Copy that

Ten books to carry you through
to the new decade

by JULIET WATERS

Some of these books were my favourites of 2009; some were part of an important, emerging issue. For whatever reason, when I looked over the books I read this year, these were the ones that jumped out at me.

1. Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem. The New York Times’ senior critic, Michiko Kakutani, hated this, calling it “tedious and overstuffed,” while the New York Times Book Review section listed it as one of the top five fiction books of the year. I’m still waiting for something as good as Fortress of Solitude, but this’ll do in the meantime.

2. Jeff In Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer. Nobody does the quasi-spiritual quest with as much self-immolating brilliance as Dyer. He is unflinching in his characterization of a British hack having one last junket in Italy before travelling to India to witness the slow disintegration of his ego.

3. The Believers by Zoë Heller. I loved this story of a rage-a-holic family of left-wing Jews. Some critics found the anger in this book relentless, but they were mostly Americans wanting more likeable characters.

4. The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker. It would be hard to find a more likeable character than Paul Chowder, the New England narrator of Baker’s charming meditation on modern poetry. But there is certainly tragedy in the quiet despair of the contemporary poet, which Baker captures with intelligence and warmth.

5. Apologize, Apologize by Elizabeth Kelly. Speaking of New England, this debut novel about a filthy rich, hopelessly dysfunctional American family had some beginner’s flaws. But it also had some very hilarious and well-orchestrated writing, earning Kelly my number 1 spot of Canadian writers to watch in the next decade.

6. Cat & Gnome by Graham Roumieu. This is more of a decade achievement spot, since the book is way too tiny to stand up against some of the heftier graphic novels of the year. But if you haven’t read Roumieu’s Bigfoot memoir series, or didn’t get a chance to stop by Drawn & Quarterly where he exhibited his art work over the summer, find him on Twitter @hellobigfoot. Pure poetry, in its own way.

7. Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby. This won’t be getting Hornby any big literary awards, but it’s one of his best books in years. He is still the leading anthropologist of music fans, their rituals and sad quest for meaning.

8. Free by Chris Anderson. It wouldn’t be fair to call this one of the best non-fiction books of the year, especially with Anderson admitting to plagiarizing parts of it from Wikipedia. But as the media business collapses all around us, Anderson does deal knowledgeably with the most pressing issues.

9. The Wayfinders by Wade Davis. This book, honestly, blew my mind. Davis draws on his career as an anthropologist, ethno botanist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence to visit some of the most fascinating ancient cultures in the world.

10. A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution by Dennis Baron. We forget, of course, that writing is actually a technology in itself, and one that hasn’t been around for very long. Read as part of a trilogy with picks eight and nine for some much needed perspective on the years to come.