The OF Blog: The chronology of my life via certain novels released, the second decade (1985-1994)

Sunday, June 27, 2010

The chronology of my life via certain novels released, the second decade (1985-1994)

Ten more years of books released from the year I turned 11 to the year I turned 20:  Some high-profile books may not be listed here, because I either forgot or because I have no desire to read them or didn't find them to be influential on my reading habits.


1985 - Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
            Don DeLillo, White Noise
            Bret Easton Ellis, Less Than Zero
            Imil Habibi, The Secret Life of Saeed
            Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse:  Dune
            Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
            Naguib Mahfouz, Akhenaten, Dweller in Truth
            Gabriel García Márquez, El amor en los tiempos de cólera (Love in Time of Cholera)
          

1986 - José Saramago, El año de la muerte de Ricardo Reis (The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis)
           Stephen King, It (might read it sometime in the future)


1987 - Ken Grimwood, Replay
           Toni Morrison, Beloved
           Gene Wolfe, The Urth of the New Sun
         


1988 - Clive Barker, Cabal (want to read)
            Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum 
            Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
          

1989 - Nick Cave, And the Ass Saw the Angel (want to read)
            Katherine Dunn, Geek Love (have it, but still need to read it)
            Gabriel García Márquez, El general en su laberinto (The General in His Labyrinth)
            Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
            José Saramago, The History of the Siege of Lisbon (want to read this in Portuguese someday)
            Dan Simmons, Hyperion
            Shashi Tharoor, The Great Indian Novel
            Rose Tremain, Restoration
           

1990 - Thomas Pynchon, Vineland (want to read)
            Dan Simmons, Fall of Hyperion
           

1991 - Martin Amis, Time's Arrow
           Clive Barker, Imajica (want to read)
           Pat Barker, Regeneration
           A.S. Byatt, Possession
           Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho
           

1992 - Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient (maybe in the near future)
            Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash


1993 - Pat Barker, The Eye in the Door
           Laura Esquivel, Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate)
           Lois Lowry, The Giver
          


1994 - Jonathan Lethem, Gun, With Occasional Music (want to read)
           Rick Moody, The Ice Storm (want to read)


Interesting how certain years contain many more books that I enjoyed or want to read than others.  1989 truly was an annus mirabilis, for more than just the fine literature produced that year.  Same for 1991, which is important to me in other ways.  Enjoyed 1985 as well, and the literature was fine then as well, although I certainly didn't read those books until several years later.

Any that I'm missing?

3 comments:

Aishwarya said...

1985 - Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson?

It jumps out at me partly because it's the first book I can remember associating with the year of my birth.

~Niki~ said...

i remember clive barker was so popular i was going name my son clive lol. well he turned out be marcus, not clive, and he's happy i didn't name him that lol.
i was born in 1971. i was not a reader as a kid, so not many books i remember back then. as an adult i heart books!

Jason said...

It took me a moment to understand what this list meant.

My first thought was, "What, you read White Noise when you were 11?!"

 
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