Top 7 - My Favourite Books of the 2010's

As an English Literature student, you would hope I have good taste in books but as it turns out, no, not really. I'll be honest, I haven't read loads of books this decade because, as my reading skills and tastes have developed, I've been going back into previous decades to read classics for the first time. As such, it feels weird talking about the books I've loved reading this decade when I can't talk about Kurt Vonnegut or George Orwell. Still, between finally getting something close to a social life and having to read books for study (talk shit about my degree all you want, reading at least one book a week leaves little time for recreational reading), I did manage to read a selection of books from this decade that I absolutely loved and it would be a pleasure to share them with you. Some are biographies of creators I love, some are short story collections that I love to dip into and some are sprawling epics that may live with me forever. All are highly worth reading.

21. Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

Though my favourite Murakami books have all been from previous decades, Men Without Women remains a delightful example of the weirdness I love in his writing.

20. The Butterfly Effect by Jon Ronson

Though technically an "Audible Original", I'm allowing The Butterfly Effect into this list because audiobooks count as books too. Jon Ronson's second look into the porn industry isn't quite as fascinating as his first, but the greater scope means it's still immensely haunting.

19. Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

The Tempest is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays and Margaret Atwood is an author who always intrigues me, which is why Hag-Seed, a retelling of The Tempest inside a modern prison, delighted me so much.

18. Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Though I came to Chiang's short story collection because of the story that inspired the film Arrival, what I stayed for was the dozens of other brilliant stories. I don't read a lot of sci-fi short story collections but after this, I've sworn to return to that genre.

17. Yes Please by Amy Poehler

What I loved about Yes Please was that it was such a different and honest look at Poehler than you might expect from her on-screen characters. It is funny and open and all the things you want from the autobiography of a comedian.

16. So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson

Weirdly, despite the fact he appears on the list three times, this is the only Jon Ronson book I own as a physical book. Regardless, it's an insightful and hilarious little read about how the internet has brought out the worst of us, a message that has sadly only gotten more relevant since the book released.

15. The Girls by Emma Cline

The Girls is that perfect kind of thriller that you just devour in a handful of sittings. For all that hasn't stayed with me about the novel, the memory of the ecstatic feeling of reading certainly has.

14. Tony and Susan by Austin Wright

The novel that became Nocturnal Animals, Tony and Susan is the rare novel that I read after seeing the film and found myself equally enthralled by the events, even knowing exactly how they played out.

13. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

The modern master of short stories, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams was the first time I dipped my toe into the world of Stephen King's horror and it may not surprise you to know it hasn't been my last.

12. The Last Days of August by Jon Ronson

Another Audible Original from Jon Ronson about the porn industry (though chronologically the first), The Last Days of August is a harrowing but gripping look into the suicide of porn star August Ames. In an era of true crime obsession, this is the story that has most enthralled me.

11. The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell

I love The Room so very much and it is therefore totally impossible for me to resist The Disaster Artist. Not only does it talk about the behind the scenes filming of this impossible to believe catastrophe, but it also fills in the friendship between Greg Sestero and Tommy Wiseau. For fans of The Room, it's a must read.

10. Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies: A Film Critic's Year-Long Quest to Find the Worst Movie Ever Made by Michael Adams

Talking again about bad movies, Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies is pretty much a document of my ideal future career. Michael Adams does an incredibly impressive job at cataloguing many of the worst films ever made, regaling tales of his journey with a terrific wit.

9. How Does It Feel: A Life of Musical Misadventures by Mark Kermode

I know you're probably annoyed that there's three film related books in a row but actually, How Does It Feel? isn't really about Mark Kermode's day job. Instead, it tells the story of his life in music and from the selection of his books I've also read, it is proof that he is only improving as a book-length writer, crafting a heart-warming tale, full of just the right amount of self-deprecation.

8. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

Girl, Woman, Other is one of those books that constantly deals with very serious issues. There's discussions of race, cultural legacy and sexual assault, all topics that are handled with appropriate sensitivity. The reason the novel is so memorable though is that Evaristo infuses these themes and many others with a lightness and humour that meant the novel was consistently a total delight to read.

7. Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias

I hadn't even heard of Ink before I studied it in America. In fact, though it's available to buy here in the UK, the ridiculous price of it on Amazon implies that it's not got a proper print release here. That's something I have to mention because of how much of a shame it is, Ink is a book that really deserves to be read by everyone. It is the story of a near-future America in which citizens have to have their identities tattooed on their wrists in a bar code, as you can see on the book cover above. We follow 4 different characters through this bizarre landscape full of fascism and fantasy and quite simply, it was a book that was a pleasure to study because of how incredibly written it is. There were many days where I needed to read it and would very happily find a corner of the university library and lose myself. Throughout, I would also make note of favourite quotes throughout the book, with one favourite being the description of a world "Hectic and abuzz with the energy of what will never be the same twice". It's the kind of poetic writing that I'm soft towards, the kind I try and write like when given the chance. In a decade when dystopias became a dime a dozen, Ink was the one that stood out for me.

6. Mr Mercedes by Stephen King

Mr Mercedes is a very significant novel for me because it was the first Stephen King book I read. Clearly it made quite an impact on me, seeing as I now own 15 of his books, including the two sequels to Mr Mercedes. Though King primarily has a reputation for horror, Mr Mercedes is instead a thriller about the perpetrator of a mass killing, which follows both the detective investigating the task and the serial killer as he plans his next attack. As far as thrillers go, there's not much more you can ask for. It is a complete page turner, whose wonderfully unpredictable plot only works as well as it does because along the way you started caring about the characters. Whether you care for King and his writing style is an interesting and separate debate (I personally believe he deserves a lot more critical credit than he gets), but regardless of if you've devoured the work that came before or you're yet to try your first taste of the "Master of Horror", Mr Mercedes is a read that you will struggle to put down as soon as you pick it up.

5. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Another rock solid thriller, Gone Girl is the kind of book that gets lumped in with the kind of trashy novels you usually find in an airport book shop, a lumping in that I think is totally unfair. It is admittedly a novel whose intensely consumable nature means that some may devour it and forget it instantly, but that does total disservice to the actual craft. In structuring the novel, Flynn pulls a total masterstroke, contrasting the modern day activities of Nick Dunne as he tries to prove he didn't kill his wife, with the diary entries of Amy, his wife, recounting how they got to where they are now (wherever the hell that is). We are given very little reason to trust either narrator and yet we ultimately do, a trust that gets played upon terrifically when the two narratives meet. If you don't know where the story goes, I won't be the one to spoil it, but it manages to satisfy in a way that completely blindsided me. An incredibly compelling thriller that is also a superb dissection of modern America and the way relationships become dangerously one-sided, Gone Girl should go down as one of the best thrillers of the decade, undeservedly left by the critical wayside.

4. This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay

Though it's fourth on the list, This is Going to Hurt is the book I would most recommend to anyone reading this. The three ahead of it are ones that appealed to me more directly but I find it really hard to imagine anyone who wouldn't enjoy this book. It's the real diaries of a junior doctor as he trains to become a fully fledged doctor in the NHS and it is a superb read. Most of it is very funny, packed with the kind of morbid humour you need to survive working in a hospital, but Adam Kay also does a brilliant job at letting the sadness in when he needs to. Importantly, as well as being so terrifically written, it serves as a vital reminder of how brilliant our NHS is, as well as how selfless the staff there are. Of all the things that make Britain great, it may be the very greatest and for the last ten years, we have been living with a government trying to sell it off and cut the wages of some of the most overworked people in the UK. That is why I love This is Going to Hurt, because by the time you have been charmed by the winning combination of humour and heartbreak, the political message about how the Conservative government are consistently under funding our greatest institution feels like a completely natural conclusion.

3. The Nix by Nathan Hill

At its outset, The Nix is a fairly simple novel. Its the story of an English teacher who, after decades without seeing her, is suddenly reunited with his mother when she becomes the core of a political scandal. When I started The Nix, that was pretty much all I thought it was. In fact, the reason I read it was because I read a little bit when I used to work at a bookstore and immediately fell in love with the immaculately crafted prose. Fortunately, throughout the entire 620 pages, that prose never lets up. The novel also then sprawls in its plot, going across three different time periods and multiple characters and locations. With each new chapter came a new surprise that expanded the scope of this novel and somehow, it remains thematically tight the whole way. The themes of the political are inherently intermingled with the personal and the way certain motifs would reappear throughout genuinely gave me goosebumps. The centrepiece of The Nix for me though, is a chapter that is written in the style of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, the kind of book that our main character read a lot as a child. I devoured that chapter in the middle of the night, breathlessly turning the page as what could have been a mundane series of events suddenly became the most thrilling section of the novel. The Nix is the rare book that I read and was so impressed by that I wished I could study it and write essays on it and have hour long discussions with people about the symbolism in it. It's amazing.

2. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

A Little Life is the longest book on this list, by quite a margin. Even The Nix, the closest competitor, comes about 100 pages short. The length isn't the only barrier though, anyone who has read the book will tell you it is absolutely heartbreaking very often, making the prospect of carrying on seem bleak at times. I am here to tell you that it is worth pushing through every time the world seems too dark though, as the beauty on the other side is worth the pain. A Little Life is the story of a group of friends living in New York, all trying to make their way in the world. We follow them for decades as they drift apart, closer together and into trouble and I can't imagine a way of doing this book in anything less than the 700+ pages it is. You need the extended periods of pain and turmoil so that, when a character finally feels like themselves again, it is an ecstatic moment for the reader. As the novel progresses, Jude becomes the core of the novel and I think that is the genius of Yanagihara's writing. Were this just the tale of a group of friends it could become cliched or trite, but by narrowing down on Jude specifically, we get to examine him intimately and understand the things that, for hundreds of pages before, we didn't quite appreciate. A Little Life is not an easy read, nor a little read, but that's why I fell in love with it. If it was an easy read, it would have been nowhere near as rewarding.

1. Room to Dream by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna

This is an entirely self-indulgent choice, but I will not apologise thank you very much. Yes, it's an autobiography of David Lynch, one of my favourite directors and complete weirdos, but it is more than that. Sometimes people can have fascinating lives or have made things you love and then when it comes to actually writing, their prose style doesn't grab you at all. Fortunately, Lynch is a born storyteller and every word he wrote was one I could easily hear in his iconic voice. That's not why this autobiography is so good though, it's instead a masterstroke in how to structure an autobiography. Each chapter is split in half, with the first half being Kristine McKenna filling in the more concrete details of this particular time period and introducing important people, giving you the actual information you might be looking for. This is great because David Lynch is famously hesitant to explain details about his films and he can therefore take his half of the chapter and ramble on with some of his favourite stories for as long as he wants (or in the case of Dune, doesn't want). 

It is a heartfelt testament to the power of weirdness.

Despite his surrealist films, Lynch is actually a really great storyteller, able to tell a completely bizarre story in a way that feels familiar and welcoming, guiding you through the messy world of Hollywood and his teenage years. A favourite moment of mine comes in an early chapter, when the details of his teenage years have already been filled in, meaning he can take a whole page to ramble on about the first time he discovered masturbation, in a way that is quintessentially David Lynch. No passage in any autobiography has ever made me laugh like that before. I don't know if there are any other autobiographies that share this strange structure, the genre has been around for so long that some almost certainly have used it, but Room to Dream is the first time I've ever experienced it and it uses that form to allow the weird mind of David Lynch to roam free. If you're a fan of the director, I probably don't need to recommend it to you because you'll already own it, but I think even people with a passing interest in film should read this. It is a heartfelt testament to the power of weirdness in making great art, while ironically becoming a piece of great art in the process.

And there's books done. Next week we'll be talking about something I've been doing almost as long as reading books: playing videos. Come along, there will be just as many absolutely awful takes as ever. That's not a threat, that's a promise.