Saturday, January 01, 2011

Book of the Year

My count of books read in 2010 finished at 25 - well down on my book a week resolution of 2009, but that is mainly due to the large amount of academic reading that I did instead. I revisited some old favourites and tried some new authors, but the standout for me was One Day by David Nicholls.

The book opens with two young people - Emma and Dexter - meeting on the last night of University as they graduate and prepare to embark on their adult lives. Their paths intersect over the next twenty years or so, and the book takes a snapshot view of their lives and relationships on the same day each year.

It is much a novel of the times from the mid 80s through to the early 2000s, charting the changing mores and the political landscapes of Britain through a turbulent couple of decades. Perhaps it is because it so perfectly evoked the passing of the times that I lived through, that the novel appealed to me so much.

I came to it without knowing anything of the plot, other than the basic premise, and I would recommend that you approach it similarly.

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