From the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/dec/30/best-books-2009

anyone got their own list of what they're looking forward to buying/reading in the coming year?

Yes, I was going to ask this question too. I am a dreadful window shopper, be it for books or clothes or whatever, and I have failed in my few attempts to work out what to read next. I have plenty of 'lesser' reading - the sort of stuff you can get through quickly, which is enjoyable but not necessarily substantial.

However, I also want something that is deep and beautiful and blows me away and I don't know where to start. If it's any help, the last books that I read which did this were Cold Mountain and The Corrections.

Looking forward to suggestions!!

S

I've just ordered a collection of short fiction from the US, In the Devil's Territory, by a young American realist writer called Kyle Minor who I've just discovered and think is BRILLIANT. His writing is so close to the way I dream of being able to write, it's scary.

Also going to read Zoe Heller's latest novel as I like her prose.

It would be good to get back to some classics - especially Dickens who I haven't read since my teens.

And want to read some good contemporary plays. Conor MacPherson, Terry Johnson, Lee Hall. Can anyone recommend other good modern playwrights? I'm out of touch.

A Little Stranger by Sarah Waters - looks interesting. A ghost story, apparently.

Cherys

What about Mark O'Rowe and Enda Walsh for contemporary Irish drama? If you are interested in Scottish drama The Traverse Theatre has a great website and it probably lists playscripts you could buy from there.

Ioanna Anderson has done a number of plays in both Dublin and Edinburgh. Words of Advice to Young People and Describe Joe being two of them. And the recent "Six Acts of Love" performed at The Tron theatre.

Enda Walsh wrote the brilliant Disco Pigs of which there was a very good film made that you could probably get out to watch as well.

I love Tom Murphy too.

Enda Walsh has a new play out now I think- if you're near the Royal Court Theatre you can get the Methuen playscripts cheaper than other places, and also as programmes for a couple of quid. If you haven't read Rona Munro, do... Bryony Lavery, Caryl Churchill, and some of Pinter's earlier short plays are amazing- The Lover, A Kind of Alaska, Mountain Language etc.

I'd never read plays, but I love to see them and I once acted in a few. If it were me, I'd just go to see what you can. Failing theatres, I'd listen to radio plays where you can focus on the language without distraction. TV plays are great, I think, especially series. Play-reading groups seem popular.

I must admit I find modern plays very slight for what you have to pay. The last decent one I saw was a retread of an Alan Ayckbourne at the Old Vic, but not as good as when Tom Courtnay was Norman. I constantly find myself trying to get into 'classics'at the theatre now I've stopped reviewing fringe plays. But boo-hoo, when I went to Wyndhams clutching my vouchers last week I found'Twelfth Night' with Derek Jacobi as Malvolio is sold out and I couldn't even book until January 13th.

I'm indiscriminate reader, too, so it's good to attend a crime reading group for focus and a chance to talk about the books, supplied by the library. As my tastes tend to the literary I enjoyed 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher'- lots of good solid research into Victorian middle class life and details about writers of the time such as Wilkie Collins and Dickens. Some group members said it lacked the page-turner element but that didn't bother me. Currently I'm enjoying the black/hispanic street argot of George Papopulos's (?) 'The Night Gardener'. It's supposedly about a serial killer with who murders people whose names are palindromic, but it's also a portrait of Washington DC's underworld.

Maybe that's what makes a good read for me - a sense of a whole sub-group of society at a particular period in time. Another book that did that recently was a Virago classic picked up in a charity shop, 'Poor Caroline' by Winifred Holtby. It really gave a flavour of a sector of London society in the thirties. 'What's it Like Out' by Penelope Gilliatt, another Virago, had some wonderful character-driven short stories which were most unusual so I'll look out for more of her writing.

I'm fighting my partner for possession of a collection of Woody Allen short stories he got for Christmas. The first three were the funniest I've read since Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader. (The one about the Queen) I nearly bought a half-price 'Unknown Diaries' of Adrian Mole.

I'm going to read more JM Coatzee, including finishing the excellent'The Master of Petersburg', about Dostoevsky, and more Paul Auster.

Sheila

Cherys, the Zoe Heller is very good I thought. I'm looking forward to the Waters and Mantel but nothing else on that list (Must admit I haven't heard of all those writers and some I have I wouldn't probably read.

I've just borrowed "All Our Worldly Goods" by Irene Nevrosky and just finished reading The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies, which was okay but not riveting.

What I'm looking for is a real page turner. The Heller was that and previously Kate Atkinson's latest. But so often nowadays I can't be bothered if I finish a novel or not.

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I also read Engleby by Faulkes very quickly too.

I'm going to start by reading the books I was given for Christmas. My sister gave me a copy of Infinite Jest which, judging by the size of it, will keep me going for several weeks. I just hope it's good - if not, it'll be a tough old trek. I also got a novel by Richard Yates which looks good & something else with the word 'shark' in the title which might be slightly wacky.

I'm also going to read more Zola. I'd forgotten how good he is - a bit like Dickens, but more realistic, more concrete, better informed, more tightly written, more pyschologically insightful, less sentimental. Just finished L'Assomoir, which was excellent. Might try Germinal next.

Having read The Glass Bead Game in 2008, I'm probably going to lay off long philosophical novels by German writers for a while. Not that it was bad - in many ways it was great - just tiring.

Germinal is a great one, RJH! The Glass Bead Game was very popular back in the days when I was at Uni. I know I read it but I'm buggered if I can remember anything about it!

Thanks everyone for the new dramatist recommendations.

Jem, have you read Khaled Hosseini? I couldn't put his two novels down.

No, I haven't, but I keep thinking I have. I saw the Kite Runner and heard parts of the second on Woman's Hour. Probably won't read either now as I feel the moment has passed.

Jem, I think you'd like the Anne Enright short stories I reviewed recently, called 'Taking Pictures'. Maeve Binchy seems very popular. I once read one called 'Tara Road' which was an easy read but a bit pointless.

Sheila

Yes, I should give ANne Enright a go. I've read a lot of Maeve Binchy. As you say, a bit pointless, but an easy read on holiday etc. I'm reading "All Our Worldly Goods" by Irene Nebrovsky now and liking it very much - enough to tackle her "Suite Francaise" at a later date.

Quite different, in a way, is the world of George Pelicanos, whose name I've just heard on Radio 4, playing in the background. He's the author I mentioned above, who wrote 'The Night Garden' current choice for my crime reading group.He's interested in exploring 'family' in his novels, particularly the part it plays in keeping policemen as well as potential criminals in check. Apparently he wrote for 'The Wire' but I haven't seen any episodes.

Sheila