Marcus Berkmann
The book I have bought most copies of this year is Tom Hodgkinson's How To Be Free (Penguin paperback, £7.99). Hodgkinson is only in his late thirties, but already he is tired of all the things I'm tired of: shopping, debt, television, pensions, cars, puritanism, waste and advertising. There are countless books out there telling us that modern life is rubbish, but only Hodgkinson seems to have any idea what to do about it. His manifesto is wonderfully straightforward: divest yourself of as many trappings of 21st-century striving as you can. Get off the career treadmill, stop worrying about money, stop worrying full stop, purge yourself of guilt and fear and jealousy, concentrate instead on fun and good books, drink more wine, spend time with your children, play the ukulele. It's the most cheering book I have read in ages. I have given it to several people for their birthdays and will be stocking up for Christmas shortly.
Oldish and newish novels I have particularly enjoyed this year include William Trevor's The Children of Dynmouth (1976), Primo Levi's If Not Now, When? (1982), Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower (1995) and Andrew O'Hagan's Be Near Me (2006).
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