yearly reading 2009
Listed by genre, roughly in the order I read them.
Non-Fiction
The Dog Whisperer: A Compassionate, Nonviolent Approach to Dog Training -- Paul Owens
The Art of Raising A Puppy -- The Monks of New Skete
How to Raise a Puppy You Can Live With -- Clarice Rutherford
Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism -- bell hooks
Night -- Elie Wiesel
The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity -- Amir D. Aczel
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology -- Laurence Weschler
Fiction
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) -- George R.R. Martin
The Da Vinci Code -- Dan Brown
The Eyre Affair -- Jasper Fforde
Memories of My Melancholy Whores -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Clash of Kings (Ice and Fire #2) -- George R.R. Martin
Things Fall Apart -- Chinua Achebe (reread)
Perdido Street Station -- China Mieville
A Storm of Swords (Ice and Fire #3) -- George R.R. Martin
Nation -- Terry Pratchett
A Spot of Bother -- Mark Haddon
A Feast for Crows (Ice and Fire #4) -- George R.R. Martin
Making Money -- Terry Pratchett
The House on Mango Street -- Sandra Cisneros (reread)
His Majesty's Dragon -- Naomi Novik
Young Adult
The Graveyard Book -- Neil Gaiman
Story Time -- Edward Bloor
Lyra's Oxford -- Philip Pullman
The Perilous Gard -- Elizabeth Marie Pope
And Tango Makes Three -- Justin Richardson
Stoneheart -- Charlie Fletcher
Graphic Novels
Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born -- Stephen King
Mom's Cancer -- Brian Fies
Coraline -- Neil Gaiman
Promethea: Book One -- Alan Moore
City of Light, City of Dark -- Avi
Britten and Brulightly -- Hannah Berry
Bayou (Vol 1) -- Jeremy Love
Late Bloomer -- Carol Tyler
Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 -- David Peterson
The Three Incestuous Sisters -- Audrey Niffenegger
Poetry
The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster -- Richard Brautigan
Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative -- Herbert Mason, trans
What Narcissism Means to Me -- Tony Hoagland
Way of Whiteness -- Wendy Barker
Audio
Haunted -- Chuck Palahniuk
Gilgamesh: A New English Version -- Stephen Mitchell, trans
Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey -- Chuck Palahniuk
American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
Anansi Boys -- Neil Gaiman
To Kill A Mockingbird -- Harper Lee
As usual, I didn't include journal articles, short stories, or anything I only read part of (textbooks) or failed to finish (several books).
This is the first year in a long time that I haven't hit my goal of 50 books, mostly b/c I was kind of insanely busy from Aug-Dec. I could have squeezed the last three in (I have an audio book I'm almost done with, and a few shorter books I could have breezed through), but I decided that it wasn't worth making reading feel like a chore/race just to hold up to some arbitrary goal I set for myself. It's not exactly like I have a problem with a lack of reading, anyway -- at least compared to most of the planet. I'm not some amazing scholar or anything, but I read a decent amount. Esp when you consider some of those were 1000-pagers (hello, Song of Ice and Fire)!
So, George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series was prob what I enjoyed reading most this year, but Terry Pratchett's Nation was also amazing, as was Gaiman's Anansi Boys (hands down the best audio book ever) and Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. Tied for worst are The Eyre Affair, Story Time, the Mason translation of Gilgamesh (the Mitchell translation rocked!), and What Narcissism Means to Me.
O, how I love making this list. I'd love it even more if y'all did something similar, or at least commented here with the best and worst books you read in 2009. If you'd like to follow my adventures in reading and writing surprisingly unprofessional reviews, add me on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/tinaphobia
Non-Fiction
The Dog Whisperer: A Compassionate, Nonviolent Approach to Dog Training -- Paul Owens
The Art of Raising A Puppy -- The Monks of New Skete
How to Raise a Puppy You Can Live With -- Clarice Rutherford
Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism -- bell hooks
Night -- Elie Wiesel
The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity -- Amir D. Aczel
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology -- Laurence Weschler
Fiction
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) -- George R.R. Martin
The Da Vinci Code -- Dan Brown
The Eyre Affair -- Jasper Fforde
Memories of My Melancholy Whores -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Clash of Kings (Ice and Fire #2) -- George R.R. Martin
Things Fall Apart -- Chinua Achebe (reread)
Perdido Street Station -- China Mieville
A Storm of Swords (Ice and Fire #3) -- George R.R. Martin
Nation -- Terry Pratchett
A Spot of Bother -- Mark Haddon
A Feast for Crows (Ice and Fire #4) -- George R.R. Martin
Making Money -- Terry Pratchett
The House on Mango Street -- Sandra Cisneros (reread)
His Majesty's Dragon -- Naomi Novik
Young Adult
The Graveyard Book -- Neil Gaiman
Story Time -- Edward Bloor
Lyra's Oxford -- Philip Pullman
The Perilous Gard -- Elizabeth Marie Pope
And Tango Makes Three -- Justin Richardson
Stoneheart -- Charlie Fletcher
Graphic Novels
Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born -- Stephen King
Mom's Cancer -- Brian Fies
Coraline -- Neil Gaiman
Promethea: Book One -- Alan Moore
City of Light, City of Dark -- Avi
Britten and Brulightly -- Hannah Berry
Bayou (Vol 1) -- Jeremy Love
Late Bloomer -- Carol Tyler
Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 -- David Peterson
The Three Incestuous Sisters -- Audrey Niffenegger
Poetry
The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster -- Richard Brautigan
Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative -- Herbert Mason, trans
What Narcissism Means to Me -- Tony Hoagland
Way of Whiteness -- Wendy Barker
Audio
Haunted -- Chuck Palahniuk
Gilgamesh: A New English Version -- Stephen Mitchell, trans
Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey -- Chuck Palahniuk
American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
Anansi Boys -- Neil Gaiman
To Kill A Mockingbird -- Harper Lee
As usual, I didn't include journal articles, short stories, or anything I only read part of (textbooks) or failed to finish (several books).
This is the first year in a long time that I haven't hit my goal of 50 books, mostly b/c I was kind of insanely busy from Aug-Dec. I could have squeezed the last three in (I have an audio book I'm almost done with, and a few shorter books I could have breezed through), but I decided that it wasn't worth making reading feel like a chore/race just to hold up to some arbitrary goal I set for myself. It's not exactly like I have a problem with a lack of reading, anyway -- at least compared to most of the planet. I'm not some amazing scholar or anything, but I read a decent amount. Esp when you consider some of those were 1000-pagers (hello, Song of Ice and Fire)!
So, George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series was prob what I enjoyed reading most this year, but Terry Pratchett's Nation was also amazing, as was Gaiman's Anansi Boys (hands down the best audio book ever) and Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. Tied for worst are The Eyre Affair, Story Time, the Mason translation of Gilgamesh (the Mitchell translation rocked!), and What Narcissism Means to Me.
O, how I love making this list. I'd love it even more if y'all did something similar, or at least commented here with the best and worst books you read in 2009. If you'd like to follow my adventures in reading and writing surprisingly unprofessional reviews, add me on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/tinaphobia