So long 2012 and thanks for all the books.
It's the season for 'best-of' lists. But I am not a Professional Consumer of Culture. Far from it. If I were to list the top 5 films of 2012, it would be a list of the 5 films I saw in 2012. I am the person best-of lists are made for.
(Actually, I did watch some great movies last year. It's just that they are movies everyone else saw 20 or 30 years ago: Apocalypse Now, the Die Hard quadrilogy, Running on Empty, Footloose. No wonder Jason assumes I have never seen any movies, ever.)
Nonetheless, here are my top five favourite books of the year . I really did read a lot of books last year, so a top 5 list seems fair. When I remember my favourites, I remember not only the stories, but the act of reading them. Where I was, what I was doing, drinking, smelling. It is a strangely dual memory, the story and the reading of it intertwined.
So perhaps they were good books, perhaps I was just in a receptive mood at the time. Taste remains a mystery to me.
5.They shoot horses, don't they?- Horace McCoy
(read at Victoria Park whilst Jason watched the VFL game)
4. The Women in Black- Madeleine St John
(read in a resort in Yallingup, WA)
3. My Brilliant Career- Miles Franklin
(read in a tent on the Jatbula trail)
2. Crossing to Safety- Wallace Stegner
(read in Mina-no-ie, with the vegie lunch + sparkling apple juice)
1. The Forrests- Emily Perkins.
(read on the couch, under a blanket in winter)
(Actually, I did watch some great movies last year. It's just that they are movies everyone else saw 20 or 30 years ago: Apocalypse Now, the Die Hard quadrilogy, Running on Empty, Footloose. No wonder Jason assumes I have never seen any movies, ever.)
Nonetheless, here are my top five favourite books of the year . I really did read a lot of books last year, so a top 5 list seems fair. When I remember my favourites, I remember not only the stories, but the act of reading them. Where I was, what I was doing, drinking, smelling. It is a strangely dual memory, the story and the reading of it intertwined.
So perhaps they were good books, perhaps I was just in a receptive mood at the time. Taste remains a mystery to me.
5.They shoot horses, don't they?- Horace McCoy
(read at Victoria Park whilst Jason watched the VFL game)
4. The Women in Black- Madeleine St John
(read in a resort in Yallingup, WA)
3. My Brilliant Career- Miles Franklin
(read in a tent on the Jatbula trail)
2. Crossing to Safety- Wallace Stegner
(read in Mina-no-ie, with the vegie lunch + sparkling apple juice)
1. The Forrests- Emily Perkins.
(read on the couch, under a blanket in winter)
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