We're big book lovers round these parts and judging from the last time we discussed a few good reads*, you are too!
*Oh, and this time too!
World Book Day is right around the corner, and we suppose if you forgo work, play, family commitments and sleep between this instant and March 5th, you might be able to read all of these, the so-called 'best books' of the last 20 years.
The titles were chosen by a panel of literary experts to mark the 20th anniversary of the Independent Bath Literature Festival, and they chose one book from ever year from 1995 all the way through to 2014.
These were books that may have been awarded prizes in the year and are well known (a few have become movies already), or they were a popular choice from the panel members and may not have been recognised at the time.
So, how many of these are on your bookshelf?
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- 1995 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
- 1996 Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
- 1997 American Pastoral by Philip Roth
- 1998 England, England by Julian Barnes
- 1999 Disgrace by JM Coetzee
- 2000 White Teeth by Zadie Smith
- 2001 Atonement by Ian McEwan
- 2002 Any Human Heart by William Boyd
- 2003 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
- 2004 Small Island by Andrea Levy
- 2005 We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
- 2006 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- 2007 Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- 2008 The Outcast by Sadie Jones
- 2009 The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
- 2010 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
- 2011 A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
- 2012 State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
- 2013 Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
- 2014 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
2010's Wolf Hall was singled out as the very best of the bunch with the experts saying that the list as a whole contained works that had transformed the literary landscape, and Wolf Hall has done that "with bells on".
See more on books, cinema and tv in our designated section.
But what are we waiting for? Let's talk books!
Via i100
