The Best of 2010 Countdown continues with the best books I've read this year. No attempts to categorise them into books that were published in 2010 or not... instead, a short countdown of my favourite non-fiction reads before we get onto the main event.
Click the links to read my full reviews. If you can be bothered.
My Top Five Non-Fiction Books of 2010
5. Adventures On The High Teas - Stuart Maconie
4. Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs - Chuck Klosterman
3. The Progressive Patriot - Billy Bragg
2. Good Morning Nantwich - Phil Jupitus
1. How I Escaped My Certain Fate - Stewart Lee
My Top Ten Fiction Books of 2011
10. World War Z - Max Brooks
9. Furnace - Muriel Gray
8. Room - Emma Donoghue
7. Started Early, Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson
6. The Hollow Man - John Dickson Carr
5. The Passage - Justin Cronin
4. Full Dark, No Stars - Stephen King
3. Seeing Stars - Simon Armitage
2. Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith
1. The Crimson Petal And The White - Michel Faber
It was a difficult list to judge this year, largely due to a couple of my favourite books suffering from huge flaws in their final acts. Justin Cronin's The Passage is prime example - in many ways, it's the most engrossing novel I've read this year... but it just doesn't know when to end. Child 44 was not so all-consuming, yet it was far more balanced and satisfying on conclusion. The top prize had to go to Michel Faber though, combining a cracking genre plot (a genre I'm usually not that interested in) with beautiful, witty and imaginative prose. The TV adaptation was fun, but not a patch on the source material.
What's the best book you read this year?
