“There's hardly a page in my copy of Upstream that isn't folded down or underlined and scribbled on, so charged is Oliver's language. The New York Times bestselling collection of essays from beloved poet, Mary Oliver. I think that’s do-able before my next birthday… I might even be able to find one or two in the many piles of ‘to-be-read-next’ books disguised around the house…Īny suggestions are much appreciated of course.One of O, The Oprah Magazine’s Ten Best Books of the Year Now I think it’s time to bring the whole challenge back, don’t you? Let’s tie it to the number 50 because it has a better ring… 50 books from 50 years!Ģ017 – Magari domain resto (Lorenzo Maroni)Ģ013 – Careless people (Sarah Churchwell)Ģ009 – Let the great world spin (Colum McCann)Ģ002 – Everything is illuminated (Jonathan Safran Foer)ġ998 – Amy and Isabelle (Elizabeth Strout)ġ997 – Under Storm’s wings – (Helen Thomas)ġ996 – Wilfred and Eileen (Jonathan Smith)ġ995 – The Seville Communion (Arturo Perez Reverte)ġ992 – The daughters of the house (Michele Roberts)ġ989 – Like water for chocolate (Laura Esquivel)ġ985 – Oranges are not the only fruit (Jeanette Winterson)ġ979 – The bloody chamber (Angela Carter)ġ977 The passion of New Eve (Angela Carter)ġ975 – First love, last rites – (Ian McEwan)ġ974 – If Beale Street could talk (James Baldwin)ġ973 – the honorary consul (Graham Greene) College… the more you read books the more you read about books and the more books you buy… and on and on.

but then it all went to pot and I got totally sidetracked. I tried to read books I had already whenever possible and had attacked the challenge with gusto.

Two years – yes TWO YEARS – ago I had started this thing about reading 48 books in a year, each from a different year, from 1970 onward. On the other hand… hey I am fifty and there’s a certain gravitas and self-assurance about having made it so far without completely messing it up, limbs intact (… although dodgy back, currently), good BMI, lovely family and friends and on my way to a second degree. It’s not that I made it to this out of effort and volition… it kind of just happened! Maybe I’m not as supple, yes I have grey hair… but I’m still me and I don’t get why so much fuss should be made by everybody else about it. It’s a bit of a weird one… on one side… well let’s face it… it makes no difference to the traffic of everyday life.

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