own childhood in Holland (like the narrator). That's cleared something up for me at least, because (like I said in the link) when I read this I just couldn't believe how completely he'd taken on the guy's voice in all aspects of his life - I'm still in awe, but now what he's pulled off at least seems plausible.

haha that netherland post is one of my firsts posts on ilx b4 i posted regularly. its written in the afterglow for sure - his writing is so good and so assured u dont really notice much else at first~

to say that nothing happens is kinda missing the point tho - its not lol harry potter - its a novel abt the anxiety of shifting perspectives. i thought that the narrator and the cricket dude where really well-drawn and well-revealed but buying into their relationship and how it moves the narrator is the core of the book. i guess if u dont sympathize with or register that change than its a p empty book

its hard to be concise here but while i think the book does fail in its larger thematic concerns but i thought it was jamesian in its softly-glowing illumination of one man's journey~~~