Recommendable Books

At long last, an entry about literature. Here are some of the best books I read last year (2005):

Mark Haddon: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003)
This book took me a jet-lagged night and the following day to read. I only had to almost stop reading when the main character jumped on the underground tracks to rescue his pet, but otherwise time just flew with this story. Recommendable to everyone of any age.


Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White (1860)
This book is for everyone who thinks 19th century literature is a huge yawn. Involving ghosts, poisonings, well-kept secrets and a haunting mansion, it had me gripped and I would gladly read it again one day, if there weren't so many other things to read!

Jeffrey Eugenides: Middlesex (2002)
An absolutely fantastic novel about a subject that might seem off-putting at first, Middlesex is one of those rare books which keeps getting better page by page. If you haven't read it yet, you don't know what you're missing!



Haruki Murakami: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1994)
Murakami has very quickly become one of my very favourite writers with his way of suffusing every moment of his stories with a deliciously supernatural quality, his masterful knowledge of jazz and classical music and his way of turning everyday characters into some sort of heroes. The Wind-up bird chronicle is a wonderful puzzle of different stories, some way in the past and some perhaps in the future, and you close the book hungry for more.