I just finished reading The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson. Re-reading actually, as I’ll get to later.
Bryson’s one of my favorite authors, an American grumpy old man who’s lived most of his life in Britain and is redeemed by being a keen observer of human behaviour, interesting things to write about and above all, a sharp sense of humor. Anyway, …Little Dribbling is a great travelogue in which he traverses his adopted land from end to end and finds both folly and glory in the landscape and the people. Well worth a read. Here’s what I had to say about it in 2020.
Obviously, I had read the book before but I seemed to lose my copy so when I saw a used copy quite cheaply, I grabbed it and started reading. After only a couple of pages, it seemed entirely familiar to me but it was a fun read, so I had no objection to re-reading it. Now, of course, since I liked reading it, there was no problem but it did occur to me that I could have known in advance. Since 2016, I’ve kept a little database of all the books I read, with short capsule summaries of them and a star-rating. If I pick up a book and think “hmm – have I already read this? And if so, did I like it… is it worth looking at again?” I could refer to that file of books and quickly remember if I had or not, or at least if I had in the past eight years or so. But I seldom remember to look at that database!
Anyway, I am in awe of some of my regular readers who read several books per week – Keith, the Nostalgic Italian for instance who seems to post reviews of ones he finishes weekly if not more often. I just am not that fast or prolific a reader. But the list of books is now well past 100 and hopefully approaching 200 some time soon. Kind family members helped me put together a new set of four or five waiting to be consumed.
So I got thinking, of all those books, which have I enjoyed the most? So I went through and came up with my personal Top 10 for both fiction and non-fiction and will list them here. Obviously, it’s entirely subjective, limited to books I’ve read in that time span (which are outnumbered by ones I haven’t, roughly 50 million to one I imagine) and my own subjective ratings. Not to mention, I graded many the same so it becomes even more complicated to pick the “best”. But I’ll try to do that and merely say if you’re bored and looking for a good read, these might fit the bill. I won’t describe them, but if you’re curious, you can look them up on something like “Goodreads” or else leave a comment and I’ll try to elaborate a bit. Some I’ve linked to reviews I already posted of them.
FICTION :
10 Before We Say Goodbye (Toshikozu Kawaguchi)
9 The Decent Proposal (Kemper Donovan)
8 Shotgun Love Songs (Nickolas Butler)
7 Liberty (Garrison Keiller)
6 How To Stop Time (Matt Haig)
5 The Midnight Library (Matt Haig)
4 Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens)
3 Standing In the Rainbow (Fannie Flagg)
2 To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
1 Peyton Place (Grace Metallious)
NON-FICTION :
10 Life & Times of The Thunderbolt Kid (Bill Bryson)
9 The Big Year (Mark Obmascik)
8 Road to Little Dribbling (Bill Bryson)
6 Hillbilly Elegy (JD Vance)
5 The Soundtrack of My Life (Clive Davis)
4 Blink (Malcolm Gladwell)
3 Freakonomics (Levitt & Dubner)
2 Outliers (Malcolm Gladwell)
1 The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)
So there you go, a few suggestions to pass a dull winter’s day, and I think I may have given myself a few more books to look at again!
*By the way, in case you’re wondering I will say as much as this about #6 on my non-fiction list. I don’t really like Vance’s politics that much and put it there not as a political statement, but rather because I found it an interesting memoir and description of Appalachian America that was well-written. It certainly is an eye-opening account of what it is like in that part of the country or to be from that region.
Everydave Life 