2008 Reading Recap
Taking a page (ha! a page!) from Emily, I decided to put together a summary of what I've read in 2008. It's interesting to look back and see all that's gone into my brain this year!
60 books read
19 nonfiction
41 fiction
5 audio books
8 books through my email (www.dailylit.com)
52 different authors
24 female authors
28 male authors
13 authors I’ve read before
39 authors who are new to me
29 American authors
22 from somewhere in the UK or Ireland
1 French guy
Some genres
12 Memoir or autobiography
9 Mysteries
9 Christianity or religion
7 Classics
Most books by the same author
5 by Bill Bryson
3 by PG Wodehouse
2 by Josephine Tay
2 by Alexander McCall Smith
Top five nonfiction books
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
unChristian by David Kinnaman
Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
Honorable mention: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
Top five fiction books
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Honorable mentions: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life by Mameve Medwed, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
The Complete List with Ratings (out of 10)
1. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy (8)
2. Through the Children's Gate by Adam Gopnik (8)
3. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (10)
4. Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell (7)
5. Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen (7)
6. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (6)
7. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (9)
8. Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey (10)
9. Society Girls by Sarah Mason (6)
10. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (6)
11. Do Butlers Burgle Banks? by P.G. Wodehouse (8)
12. Left Behind by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye (6)
13. Swapping Lives by Jane Green (6)
14. The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson (8)
15. Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey (9)
16. The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith (7)
17. The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel (7)
18. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson (9)
19. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (9)
20. Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott (9)
21. My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (6)
22. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell (7)
23. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster (10)
24. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis - reread (10)
25. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (7)
26. Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (9)
27. I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson (8)
28. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet (8)
29. Bertie Wooster Sees it Through by P.G. Wodehouse (7)
30. The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff (6)
31. Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë (8)
32. First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde (6)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (6)
34. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson (7)
35. The Gathering by Anne Enright (5)
36. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (5)
37. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan (9)
38. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl (7)
39. How to Get a Date Worth Keeping by Dr. Henry Cloud (8)
40. Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella (5)
41. How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life by Mameve Medwed (8)
42. Alphabet Weekends by Elizabeth Noble (7)
43. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (7)
44. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams (10)
45. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (10)
46. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (6)
47. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (10)
48. Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (9)
49. Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis (9)
50. When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris (6)
51. The Shack by William P. Young (6)
52. Persuading Annie by Melissa Nathan (9)
53. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (6)
54. The Faith Club by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner (6)
55. The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs (8)
56. Full Speed by Janet Evanivich (5)
57. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (6)
58. unChristian by David Kinnaman (10)
59. Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym (8)
60. Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann (7)
And there you have it! Again (and I'll say it again all year -- I apologize in advance!), I have created my Reading Challenge of 2009, supporting Blood:Water Mission. You can find out more information about pledging me here. Have a great new year, filled with happy books!
Comments
PS: Sorry for misspelling your name. Oops! *sheepish*
You're Wodehouse ratings have me excited, I just added him to my reading list for this year. A list that is growing at an almost exponential rate.
Sigh.
I really hope you love Wodehouse. He's one of my faves!
If you rate books you're listening to, I also would love to know what you think of the actual readers. I love some way more than others. The reader can make or break an audio book. I'm listening to Sidney Poitier's autobiography now. I swear, the man could read out of the phone book for seven hours and I'd be enthralled. :)
Last week I picked up "The Interpreter of Maladies" from the library; I had heard one of the stories (This Blessed House) being read by Mira Nair years ago and listening to it with a different narrator is so strange and somehow not as good even though it's the same story.