Books Read 2010

[mshappie]

Normally, I rank the books I've read for the year (entirely subjectively, of course). But given that I read so many books in 2010 (thanks, grad school and summer of part-time work!), it was impossible to sort them all. So here's

1. People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
2. Dangerous Laughter, Stephen Millhauser
3. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
4. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
5. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
6. Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
7. Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, Stephen Crane
8. A Gate at the Stairs, Lorrie Moore
9. Netherland, Joseph O'Neill
10. Rhett Butler's People, Donald McCaig
11. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
12. Oscar Wilde and A Death of No Importance, Gyles Brandreth
13. Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence
14. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein
15. Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder, Gyles Brandreth
16. Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
17. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
18. Shanghai Girls, Lisa See
19. Boston Noir, edited by Dennis Lehane
20. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley
21. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunt, Seth Grahame-Smith
22. The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, Kelly O'Connor McNees
23. That Old Cape Magic, Richard Russo
24. A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway
25. Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay
26. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
27. Lush Life, Richard Price
28. Gilgamesh, rendered by David Ferry
29. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Stieg Larsson
30. Alice I Have Been, Melanie Benjamin
31. The Odyssey, Homer
32. Sappho, translated by Mary Barnard
33. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
34. The Three Theban Plays, Sophocles
35. The Gardner Heist, Ulrich Boser
36. The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
37. The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood
38. American Wife, Curtis Sittenfeld
39. The Aeneid, Virgil, translated by Allen Mandelbaum
40. The Inferno, Dante, translated by Robert Pinsky
41. How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster
42. Zeitoun, Dave Eggers
43. When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead
44. Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult
45. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
46. My Antonia, Willa Cather
47. The Chinese Parrot, Earl Derr Biggers
48. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
49. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
50. The Glass Key, Dashiell Hammett
51. Fer-de-Lance, Rex Stout
52. The Lady in the Lake, Raymond Chandler
53. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
54. Double Indemnity, James M. Cain
55. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
56. Detective Fiction, Charles Rzepka
57. The Giver, Lois Lowry
58. Among Schoolchildren, Tracy Kidder
59. The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
60. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
61. The Real Cool Killers, Chester Himes
62. Indemnity Only, Sara Paretsky
63. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
64. A Thief of Time, Tony Hillerman
65. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
66. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard
67. Run, Ann Patchett
68. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
69. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
70. Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins

, in the order that I read them, with a
TOP 15 (1 is my favorite)

1. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
3. The Odyssey, Homer
4. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Red Tent, Anita Diamant
6. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
7. The Giver, Lois Lowry
8. A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway
9. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
10. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
11. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
12. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
13. The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
14. Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence
15. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

BOTTOM 15 (15 was my least favorite)

1. Lush Life, Richard Price
2. Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay
3. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
4. Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
5. How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster
6. The Aeneid, Virgil, translated by Allen Mandelbaum
7. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce
8. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein
9. That Old Cape Magic, Richard Russo
10. Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, Stephen Crane
11. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley
12. The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, Kelly O'Connor McNees
13. Netherland, Joseph O'Neill
14. Rhett Butler's People, Donald McCaig
15. Dangerous Laughter, Stephen Millhauser

of top 15 and bottom 15. Top 10 was too limiting because I read some great literature in school, and the bottom 15 was easy; it's that middle range that got too difficult to complete the rankings.

This is the first year I didn't resolve to read 52 books... so of course I managed to read far more than 52. The lesson: read because you want to, not to reach a set goal. Anyway, onward, 2011 reading!