List of books I’ve read in the past four years, which I’m posting mostly to act as inspiration to read faster and not get caught up in random TV marathons.
When it comes to making note of a book as read, I have to have completed it in its entirety, so I won’t just give up on something and count it anyways. Thus, making it painfully through 250 pages of a 500 page copy of Light in August doesn’t count, as much as I may want it to simply for the effort. Also, I make note of the pages read. Its just a fun quirk.
The 2009 List
1. I Was Told There’d Be Cake- Sloane Crosley (227)
2. Love Is A Mix Tape- Rob Sheffield (219)
3. The Partly Cloudy Patriot- Sarah Vowell (198 )
4. Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life- Anne Lamott (237)
5. The Awakening- Kate Chopin (221)
6. Blankets- Craig Thompson (582)
7. The Orchid Thief- Susan Orlean (282)
8. Slouching Towards Bethlehem- Joan Didion (238 )
9. Cat’s Cradle- Kurt Vonnegut (282)
10. Fugitives & Refugees- Chuck Palahniuk (175)
11. On Beauty- Zadie Smith (443)
12. Comeback Season- Cathy Day (324)
13. Among Schoolchildren- Tracy Kidder (340)
14. French Milk- Lucy Knisley (193)
15. A Three Dog Life- Abigail Thomas (182)
16. Into the Wild- Jon Krakauer (203)
17. Brothers & Keepers- John Edgar Wideman (243)
18. Friday Night Lights- H.G. Bizzinger (355)
19. A Moveable Feast- Ernest Hemingway (211)
20. A Man Without a Country- Kurt Vonnegut (145)
The 2008 List
1. Random Family- Adrian Nicole Leblanc (406)
2. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers- Mary Roach (292)
3. The New Kings of Nonfiction- Edited by Ira Glass (455)
4. Then We Came to the End- Joshua Ferris (385)
5. Chuck Klosterman IV (356)
6. Shortcomings- Adrian Tomine (108 )
7. The Hundred Secret Senses- Amy Tan (399)
8. We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of LA Punk- Marc Spitz & Brenden Mull (286)
9. Letters to a Young Poet- Rainer Maria Rilke (100)
10. The Armies of the Night- Norman Mailer (317)
11. A Walk Across America- Peter Jenkins (290)
12. House- Tracy Kidder (330)
13. Autobiography of a Face- Lucy Grealy (222)
14. Half-Jew – Susan Jacoby (291)
15. Traveling Mercies- Anne Lamott (272)
16. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking- Malcolm Gladwell (288 )
17. At A Crossroads: Between a Rock and My Parents’ Place- Kate T. Williamson (144)
18. Y: The Last Man (Unmanned)- Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (126)
19. Maus I: My Father Bleeds History- Art Spiegelman (159)
20. Bel Canto- Ann Patchett (318 )
21. Nobody Belongs Here More Than You- Miranda July (204)
22. The Year of Magical Thinking- Joan Didion (227)
23. Assassination Vacation- Sarah Vowell (255)
24. The Bell Jar- Sylvia Plath (254)
25. Apples & Oranges- Marie Brenner (265)
26. Born Standing Up- Steve Martin (206)
The 2007 List
*I counted some of the plays I read in my Dramatic Literature class.
1. Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen (430)
2. Oedipus Rex- Sophocles (18 )
3. The Sun Also Rises- Ernest Hemingway (247)
4. Lysistrata- Aristophanes (16)
5. A Funny Thing Happened.. – Plautus (16)
6. The Second Shepherd’s Play- The Wakefield Master (9)
7. Everyman- Anonymous (9)
8. Shopgirl- Steve Martin (130)
9. Memory of Steel- Ed Stankowski (136)
10. Of Mine and Men- John Steinbeck (107)
11. On the Road- Jack Kerouac (307)
12. The Secret Life of Bees- Sue Monk Kidd (302)
13. A Confederacy of Dunces- John Kennedy Toole (394)
14. Angles in America: Milennium Approaches- Tony Krushner (33)
15. How I Learned To Drive- Paula Vogel (22)
16. A Separate Peace- John Knowles (204)
17. Marley & Me- John Grogan (289)
18. Surfacing- Margaret Atwood (199)
19. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater!- Kurt Vonnegut (190)
20. Harry Potter and the Deathy Hallows- J. K. Rowling (759)
21. Everything Is Illuminated- Jonathan Safran Foer (279)
22. Fargo Rock City- Chuck Klosterman (279)
23. An American Childhood- Annie Dillard (255)
24. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter- Carson McCullers (359)
25. The Wonder Spot- Melissa Bank (325)
26. The White Album- Joan Didion (223)
27. Fast Food Nation- Eric Schlosser (288 )
28. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius- Dave Eggers (426)
The 2006 List
1. Girl With A Pearl Earring- Tracy Chevalier (240)
2. About a Boy- Nick Hornby (320)
3. Middlesex- Jeffrey Eugnides (544)
4. Hey Notradamous!- Douglas Coupland (244)
5. The Namesake- Jhumpa Lahiri (291)
6. Charmed Thirds- Megan McCafferty (359)
7. Wicked- Gregory MaGuire (406)
8. Little Children- Tom Perrotta (355)
9. Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury (190)
10. Nine Stories- J.D. Salinger (302)
11. This Side of Paradise- F. Scott Fitzgerald (260)
12. The Lost Continent- Bill Bryson (298 )
13. Wonder Boys- Michael Chabon (368 )
14. The Handmaid’s Tale- Margaret Atwood (311)
15. The Picture of Dorian Gray- Oscar Wilde (234)
16. Oh the Glory Of It All- Sean Wilsey (479)
17. Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut (215)
18. The Curious Incident Of a Dog In the Night-time - Mark Haddon (221)
19. Persepolis- Marjane Satrapi (153)
20. The Fuck-Up – Arthur Nersesian (296)
21. Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By In America- Barbara Ehrenreich (221)
22. Girls of Tender Age- Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
23. The Red Pony- John Steinbeck (120)
24. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs- Chuck Klosterman (243)
25. White Oleander- Janet Fitch (469)
