Search of the Perfect Book (II)

At first, I was clueless.  But slowly, after reading more and more reviews on books, I started to see a dim light shining from afar.

Due to my recently developed interest in Biographies, I first looked into the genre.  I've always wanted to read Path to Power and Downing Street Years by Margaret Thatcher, the most powerful and tenacious female public figure in the 20^th century.  But I soon came to realize that if I was aiming to find a book with eminent literary features; my chance would be better if I was looking at other genres, because the importance of autobiographies is in their accuracy instead of artistic writing and narration.  And I’m not so keen on reading autobiographies of writers.

Path to Power, a book I've always longed to read, but it's really difficult to find. 

Next, I turned to the classics.  I'd fell in love with Shakespeare ever since I read Hamlet last fall.  It was my first encounter with Shakespeare, and I was swept off my feet by the beautiful dialogue and thought-stimulating plots.  It wasn't love at first sight, but by the end of act three, I was captivated.  I believe reading Shakespeare's works is an endless joy, a life-long journey, but to focus on his plays right now seems unpractical for me.  I already got comments from my English teacher that some of the words in my essays were too "old-fashioned", while I was soaked in Shakespeare from head to toe last year.  I’ll still enjoy Shakespeare now and then, but this giant in English literature just can’t possess me yet.

David Tennant is a wonderful actor and a deep Hamlet.

 Names like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dickens, and Hemingway also came in consideration.  These may seem to be household names when mentioned, but the truth is, I drew a completely blank when I first tried naming up classics.  So I spent a lot of time on Guardian.co.uk, the website of the popular British paper.  The Book Blog is very helpful and informative, with reviews and comments on everything book-related, many on fictions.  Articles by writers and reporters commenting on various phenomena in the literature circle, discussing classic and contemporary books and authors, and interviews with famous writers: they act as a blueprint of the literature world, drawing up an obscure map—like a handbook meant for insiders—and with much deductions and daring speculations, I can maybe find my way.

The 100 greatest novels of all time: The list had been helpful, so was Who are the most influential writers?  Even without purposing to find a perfect book, reading the Book Blog is still a joyous experience, for example, Jonathan Franzen warns ebooks are corroding values inspired me to think about how ebooks will affect our lives, and I had came to some interesting conclusions (maybe I’ll write about them next time).

When I mentioned my grand search for a perfect book to my mother, she suggested me to look into the past winners of major literature awards.  That was a good suggestion.  So I did a little research, and decided to focus on the Pulitzer and Booker Prize.  Due to my exhaustion over all-thing US—for the first sixteen years of my life, almost everything I learned about English was American---I started with the Man Booker Prize, the long-established literary prize in Britain.

The Sense of and Ending by Julian Barns, who's delicate narration made me first mistaken him for "her".

 After scraping information from the internet, I picked out The Sense of an Ending, and Life of Pi from the winner of the past decade.  The Sense of an Ending was especially impressing; I loved the tender and elegant tone of the author.

I plan to read at least three books this semester, so with these candidates, including books by Alain de Botton, which are recommended by my English teacher, I believe I’ll have a wonderful time.