Pages
- 1600-1900
- A Christmas Carol—Charles Dickens
- Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
- Barnaby Rudge—Charles Dickens
- Bel-Ami – Guy de Maupassant
- Bleak House – Charles Dickens
- David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
- Dead Souls (Part 1) – Nikolai Gogol
- Dombey and Son—Charles Dickens
- Don Quixote—Miguel de Cervantes
- Effi Briest – Theodor Fontane
- Emma – Jane Austen
- Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
- Fathers and Sons – Ivan Turgenev
- Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
- Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
- Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
- Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
- La Bête Humaine – Émile Zola
- Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
- Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
- Martin Chuzzlewit – Charles Dickens
- Middlemarch – George Eliot
- Moll Flanders—Daniel Defoe
- Nicholas Nickleby – Charles Dickens
- North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell
- Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
- Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens
- Persuasion – Jane Austen
- Portrait of a Lady – Henry James
- Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
- Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
- Shirley – Charlotte Bronte
- The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Chimes—Charles Dickens
- The Kreutzer Sonata – Leo Tolsoy
- The Man Who Would Be King, and other stories – Rudyard Kipling
- The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins
- The Professor – Charlotte Bronte
- The Return of the Native—Thomas Hardy
- The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Tom Jones – Henry Fielding
- Torture Garden – Octave Mirbeau
- Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
- Vanity Fair—William Makepeace Thackeray
- Villette – Charlotte Bronte
- War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
- What Maisie Knew – Henry James
- Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
- 1900-1945
- A Country Doctor’s Notebook – Mikhail Bulgakov
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce
- As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner
- Beware of Pity (Ungeduld des Herzens) – Stefan Zweig
- Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
- Cannery Row – John Steinbeck
- Cold Comfort Farm—Stella Gibbons
- Decline and Fall – Evelyn Waugh
- Dream Story (Traumnovelle) – Arthur Schnitzler
- Dubliners – James Joyce
- Howards End – E M Forster
- In Search of Lost Time 1: Swann’s Way – Marcel Proust
- Mapp and Lucia – Lucia in Trouble – E F Benson
- Mrs Dalloway—Virginia Woolf
- My Antonia – Willa Cather
- Scoop – Evelyn Waugh
- Sunset Song – Lewis Grassic Gibbon
- The Good Soldier – Ford Madox Ford
- The Late Mattia Pascal – Luigi Pirandello
- The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov
- The Radetzky March – Joseph Roth
- The Stranger/The Outsider—Albert Camus
- To The Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
- Typhoon – Joseph Conrad
- Ulysses – James Joyce
- 1946-1989
- A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
- A Severed Head – Iris Murdoch
- A View of the Harbour—Elizabeth Taylor
- Alone in Berlin (Every Man Dies Alone) – Hans Fallada
- Cement Garden – Ian McEwan
- Closely Observed Trains (or Closely Watched Trains) – Bohumil Hrabal
- Collected Stories – Saul Bellow
- Couples – John Updike
- Docherty – William McIlvanney
- Foe – J M Coetzee
- Ghost Writer – Philip Roth
- Go Tell It on the Mountain—James Baldwin
- Housekeeping – Marilynne Robinson
- Hyperion – Dan Simmons
- I Am The Cheese – Robert Cormier
- Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
- Memento Mori – Muriel Spark
- Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
- Neuromancer – William Gibson
- One Hundred Years of Solitude—Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark
- Ragtime – E L Doctorow
- Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
- Satantango – Laszlo Krasznahorkai
- Scenes from Provincial Life – William Cooper
- Stoner – John Williams
- Surfacing – Margaret Atwood
- Sweet Thursday—John Steinbeck
- The Catcher in the Rye—J D Salinger
- The Comedians—Graham Greene
- The Crying of Lot 49 – Thomas Pynchon
- The Death of Grass – John Christopher
- The Discovery of Slowness – Sten Nadolny
- The English Teacher—R K Narayan
- The French Lieutenant’s Woman
- The Handmaid’s Tale—Margaret Atwood
- The Heat of the Day – Elizabeth Bowen
- The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K Le Guin
- The Leopard – Guiseppe di Lampedusa
- The Masters – C P Snow
- The Public Image—Muriel Spark
- The Siege of Krishnapur – J G Farrell
- The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
- The Woman in the Dunes – Kobo Abe
- Travels with My Aunt – Graham Greene
- Troubles – J G Farrell
- True Grit – Charles Portis
- Under the Volcano – Malcolm Lowry
- V For Vendetta – Alan Moore and David Lloyd (graphic novel)
- Watchmen (graphic novel) – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
- Waterland—Graham Swift
- We Can Remember It For You Wholesale – Philip K Dick
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle—Shirley Jackson
- Wide Sargasso Sea—Jean Rhys
- Zuckerman Unbound – Philip Roth
- 1990-1999
- A Solitary Grief—Bernice Rubens
- American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
- Amsterdam – Ian McEwan
- Asylum – Patrick McGrath
- Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
- Carte Blanche – Carlo Lucarelli
- Enduring Love – Ian McEwan
- Fight Club—Chuck Palahniuk
- How Late It Was, How Late – James Kelman
- Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace
- Lady’s Maid – Margaret Forster
- Last Orders—Graham Swift
- Morality Play – Barry Unsworth
- Paradise – Toni Morrison
- Pereira Maintains—Antonio Tabucchi
- Possession – A S Byatt
- Regeneration Trilogy 2: The Eye in the Door – Pat Barker
- Regeneration Trilogy 3: The Ghost Road – Pat Barker
- Regeneration – Pat Barker
- The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
- The Reader – Bernhard Schlink
- The Shipping News – (E) Annie Proulx
- Tony and Susan – Austin Wright (filmed as Nocturnal Animals)
- Ulverton – Adam Thorpe
- 2000-2004
- 2666 – Roberto Bolaño
- A Gathering Light – Jennifer Donnelly
- Atonement – Ian McEwan
- Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress—Dai Sijie
- Deafening – Frances Itani
- Double Vision – Pat Barker
- Gilead – Marilynne Robinson
- Morality for Beautiful Girls – Alexander McCall Smith
- Old School – Tobias Wolff
- Snow – Orhan Pamuk
- Songs of the Kings – Barry Unsworth
- The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen
- The Electric Michelangelo – Sarah Hall
- The Line of Beauty – Alan Hollinghurst
- The Siege – Helen Dunmore
- The Yacoubian Building – Alaa Al Aswany
- Tishomingo Blues – Elmore Leonard
- Train Dreams – Denis Johnson
- Vernon God Little – DBC Pierre
- 2005-2009
- American Rust – Philipp Mayer
- Broken Glass – Alain Mabanckou
- Brooklyn Follies – Paul Auster
- Brooklyn – Colm Toibin
- Catch me when I fall – Nicci French
- Children’s Book – A S Byatt
- Deaf Sentence – David Lodge
- Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead—Olga Tokarczuk
- Elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barbery
- Elena Knows—Claudia Piñeiro
- Elephant’s Journey – Jose Saramago
- Engleby – Sebastian Faulks
- Everyman – Philip Roth
- Ghost – Robert Harris
- Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
- Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society – Mary Ann Shaffer
- His Illegal self – Peter Carey
- Homer and Langley – E L Doctorow
- If It Bleeds – Duncan Campbell
- Jerusalem – Jez Butterworth (play)
- Life Class – Pat Barker
- Light – M John Harrison
- Maidenhair – Mikhail Shishkin
- Netherland – Joseph O’Neill
- Night Watch – Sarah Waters
- One Day – David Nicholls
- Quickening Maze – Adam Foulds
- Remainder – Tom McCarthy
- Road Home – Rose Tremain
- Secret River – Kate Grenville
- Secret Scripture – Sebastian Barry
- The accidental – Ali Smith
- The Believers – Zoe Heller
- The City and the City—China Miéville
- The Gathering – Anne Enright
- The Help – Kathryn Stockett
- The House of Meetings – Martin Amis
- The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
- The Little Stranger – Sarah Waters
- The Penelopiad—Margaret Atwood
- The Sea – John Banville
- The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas
- The Year of the Flood – Margaret Atwood
- Theft – Peter Carey
- Tokyo Year Zero – David Peace
- Tomorrow – Graham Swift
- Turbulence – Giles Foden
- When will there be good news? – Kate Atkinson
- White Tiger – Aravind Adiga
- Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
- 2010-2015
- A God in Ruins – Kate Atkinson (abandoned)
- A Man of Parts – David Lodge (abandoned)
- A Tale for the Time Being – Ruth Ozeki
- After the Fire, a Still, Small Voice – Evie Wyld
- All That I Am – Anna Funder
- All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
- Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- An Officer and a Spy – Robert Harris
- And the Land Lay Still – James Robertson
- Artful – Ali Smith
- Before I Go to Sleep – S J Watson
- Bring Up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel
- Dark Eden – Chris Beckett
- Freedom – Jonathan Franzen
- Garden of Evening Mists – Tan Twan Eng
- Go Set A Watchman – Harper Lee
- Grief is the Thing with Feathers – Max Porter
- Half Blood Blues – Esi Edugyan
- Harvest – Jim Crace
- Heads You Lose – Rob Johnson
- History of the Rain – Niall Williams
- How to be both – Ali Smith
- Jamrach’s Menagerie – Carol Birch
- Life After Life – Kate Atkinson
- Lifting the Lid – Rob Johnson
- Lila – Marilynne Robinson
- MaddAddam – Margaret Atwood
- My Brilliant Friend – Elena Ferrante
- Narcopolis – Jeet Thayil
- Narrow Road to the Deep North – Richard Flanagan
- Nothing You Can Do – Lewis Nene
- Our Kind of Traitor – John le Carré
- Parrot and Olivier in America – Peter Carey
- Room – Emma Donoghue
- Satin Island – Tom McCarthy
- Sisters Brothers – Patrick de Witt
- Slow Horses—Mick Herron
- Snowdrops – A D Miller
- Solar – Ian McEwan
- Submission (Soumission) – Michel Houellebecq
- Swimming Home – Deborah Levy
- The Betrayal – Helen Dunmore
- The Black-Eyed Blonde – Benjamin Black
- The Buried Giant – Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Casual Vacancy – J K Rowling
- The Children Act – Ian McEwan
- The Circle – Dave Eggers
- The Fear Index – Robert Harris
- The Finkler Question – Howard Jacobson
- The Fishermen – Chigozie Obioma
- The Girl with All the Gifts—M R Carey
- The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
- The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ – Philip Pullman
- The Green Road – Anne Enright
- The Long Song – Andrea Levy
- The Meursault Investigation—Kamel Daoud
- The Miniaturist – Jessie Burton
- The Paying Guests – Sarah Waters
- The Remainder—Alia Trabucco Zerán
- The Sense of an Ending – Julian Barnes
- The Story of a New name—Elena Ferrante
- The Stranger’s Child – Alan Hollinghurst
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet – David Mitchell
- The Three-Body Problem—Cixin Liu
- There but for the – Ali Smith
- Train Dreams – Denis Johnson
- Trespass – Rose Tremain
- Two Pints – Roddy Doyle
- We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler
- 2016 and after
- A Horse Walks into a Bar—David Grossman
- An American Marriage—Tayari Jones
- Autumn – Ali Smith
- Bad Actors—Mick Herron
- Beneath the World, a Sea—Chris Beckett
- Circe—Madeline Miller
- Conclave – Robert Harris
- Cousins—Salley Vickers
- Days Without End – Sebastian Barry
- Fleishman is in Trouble—Taffy Brodesser-Akner
- Girl, Woman, Other—Bernadine Evaristo
- Grey Bees—Andrey Kurkov
- Hag-Seed—Margaret Atwood
- Hamnet—Maggie O’Farrell
- Here We Are—Graham Swift
- Hurricane Season—Fernanda Melchor
- Jack—Marilynne Robinson
- Klara and the Sun—Kazuo Ishiguro
- Lanny—Max Porter
- Last Stories—William Trevor
- Lincoln in the Bardo—George Saunders
- Love is Blind—William Boyd
- Magpie Lane—Lucy Atkins
- Milkman—Anna Burns
- Mothering Sunday – Graham Swift
- My Name is Lucy Barton – Elizabeth Strout
- Our Homesick Songs—Emma Hooper
- Reasons to be Cheerful—Nina Stibbe
- Reservoir 13—Jon McGregor
- Shadowplay—Joseph O’Connor
- Shuggie Bain—Douglas Stuart
- Smile – Roddy Doyle
- The Book of Dust 1: La Belle Sauvage—Philip Pullman
- The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry
- The Hummingbird—Sandro Veronesi
- The Long Take—Robin Robertson
- The Mirror and the Light—Hilary Mantel
- The Noise of Time – Julian Barnes
- The Promise—Damon Galgut
- The Silence of the Girls—Pat Barker
- The Silence—Don DeLillo
- The Spy—Paulo Coelho
- The Testaments—Margaret Atwood
- The Underground Railroad—Colson Whitehead
- The Vanishing Half—Brit Bennett
- Yuki chan in Bronte Country – Mick Jackson
- Zero K – Don DeLillo
- Non-fiction
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius – Dave Eggers
- Agent Zigzag – Ben Macintyre
- Arthur and George – Julian Barnes
- Blood River – Tim Butcher
- Born To Run – Christopher McDougall
- Christ Stopped At Eboli – Carlo Levi
- Dickens, A Life – Claire Tomalin
- Dispatches—Michael Herr
- Do No Harm – Henry Marsh
- English Pastoral—James Rebanks
- Explorers of the Nile – Tim Jeal (Part 1)
- Hare with Amber Eyes – Edmund de Waal
- Hidden Lives – Margaret Forster
- In Parenthesis – David Jones
- In Pursuit of Spring – Edward Thomas
- Jigsaw, An Unsentimental Education – Sybille Bedford
- Keeping an Eye Open – Julian Barnes
- Maus—Art Spiegelman
- Memoir – John McGahern
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – John Berendt
- Naples ’44 – Norman Lewis
- Narrow Dog to Indian River – Terry Darlington
- Sapiens – Yuval Noah Harari
- Speak, Memory – Vladimir Nabokov
- Straw Dogs – John Gray
- The Adventure of English – Melvyn Bragg (ongoing)
- The Big Short – Michael Lewis
- The Last Mughal – William Dalrymple
- The Music Room—William Fiennes
- The Myth of Maturity – Terri Apter
- The Old Ways – Robert Macfarlane
- The Psychopath Test – Jon Ronson
- The Rings of Saturn—W G Sebald
- The Suspicions of Mr Whicher – Kate Summerscale
- These Precious Days—Ann Patchett
- This is Civilisation – Matthew Collings
- Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England – Ian Mortimer
- Watching the English – Kate Fox
- Waterlog – Roger Deakin
- What I Talk About When I Talk About Running – Haruki Murakami
- Other stuff
- 1600-1900
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364 books so far…
Updated 12th February 2023
[The full list of books is in the right-hand panel, or under Menu in the phone app.]
Spoiler Alert! If you read any of these commentaries, you will find out everything about a book, because I stop every few chapters and write in detail about it all as I read. I’m not trying simply to remember the book, but to recreate the experience of reading it. Most of the books I read are novels, but not all of them.
The name is taken from Philip K Dick’s short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, later adapted for the cinema in Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall. At the centre of the story is the unreliability of memory, which is why I started to write these commentaries in the first place.
What I’m reading now:
The Promise—Damon Galgut
Barnaby Rudge—Charles Dickens
Some recent reads, latest first:
Bad Actors—Mick Herron
Elena Knows—Claudia Piñeiro
Grey Bees—Andrey Kurkov
The Vanishing Half—Brit Bennett
Circe—Madeline Miller
The Story of a New name—Elena Ferrante
The Hummingbird—Sandro Veronesi
Klara and the Sun—Kazuo Ishiguro
English Pastoral—James Rebanks
Shuggie Bain—Douglas Stuart
Go Tell It on the Mountain—James Baldwin
The Catcher in the Rye—J D Salinger
Vanity Fair—William Makepeace Thackeray
Girl, Woman, Other—Bernadine Evaristo
Best recent read:
Hamnet—Maggie O’Farrell