The new issue of The Believer showed up in my overstuffed mailbox today. It’s the film issue, featuring a DVD of short films about Jean-Luc Goddard’s travels in the U.S. My second favorite Jean-Luc! (Seriously, Alphaville is great, but it’s no ST:TNG). The issue also features The Believer‘s annual reader survey. Here are the results, from their website, with our parenthetical thoughts and links.
READER SURVEY RESULTS
- 2666—Roberto Bolaño (This seems pretty obvious. Go, read it, now. Not that awards mater, but it also just won the National Book Critics Circle Award for best fiction).
- Unlucky Lucky Days—Daniel Grandbois
- Lush Life—Richard Price (After hearing a great interview with Price on NPR, I really wanted to read this book–and I really don’t care for detective fiction. And I never got into The Wire. I guess it’s not really genre fiction though. I guess I should read it).
- The Lazarus Project—Aleksandar Hemon
- Netherland—Joseph O’Neill (Heard lots of good things about this, but neglected to solicit a copy).
- Vacation—Deb Olin Unferth (Haven’t read it. Like her short stories in McSweeney’s though).
- Unaccustomed Earth—Jhumpa Lahiri (Unsolicited promo copy of the new trade paperback edition showed up in the mail a few days ago. I will try to read it).
- Arkansas—John Brandon
- A Mercy—Toni Morrison (This topped my best of 2008 list only because I hadn’t read 2666 yet–to be fair, however, they’re both great, totally different books, so no real reason why one should top another).
- Indignation—Philip Roth (Jesus. Do people still read Philip Roth. Who knew?) Continue reading “The Believer’s 2009 Reader Survey: (What Some Jokers Thought Were) The Best Books of 2008”
Biblioklept 