I read a lot last year- much more than I should have given the state of things personally & in the world. I read to get away but also for knowledge (personal & work related). Just like I said in my music list though... I would also read more if I could, but I think finishing a book every 3.07 days or so on average is not to bad. Yes, some of the things I read were small in the number of pages, but I more than made up for it with some of the absolute bricks that I read this year (2666 by Roberto Bolaño for one <--- challenging, frustrating- yet worthy).
As was my decision last year, I will put forth two top ten lists. One with books released in 2008 only and the second will be comprised of books released in years prior to that (because there are too many good books that I have not read yet).
My top ten from 2008:
It was hard to choose between Serena and The Cellist of Sarajevo. One was a novel of pure regional imagination set at the onset of the Great Depression in the mountains of western North Carolina & the other was a work of fiction based upon a real event mixed with the added pain, terror & horror of what humans will do to each other in the time of war and those moments in between. Either way, both are wonderful works that should not be over looked.
Dean Wareham's Black Postcards is my non-fiction book of the year by far. Dean was in the bands Galaxie 500 & Luna but it is his time spent in New York of the 1970's, 80's & 90's that grab your attention. He got to see it all explode & then participate as an indie Rock-God. A must read for any serious music lover.
I included two children's books in my top ten this year. We Are the Ship & Vunce Upon a Time are elegantly illustrated. One is wonderfully informative and the other is a sweetly told tale of misconceptions that we all have about others that we sometime shy away from. Of course, both books in a matter of fact way are just books about baseball and halloween, but really... they are much, much more.
Duma Key is possibly Stephen King's strongest work since his heyday of the '80's... and that is saying a lot. Folks, the literary world continues to take him for granted. He is much more than a writer who talks about things that scare you. He is our best story teller and while the literary elitists would scoff at that notion, how many Phillip Roth, Don DeLillo, Paul Auster, Joyce Carol Oates books can you name that are either super popular or that are movies? Certainly, a movie is not the be-all end-all success for a writer, but it says a lot about good stories. I re-read Hearts in Atlantis this year and forgot at how good it was & you should look into it yourself.
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee was pure pleasure to read. If you love books, bookstores or have worked in one, then this is a book you must read. While it tails off a bit towards the end, Buzbee instills his passion for books & the printed word so well that it make you wistful for days long ago when you could stroll through book stacks for days on end because there were so many independent bookstores to choose from. Sadly, those days are no more. As I stated earlier: a pure pleasure to read.
A few novels I am looking forward to reading in the coming weeks/months:
Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees - Roger Deakin
If I Could Write This in Fire - Michelle Cliff
Raging Sea - Ferenc Mate
Fool - Christopher Moore
Blackstrap Hawco - Kenneth J.Harvey
Blood Atonement - Dan Waddell
Party of One: The Loner Manifesto - Anneli Rufus
Looking back on my list, I noticed that this was the year that I returned to reading mysteries. The Hard-Boiled thriller was in big demand earlier this spring and summer. The summer also brought me into my Murakami phase where I finished reading the rest of his novels which I enjoyed a lot. I was disappointed with The Wind Up Bird Chronicle though. It is usually near the top of the list for Murakami critics/fans but it left me feeling flat- which is the first for one of his novels.
As was my decision last year, I will put forth two top ten lists. One with books released in 2008 only and the second will be comprised of books released in years prior to that (because there are too many good books that I have not read yet).
My top ten from 2008:
- Serena - Ron Rash
- The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway
- Black Postcards - Dean Wareham
- The Oxford Project - Stephen G. Bloom & Peter Feldstein
- We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball - Kadir Nelson
- Vunce Upon a Time - J. Otto Siebold & Siobhan Vivian
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsson
- The Black Tower - Louis Bayard
- Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip- Confessions of a Cyncial Waiter - The Waiter
- Duma Key - Stephen King
- The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History - Lewis Buzbee
- Cathedral of the Sea - Ildefonso Falcones
- South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami
- The End of the Affair - Graham Greene
- The Memory of Running - Ron McLarty
- Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid
- The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness & the Making of a Great Chef - Marco Pierre White
- The Black Path - Åsa Larsson
- Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris
It was hard to choose between Serena and The Cellist of Sarajevo. One was a novel of pure regional imagination set at the onset of the Great Depression in the mountains of western North Carolina & the other was a work of fiction based upon a real event mixed with the added pain, terror & horror of what humans will do to each other in the time of war and those moments in between. Either way, both are wonderful works that should not be over looked.
Dean Wareham's Black Postcards is my non-fiction book of the year by far. Dean was in the bands Galaxie 500 & Luna but it is his time spent in New York of the 1970's, 80's & 90's that grab your attention. He got to see it all explode & then participate as an indie Rock-God. A must read for any serious music lover.
I included two children's books in my top ten this year. We Are the Ship & Vunce Upon a Time are elegantly illustrated. One is wonderfully informative and the other is a sweetly told tale of misconceptions that we all have about others that we sometime shy away from. Of course, both books in a matter of fact way are just books about baseball and halloween, but really... they are much, much more.
Duma Key is possibly Stephen King's strongest work since his heyday of the '80's... and that is saying a lot. Folks, the literary world continues to take him for granted. He is much more than a writer who talks about things that scare you. He is our best story teller and while the literary elitists would scoff at that notion, how many Phillip Roth, Don DeLillo, Paul Auster, Joyce Carol Oates books can you name that are either super popular or that are movies? Certainly, a movie is not the be-all end-all success for a writer, but it says a lot about good stories. I re-read Hearts in Atlantis this year and forgot at how good it was & you should look into it yourself.
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee was pure pleasure to read. If you love books, bookstores or have worked in one, then this is a book you must read. While it tails off a bit towards the end, Buzbee instills his passion for books & the printed word so well that it make you wistful for days long ago when you could stroll through book stacks for days on end because there were so many independent bookstores to choose from. Sadly, those days are no more. As I stated earlier: a pure pleasure to read.
The Memory of Running was the feel good book of the year for me. Smithy Ide is a man who realizes that second chances are often not noticed until they are gone and for once in his life, he is determined to make something happen. Ron McLarty's debut novel that almost didn't make it but did is as heart breaking as it is wonderful.
A few novels I am looking forward to reading in the coming weeks/months:
Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees - Roger Deakin
If I Could Write This in Fire - Michelle Cliff
Raging Sea - Ferenc Mate
Fool - Christopher Moore
Blackstrap Hawco - Kenneth J.Harvey
Blood Atonement - Dan Waddell
Party of One: The Loner Manifesto - Anneli Rufus
Looking back on my list, I noticed that this was the year that I returned to reading mysteries. The Hard-Boiled thriller was in big demand earlier this spring and summer. The summer also brought me into my Murakami phase where I finished reading the rest of his novels which I enjoyed a lot. I was disappointed with The Wind Up Bird Chronicle though. It is usually near the top of the list for Murakami critics/fans but it left me feeling flat- which is the first for one of his novels.
Below is a complete list of what I read in 2008 & when I finished each title (nerdy, I know).
Happy Reading!
1. Transit Maps of the World - Mark Ovenden 01/03/08
2. Granta 68: Love Stories - Ian Jack (Editor) 01/07/08
3. The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness & the Making of a Great Chef - Marco Pierre White 01/13/08
4. Duma Key - Stephen King 01/16/08
5. Go With Me - Castle Freeman Jr. 01/18/08
6. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood 01/26/08
7. At the City's Edge - Marcus Sakey 01/29/08
8. Roasting in Hell's Kitchen - Gordon Ramsay 2/04/08
9. The Serpent's Tale - Ariana Franklin 02/10/08
10. The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History - Lewis Buzbee 02/13/08
11. The Appeal - John Grisham 02/16/08
12. Granta 100: One Hundred - William Boyd (Editor) 02/21/08
13. Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson 02/28/08
14. Backyard Giants - Susan Warren 03/01/08
15. Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak 03/06/08
16. The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein 03/06/08
17. To Conquer Hell Edward G. Lengel 03/14/08
18. Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure - Smith Magazine, Editors 03/16/08
19. My French Life - Vicki Archer 03/17/08
20. No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach - Anthony Bourdain 03/17/08
21. The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 Facts About the Worlds Most Amazing Human - Ian Spector 3/19/08
22. We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball - Kadir Nelson 03/22/08
23. A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway 03/25/08
24. Barguments - Doug Hanks 03/28/08
25. Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing - Elmore Leonard 03/28/08
26. The Lost City - Henry Shukman 03/28/08
27. Black Postcards - Dean Wareham 04/01/08
28. How I Learned to Cook - K. Witherspoon & P. Meehan, Editors 04/04/08
29. Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett 04/08/08
30. The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid 04/15/08
31. Pulp Fictions - Edited by Peter Haining 04/19/08
32. Granta 69: The Assassin - Ian Jack (Editor) 04/26/08
33. Killer Year: Stories to Die For… - Edited by Lee Child 04/28/08
34. Blood Kin - Ceridwen Dovey 05/04/08
35. Deadly Beloved - Max Allan Collins 05/06/08
36. Big City, Bad Blood - Sean Chercover 05/07/08
37. A Diet of Treacle - Lawrence Block 05/08/08
38. Dead Street - Mickey Spillane 05/09/08
39. Hit and Run - Lawrence Block 05/10/08
40. Gone, Baby, Gone - Dennis Lehane 05/13/08
41. The Great Derangement - Matt Taibbi 05/13/08
42. Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Food Critic in Disguise - Ruth Reichl 05/16/08
43. Odd Hours - Dean Koontz 05/19/08
44. House of Dark Shadows: Dreamhouse Kings Book 1 - Robert Liparulo 05/19/08
45. Merde Happens - Stephen Clarke 05/21/08
46. Watcher in the Woods: Dreamhouse Kings Book 2 - Robert Liparulo 05/25/08
47. Hit Parade - Lawrence Block 05/27/08
48. The Memory of Running - Ron McLarty 05/29/08
49. Granta 101: One Hundred and One - Jason Cowley (Editor) 05/31/08
50. Millions and Millions and Millions! - Louis Slobodkin 06/03/08
51. The End of the Affair - Graham Greene 06/06/08
52. The Polka-Dot Goat - Louis Slobodkin 06/06/08
53. The Year She Disappeared - Ann Harleman 06/11/08
54. Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami 06/13/08
55. Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris 06/18/08
56. Dance Dance Dance - Haruki Murakami 06/21/08
57. The Brass Verdict - Michael Connelly 06/22/08
58. When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris 06/25/08
59. The Last Oracle - James Rollins 06/26/08
60. Traveler - Ron McLarty 06/30/08
61. A Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami 07/03/08
62. Chef's Story - Dorothy Hamilton & Patric Kuh, Editors 07/04/08
63. The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway 07/07/08
64. Cathedral of the Sea - Ildefonso Falcones 07/11/08
65. Crime Beat - Michael Connelly 07/14/08
66. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling 07/14/08
67. Julie and Julia - Julie Powell 07/17/08
68. Of Song and Water - Joseph Coulson 07/20/08
69. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami 07/24/08
70. Supreme Courtship - Christopher Buckley 07/28/08
71. How the States Got Their Shapes - Mark Stein 07/28/08
72. The Gashlycrumb Tinies - Edward Gorey 07/31/08
73. Chez Moi - Agnes Desarthe 07/31/08
74. The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson 08/04/08
75. The Black Path - Åsa Larsson 08/05/08
76. South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami 08/07/08
77. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami 08/14/08
78. Granta 102: The New Nature Writing - Jason Cowley (Editor) 08/20/08
79. Good People - Marcus Sakey 08/22/08
80. Vunce Upon a Time - J. Otto Seibold and Siobhan Vivian 08/23/08
81. My Last Supper - Melanie Dunea 08/25/08
82. The Black Tower - Louis Bayard 09/02/08
83. Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip- Confessions of a Cynical Waiter - The Waiter 09/03/08
84. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsson 09/06/08
85. The Elephant Vanishes - Haruki Murakami 09/12/08
86. I Love Ranch Dressing - C.L. Freie 09/15/06
87. Indignation - Philip Roth 09/17/08
88. The Book of Fate - Brad Meltzer 09/23/08
89. The Blood Detective - Dan Waddell 09/26/08
90. The Angel Maker - Stefan Brijs 09/30/08
91. The Oxford Project - Peter Feldstein & Stephen G. Bloom 10/02/08
92. Hearts in Atlantis - Stephen King 10/06/08
93. Serena - Ron Rash 10/14/08
94. Beat the Reaper - Josh Bazell 10/16/08
95. Outliers - Malcom Gladwell 10/20/08
96. The World Made Straight - Ron Rash 10/21/08
97. Trigger City - Sean Chercover 10/22/08
98. A Most Wanted Man - John Le Carré 10/28/08
99. The Hobbit (or There and Back Again) - J.R.R. Tolkien 10/30/08
100. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche - Haruki Murakami 11/05/08
101. Hardcore Hardboiled - Todd Robinson (Editor) 11/08/08
102. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien 11/09/08
103. These Guns for Hire - J.A. Konrath (Editor) 11/11/08
104. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien 11/17/08
105. Chicago Blues - Libby Fischer Hellmann (Editor) 11/18/08
106. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien 11/20/08
107. 2666 - Roberto Bolaño 12/03/08
108. The Charlemagne Pursuit - Steve Berry 12/07/08
109. Chuck Norris Vs. Mr. T: 400 Facts About the Baddest Dudes in the History of Ever - Ian Spector 12/09/08
110. Real World - Natsuo Kirino 12/12/08
111. Hellboy #1: Seed of Destruction - Mike Mignola and John Byrne 12/13/08
112. Hellboy #2: Wake the Devil - Mike Mignola 12/15/08
113. The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J.K. Rowling 12/16/08
114. Granta 70: Australia: The New World - Ian Jack (Editor) 12/19/08
115. Hellboy #3 The Chained Coffin & Others - Mike Mignola 12/21/08
116. Granta 103: The Rise of the British Jihad - Jason Cowley (Editor) 12/22/08
117. Hellyboy #4 The Right Hand of Doom - Mike Mignola 12/23/08
118. Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born - Peter David & Robin Furth 12/27/08
119. Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home - Peter David & Robin Furth 12/27/08
