Showing posts with label Book Polls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Polls. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

What Janis Ian said . . .

Ellis Peters makes it seventeen in this old crime fiction 'What you must read' list

Will I jump straight into book number eighteen? I'm genuinely not sure. I enjoyed Cadfael so much that I'm tempted to read the next book in the series. 

Saturday, May 06, 2023

Sweet Sixteen

Simenon makes it 16 in this old book poll/reading challenge.

Why was this particular Maigret novel included in the top 100, though? It was enjoyable enough but there was nothing in particular to elevate it above all the rest. 

I suspect it was just a random pick. 'Must have a Maigret . . . Can't leave out Simenon. '

Saturday, April 22, 2023

A slower process . . .

Turns out I'm up to 15 on this old book list

When you consider how much crime fiction I've read down the years, that's kind of shocking.

P. S.
Scroll down to the bottom of the old post to see the later additions.

A slow process . . .

Just realised that, thanks to this book, I've crawled up to 22 books on this list of Scottish literature.

Glancing over the list again there's only about 16 other books I'd want to read. Should I mention them now? No, another time.

Thursday, August 08, 2013

Goodis is more than good

I just realised that with me recently reading Dark Passage, I'm up to the heady heights of 12 books read in the Bloomsbury 100 Must-Read Crime Novels.

I'm getting there slowly but surely.

Monday, September 27, 2010

100 Best Scottish Books

Following on from these two recent fiascos, I've finally found a book poll on the net where my reading count reaches double figures. It's sourced from The List, which is , I guess, Scotland's equivalent of Time Out and the article dates from 2005.

Twenty-one out of a hundred is not a bad reading haul, and there's another twelve or thirteen books on the list that I'd like to read at some point.

I thought it was a nice touch from the list compilers that they did not insist that the authors had to be Scottish by birth; just that the book listed had to have a strong Scottish connection. Hence, for example, the inclusion of Orwell's 1984 in the hundred, which was written on the Isle of Jura. (And, if you've ever read Orwell's collected essays and letters, his strong dislike of Scottish people is very apparent.)

Each listed entry in the linked article has a wee synopsis and well worth further investigation, but I have posted below links to some of the more interesting entries. (Well interesting to me.)

  • The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark (1961)
  • Tunes of Glory - James Kennaway (1956)
  • The Thirty-Nine Steps - John Buchan (1915)
  • Under the Skin - Michel Faber (2000)
  • Buddha Da - Anne Donovan (2003)
  • Confessions of an English Opium-Eater - Thomas De Quincey (1822)
  • King James Bible: Authorised Version - Various (1611)
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)
  • The Divided Self - RD Laing (1960)
  • The Gowk Storm - Nancy Brysson Morrison (1933)
  • The Cone-Gatherers - Robin Jenkins (1955)
  • The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)
  • Sunset Song - Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1932)
  • Born Free - Laura Hird (1999)
  • The Silver Darlings - Neil M Gunn (1941)
  • The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell (1791)
  • Annals of the Parish - John Galt (1821)
  • Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (1902)
  • The House with the Green Shutters - George Douglas Brown (1901)
  • Lanark - Alasdair Gray (1981)
  • Paradise - AL Kennedy (2004)
  • The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner - James Hogg (1824)
  • Trumpet - Jackie Kay (1998)
  • Morvern Callar - Alan Warner (1995)
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell (1949)
  • Swing Hammer Swing! - Jeff Torrington (1992)
  • Hotel World - Ali Smith (2001)
  • Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh (1993)
  • The Trick is to Keep Breathing - Janice Galloway (1989)
  • Jericho Sleep Alone - Chaim Bermant (1964)
  • The Expedition of Humphry Clinker - Tobias Smollett (1771)
  • Lilith - George MacDonald (1895)
  • Imagined Corners - Willa Muir (1931)
  • Living Nowhere - John Burnside (2003)
  • Jelly Roll - Luke Sutherland (1998)
  • The White Bird Passes - Jessie Kesson (1958)
  • Young Adam - Alexander Trocchi (1954)
  • Rob Roy - Walter Scott (1818)
  • The Sea Road - Margaret Elphinstone (2000)
  • The Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith (1776)
  • The Break-Up of Britain: Crisis and Neo-Nationalism - Tom Nairn (1977)
  • Consider the Lilies - Iain Crichton Smith (1968)
  • No Mean City: A Story of the Glasgow Slums - Alexander McArthur and H. Kingsley Long (1935)
  • To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf (1927)
  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling (1997)
  • Madame Doubtfire - Anne Fine (1987)
  • Me and Ma Gal - Des Dillon (1995)
  • The Highland Clearances - John Prebble (1969)
  • A Concussed History of Scotland - Frank Kuppner (1990)
  • An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - David Hume (1748)
  • A Voyage to Arcturus - David Lindsay (1920)
  • The Golden Bough - James Frazer (1890)
  • Grace Notes - Bernard MacLaverty (1997)
  • The Cutting Room - Louise Welsh (2002)
  • The Quarry Wood - Nan Shepherd (1928)
  • The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks (1984)
  • Brond - Frederic Lindsay (1984)
  • A Day at the Office - Robert Alan Jamieson (1991)
  • Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson (1995)
  • The Dear Green Place - Archie Hind (1966)
  • Miss Marjoribanks - Margaret Oliphant (1866)
  • The Sound of My Voice - Ron Butlin (1987)
  • Flemington - Violet Jacob (1911)
  • Greenvoe - George Mackay Brown (1972)
  • The New Road - Neil Munro (1914)
  • Psychoraag - Suhayl Saadi (2004)
  • The Bull Calves - Naomi Mitchison (1947)
  • The Coral Island - R. M. Ballantyne (1858)
  • From Russia, With Love - Ian Fleming (1957)
  • A Disaffection - James Kelman (1989)
  • The Shipbuilders - George Blake (1935)
  • Our Fathers - Andrew O'Hagan (1999)
  • A Sense of Freedom - Jimmy Boyle (1977)
  • A Twelvemonth and a Day - Christopher Rush (1985)
  • The Lighthouse Stevensons - Bella Bathurst (1999)
  • Adam Blair - John Gibson Lockhart (1822)
  • But n Ben A-Go-Go - Matthew Fitt (2000)
  • The Siege of Trencher's Farm - Gordon Williams (1969)
  • The New Testament in Scots - trans. William Laughton Lorimer (1983)
  • The Game of Kings - Dorothy Dunnett (1961)
  • Open the Door! - Catherine Carswell (1920)
  • The Lantern Bearers - Ronald Frame (1999)
  • An Oidhche Mus Do Sheòl Sinn - Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul (2003)
  • Children of the Dead End - Patrick MacGill (1914)
  • One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night - Christopher Brookmyre (1999)
  • The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (1908)
  • Garnethill - Denise Mina (1998)
  • Joseph Knight - James Robertson (2003)
  • The Magic Flute - Alan Spence (1990)
  • Electric Brae - Andrew Greig (1997)
  • The Guns of Navarone - Alistair MacLean (1957)
  • The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith (1998)
  • Mr Alfred, M.A. - George Friel (1972)
  • Sartor Resartus - Thomas Carlyle (1836)
  • Black and Blue - Ian Rankin (1997)
  • Scar Culture - Toni Davidson (1999)
  • Whisky Galore - Compton Mackenzie (1947)
  • The Citadel - AJ Cronin (1937)
  • For the Love of Willie - Agnes Owens (1998)
  • Docherty - William McIlvanney (1975)
  • Thursday, September 16, 2010

    Bloomsbury 100 Must-Read Crime Novels

    Ok, let's see how I do with this list from Bloomsbury of the top 100 must-read crime novels that I just found via google.

    If it's crossed out, it means I've read it:
  • Asesinato en el Comitè Central by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
  • Beast in View by Margaret Millar
  • The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake
  • The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
  • Black and Blue by Ian Rankin
  • The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
  • The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
  • The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale
  • The Bridge Wore Black by Cornell Woolrich
  • The Case of the Terrified Typist by Erle Stanley Gardner
  • The Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh
  • Come away, death by Gladys Mitchell
  • Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
  • Dark Passage (Film Ink Series) by David Goodis
  • Dead Calm by Charles Williams
  • Dead Cert by Dick Francis
  • Dead Lagoon by Michael Dibdin
  • The Dead of Jericho by Colin Dexter
  • The Deadly Percheron by John Franklin Bardin
  • Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon
  • The Deep Blue Good-by by John D. MacDonald
  • Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
  • The Devil's Home on Leave (Factory 2) by Derek Raymond
  • Dialogues of the Dead by Reginald Hill
  • Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
  • Downriver (The Amos Walker Series #9) by Loren D. Estleman
  • The Fabulous Clipjoint by Fredric Brown
  • The Face on the Cutting Room Floor (Classic Crime) by Cameron McCabe
  • Fadeout by Joseph Hansen
  • Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
  • Fast One by Paul Cain
  • A Fatal Inversion by Ruth Rendell
  • A Firing Offense by George P. Pelecanos
  • Flinch by Robert Ferrigno
  • The Fools in Town Are on Our Side by Ross Thomas
  • Four Corners of Night by Craig Holden
  • The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey
  • The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins
  • The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett
  • God Save the Child by Robert B. Parker
  • Gone, No Forwarding by Joe Gores
  • Hamlet, revenge! by Michael Innes
  • The Hunter by Richard Stark
  • The Ice House by Minette Walters
  • In a Dry Season by Peter Robinson
  • Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky
  • The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton
  • A Is for Alibi by Sue Grafton
  • The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
  • Kiss Me, Deadly by Mickey Spillane
  • LaBrava by Elmore Leonard
  • The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley
  • Laura by Vera Caspary
  • The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout
  • Maigret Sets a Trap by Georges Simenon
  • Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles
  • The Man Who Liked to Look at Himself by K. C. Constantine
  • The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
  • The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  • Miami Blues by Charles Willeford
  • The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais
  • The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
  • The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald
  • The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin
  • A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie
  • The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
  • Murder on the Yellow Brick Road by Stuart M. Kaminsky
  • The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume
  • The Mystery Of The Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux
  • Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
  • The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke
  • The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers
  • No Orchids for Miss Blandish by James Hadley Chase
  • Off With His Head by Ngaio Marsh
  • One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters
  • Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell
  • A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes
  • Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
  • Roman Blood by Steven Saylor
  • Sadie When She Died by Ed McBain
  • Sidetracked by Henning Mankell
  • The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  • Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert
  • The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
  • Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe
  • A Taste for Death by P. D. James
  • Tell No One by Harlan Coben
  • A Thief of Time by Tony Hillerman
  • The Three Coffins by John Dickson Carr
  • A Three-Pipe Problem by Julian Symons
  • The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham
  • Tourist Season by Carl Hiaasen
  • Trent's Last Case by E.C. Bentley
  • Uncivil Seasons by Michael Malone
  • Under Cover of Daylight by James W. Hall
  • Under the Bright Lights by Daniel Woodrell
  • An Unkindness of Ravens by Ruth Rendell
  • When the Sacred Ginmill Closes by Lawrence Block
  • When the Wind Blows by Cyril Hare
  • Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca? by G. M. Ford
  • Of the one hundred books listed I've only read eight of them! That is woeful.

    I didn't look at the list prior to scrolling down it and scoring through those books that I've read. I thought there would be at least twenty books on the list that I've read. Blogging life was so much simpler with 365Watch.

    *ONGOING UPDATE*

  • A Three-Pipe Problem by Julian Symons
  • Miami Blues by Charles Willeford
  • LaBrava by Elmore Leonard
  • Dark Passage (Film Ink Series) by David Goodis
  • The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler
  • The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
  • Murder on the Yellow Brick Road by Stuart M. Kaminsky
  • Maigret Sets a Trap by Georges Simenon 
  • One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters
  • A wee tap on the shoulder . . .

    . . . . and a whisper in the ear of, 'You've not read enough'.

    That's the shiver I get when I stumble across book polls like the recent one conducted by NPR.

    Seventeen thousand readers/listeners/viewers - what exactly do people do with NPR? - voted on their favourite 'Killer Thrillers' and, of the Top 100 listed, it turns out I've read a grand total of 2 of them.

    Every other book I read is crime fiction, and it turns out I've been reading the wrong ones. Granted I've probably seen the film versions of about 20 of the books listed but that won't win me any kudos amongst the Ditmas Park literati.

    There's only one solution. No, not actually knuckle down and read some of the works listed . . . find another crime fiction top 100 poll more in tune with my reading tastes. It'll be out there somewhere. Even if I have to create a bogus one myself.