100+ Books in 2025 discussion

1st up - Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas. A Christmas present from my brother.

2nd finished - Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

Great stuff - have been intending to read the Sandman books since I was about 13 after reading Good Omens. Very intelligent and engrossing comic.

I did start reading A Void by Georges Perec too, a novel without a singe 'e' in the text. I got through about 30 pages, but was finding it exhausting. It's an impressive feat, especially having been translated, but the story wasn't interesting me at all.

I'm reading a collection of John Cheever stories too, but I won't count it towards my 100 - it's long & I don't tend to read whole collections when they're 600 pages+!

3. The Reader - Bernhard Schlink

4. Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski

An interesting one to come to after Post Office, Women & Factotum. It's been some years since I read those, and had forgotten how readable Bukowski's prose is - the character's voice gets right in under your skin. It's interesting to get an insight into Henry Chinaski/Bukowski's beginnings, and maybe suggests a little why he wasn't always the nicest of human beings.

5. The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman

Another one I've been meaning to read since I was a teenager. Great stuff - even a step up from Northern Lights, for me.

6. South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami

Ended up re-reading this by accident! Meant to pick one of his short story collections from the shelf to flcik through on my lunch break & took this one by mistake. Glad I did - deserved a second reading.

7. Help Me, Jacques Cousteau - Gil Adamson

8. Love in the Time of Cholera - Garbriel Garcia Marquez