I am a list junkie. Making lists is my meditation, me therapy. I love when the end of the year comes and everybody's coming out with their best-of lists. And 2009 has the added bonus of end-of-the-decade lists. I devour them as if they were the only things sustaining me.
The list below is not a list of the best book sof the year, but rather all of the books I read. I don't want to preten it was a perfect year in reading (or in life), as if I never picked up something I regretted later. So here it is, 2009 in books. Let's see what I accomplished.
The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs
-Interesting
The Outlaw Bible of American Essays edited by Alan Kaufman
- A few good selections, but for the most part self-indulgent and vacuous.
2666 by Roberto Bolano
- Huge and disturbing in the best way possible.
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
- Disappointing and Confusing
Flannery by Robert Gooch
- A good book from a genre that can be tedious (literary biography)
A Live Coal in the Sea by Madeleine L'Engle
- An interesting story that could have made a good book had the writing been better.
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
- Devestating. Good. But not devestatingly good.
Watership Down by Richard Adams
- Bunnies!
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
- A guilty pleasure that I refuse to feel guilty about anymore.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
by C.S. Lewis
- I think I may have read these a little too late in life to enjoy them thoroughly.
I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere by Anna Gavalda
- Read in one night. Excellent short stories.
Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut
- Sad in content. Disappointing in quality. More is not always better - this is not how he should be remembered.
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
by Stephanie Meyer
- Easy to read bu HORRIBLY written. Couldn't get through the last book in the series.
Rabbit Redux by John Updike
- Ok, but the pity I felt for the protagonist in Rabbit, Run was turned to dislike and eye-rolling in this book.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Much different and much better than I expected.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- Awesome, can't believe it took me this long to read it.
Tigana by Guy Gavirel Kay
- Intricate and fascinating.
Bright Dark Madonna by Elizabeth Cunningham
- I like Biblical revisions when they're done well, and this one was.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
- Meh, but I don't see what the big deal is.
I Like You by Amy Sedaris
- Finally a cook book that doesn't take itself so seriously.
The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
- Coule have been written as an interesting list of facts, because the rest of it was pretty pointless.
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
- Frank Lloyd Wright was a jerk, but this book was good even though I knew how it ended.
The Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris
- This is a vampire series I can get behind, even if they do run together a bit for me.
ABC of Reading by Ezra Pound
- This guy was a nutbar, but a smart one.
Step Across This Line by Salman Rushdie
- Awesome, especially the part about "The Wizard of Oz"
The Pirates in an Adventure with Ahab
The Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists
by Gideon Defoe
- Completely silly
Breathers by S.G. Browne
- Romzomcom. Pirate humor is more to my liking than romantic zombie humor.
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
- Never gets old
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
- Like a toy gumball machine, it's the gift that keeps on giving
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
- Spooky and enjoyable.
Girl Mary by Petru Popescu
- So horrible in so many ways that it may be physically impossible to explain how.
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
- So good that it makes me think that Margaret Atwood knows something about the future of the human race that the rest of us don't know.
Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult
- So unnecessarily sad that I was kind of offended that she would force such improbable woe down my throat.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- Sad, but well written.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
- Slightly less well written, but still incredibly touching.
And there may be a few more shoved in the couple weeks I have left of 2009.
