Top 10 Read - 2009

This whole blogging thing can get pretty mundane. Especially, when it comes to the time to welcome the new year, to give ourselves a lift for having lived insofar as this planet permits. Even I've thought of doing away with my list. Perhaps, something different this year? Nah.

1) Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan (Another world, another perspective, yet, somehow, I am reminded of my childhood...)
2) The Road by Cormac McCarthy (The visions were so terrifying that I swear never to read this again.)
3) Collected Love Poems* by Brian Patten (This is definitely a classic in my view, a defining moment in poetry for me.)
4) Like A Seed With Its Singular Purpose* by Cyril Wong (I never knew poetry can be so personal yet such a wonderment.)
5) Breakfast at Tiffany's (50TH Anniversary Edition) by Truman Capote (How true that good writing will stand the test of time!)
6) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (It was such a pleasure reading his works, The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons included.)
7) Mining for the Light* by Min Lim (What a surprise, this young Singaporean poet!)
8) Blizzard of One* by Mark Strand (Mark Strand's insights are at times, the most incisive.)
9) The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (Now, if you had enjoyed the movie, you will find more, much more in this novel.)
10) Peter Carmenzind by Hermann Hesse (Definitely not Hermann Hesse's best work, but even so, he did enough to earn a spot.)

*poetry collection

Again, some other titles worthy of mention: Yasunari Kawabata's Palm-of-the-Hand Stories, Billy Collins's The Trouble with Poetry, Gilbert Koh's Two Baby Hands and Cyril Wong's Below: Absence.

2009 must be the year of poetry and running for me. They are now my faithful friends...

Currently reading Felix Cheong's excellent Sudden Youth, and bits of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

I have planned for more running events this year, starting with a 16 KM in the North East Run in March, building up to a 21 KM in The Army Half Marathon.

So, it's health and happiness I am courting...