A symptom of failing to write in one's blog until 25 days into the new year is that now you'll have to put up with end-of-year recaps such as this one. But don't let that put you off.
So, in 2009, I successfully read 50 Books! My mission was originally to read as many authors as possible, but as the year wore on I found myself hooked on certain authors (Jeffrey Eugenides, Ernest Hemingway, and a couple of brief flirtations!) Allow me to bore you with a long, but not wholly unnecessary, list. (The ones in
bold are my favourites, and highly recommended!)
1. Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist - David Levithan & Rachel Cohn
2. Bird by Bird - Ann Lamott
3. Animal Farm - George Orwell
4. Shakespeare - Bill Bryson
5.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz
6.
Franny & Zooey - J.D. Salinger
7. Neither Here Nor There - Bill Bryson
8. Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
9. Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi
10. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
11. Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie
12.
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. Violet & Claire - Francesca Lia Block
14.
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
15. Naive. Super - Erland Loe
16.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
17. Moab Is My Washpot - Stephen Fry
18.
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
19. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
20. The Geography of Bliss - Eric Weiner
21. Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote
22. Drown - Junot Díaz
23. The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
24.
The History of Love - Nicole Krauss
25. Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates
26. Between the Bridge and the River - Craig Ferguson
27.
Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen
28. The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
29. My Booky Wook - Russell Brand
30. Into the Wild - John Krakauer
31. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
32.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
33. The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides
34. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
35. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
36. Getting the Girl - Markus Zusak
37. A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway
38. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
39. Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
40. Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
41.
American on Purpose - Craig Ferguson
42. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction - J.D. Salinger
43.
A Hearbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
44.
The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
45. When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris
46.
No one belongs here more than you. - Miranda July
47. Dress Your Family in Corduroy & Denim - David Sedaris
48. Writing Down the Bones - Natalie Goldberg
49. The Best Creative Non-Fiction (Vol. 1) - ed. Lee Gutkind
50. The Old Man & the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
So that's...
24 Novels
1 Graphic Novel
5 Novellas (in 4 books)
9 Autobiography/Memoirs
9 Other Non-Fiction
2 Short Story Anthologies
Books left unfinished at the end of the year:
Wicked - Gregory Maguire
My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead - ed. Jeffrey Eugenides
So far, it looks like this year will be chock-full of humour memoirs, travel books, and other non-fiction. But I'll throw in a novel once in awhile to mix things up.
Well that was fun! What did you read this year? Do you have a mission statement for this year?
Further reading:
Stereotyping People By Their Favourite Author (made me giggle!)
