My reading life as a commuter 1992 to 1999

I cannot travel on a train without a book. I used to commute 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. This meant I read about 2 books a week. The last time I was on a train, I looked down the compartment and nobody was reading a physical book. Perhaps some were reading on their phones but their expressions suggested otherwise. For me, a book is a refuge and a time machine.

1993 The Secret History by Donna Tartt

My student life was nothing like Secret History but the power dynamics of relationships resonated with me. I have read every one of Donna Tartt’s novels (she may appear again in my books of the year) and I wish she wrote more!

1994 Steinbeck: a Life in Letters edited by Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten

I loved Steinbeck from the moment I read The Pearl at school. For a Nobel Prize winner, he feels like an under-rated writer nowadays. His letters to his editor and others are grounded in his literary craft. There is also an obsession with the tools of his trade, pencils!

1995 The Information by Martin Amis

This was the book that paid for Martin Amis’s dentistry. The big advance he received for it coincided, in my eyes, with a Time’s Arrow-like reversal in acclaim for his books.

The fortunes of two writers, one failed and the other successful, was the poignant topic of The Information.

1996 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

The reporting of the local council meeting is a comic masterpiece.  

1997 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

I first tried to read Dickens when I was about 11. Tale of Two Cities put me off. Hard Times at O Level pushed the door ajar but it was Great Expectations that blew the doors off. We all feel we know the story from the wonderful David Lean film and various TV adaptations but read it! Then read Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs for an alternative Australian perspective.

1998 Underworld by Don DeLillo

There was a profound meditation on a baseball. Is it the Holy Grail or a piece of trash?

1999 About A Boy by Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby is the kind of writer I would like to be. Funny but thought-provoking, readable and relatable.

Next week: 2000s