Bookers to read....

Books to be read this year. I've just read On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, which I must say I really enjoyed. It's a little on the short side and it flits about a bit in places, rather like how I remember Atonement when I read that a few years ago, but my God what a powerful book full of magnificent observations about human frailties and emotions. I don't mind admitting it that the last chapter literally moved me to tears, such was the depth of the imagery and sense of loss. I'll say no more because you are bound to want to read it now. I've decided that life is too short to read any old rubbish so I going to work backwards through the Booker Prize winners starting with The Gathering by Anne Enright, which won last year's prize (oh after I've read Mr. Pip, which nearly won!) That shouldn't quite take most of the rest of the year, especially since I've already read a few of them, not realising at the time that they were Booker winners, such as The Blind Assassin by Margaret Attwood and Life of Pi, by Yann Martell. At least then I'll be reading, or so you'd have thought, something with a bit of depth; the prize judging panel can't be that far off the mark, can they? If I've still got time come December I'll move onto a couple of old classics, like Bleak House, Vanity Fair and Ulysses, all of which I've been building up to for some time. We'll see how I get on....