READING TIPS

READ two novels a month: one classic and one contemporary. Choose a less intimidating classic: a slim volume such as Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw (1898), F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gasby (1925), Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One's Own (1928) or Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day (1956) would be perfect. Then choose a contemporary novel such as Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers (2004), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus (2004) or Ian McEwan’s The Cement Garden (1978).

Bibliography
ASLAM Nadeem [1966-] Novelist. Born in Gujranwala, Pakistan. NOVELS Maps for Lost Lovers (2004: winner of the 2005 Kiriyama Prize for Fiction); Season of the Rainbirds (1993: winner of a 1994 Betty Trask Award; shortlisted for the 1994 Whitbread Award for First Novel)

ADICHIE Chimamanda Ngozi [1977-] Novelist. Born in Abba, Nigeria, Africa. NOVELS Half of a Yellow Sun (2006); Purple Hibiscus (2003: winner of the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book, Africa Region, and overall winner of the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book; shortlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction and the 2005 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize; longlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize for Fiction)

McEWAN Ian [1948-] Novelist, short-story writer. Born Ian Russell McEwan in Aldershot, Surrey, England. NOVELS Saturday (2005); Atonement (2001: winner of the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the 2002 W.H. Smith Literary Award and the 2002 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction; shortlisted for the 2002 Booker Prize for Fiction and the 2001 Whitbread Novel Award); Amsterdam (1998: winner of the 1998 Booker Prize for Fiction); Enduring Love (1997: shortlisted for the 1997 Whitbread Novel Award, the 1997 Booker Prize for Fiction and the 1999 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award); Black Dogs (1992: shortlisted for the 1992 Booker Prize for Fiction); The Innocent (1990); The Child in Time (1987: winner of the 1987 Whitbread Novel Award); The Comfort of Strangers (1981: shortlisted for the 1981 Booker Prize for Fiction); The Cement Garden (1978) STORIES In Between the Sheets (1978); First Love, Last Rites (1975: winner of a 1976 Somerset Maugham Award) CHILDREN’S The Daydreamer (illustrated by Anthony Browne) (1994); Rose Blanche (illustrated by Roberto Innocenti) (1985)

Check out Ian McEwan's novels at www.ianmcewan.com