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!)
5 comments:
What a wonderful list!
I posted my review of reading on my blog too. You can find it here:
2009; a Year in Books
I think we have similar tastes in terms of writing I enjoy (2009 was about exploring different things.)
Welcome back to blogging! I hope you'll keep it up. xx
Definitely reading some of those!
Right now I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife and it's lovely so far :)
That is a very long list...it makes me wonder about mine...I don't think I've kept track...perhaps I should this year...some of them on there I have read - like Animal Farm, The Kite Runner, The Book Thief, The Great Gatsby...others no...The last Jeffrey Eugenides -My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead...I remember when I worked at HarperCollins and we published that... :) xxx
Sequin Cat - I loved lots of the books on your list! I had meant to comment on that entry when you posted it, but I was on my ipod.
Lo - Reminds me, I meant to bold the ones I really loved, will edit with that soon! I loved the Time Traveler's Wife, & think you'll really enjoy it :)
Curious Cat - Thanks for your lovely comments! That's really cool, how long did you work for them? Was it as glamourous as I imagine it to be or quite the opposite? haha. I think it's one of those things that if you set your mind to isn't that difficult, just have to stay on track!
I've decided this year to keep track of the books I read because I think it'll be nice to look back on them at the end of the year. My list almost definitely won't be as mind-expanding as yours though!
Have you finished Wicked yet? I thought that was a great book, there were times when I felt the pace fell off a bit but I just think it's a great concept. I've also read Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister which I enjoyed more.
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