Anyway, as I think about this year in reading, I have to say I'm slightly disappointed. Because I'm OCD, I like to keep a list of everything I've read in a year (you probably do too, right?) and it's neat to look over. Some months I was a reading machine and other months I could barely finish a fluffy book. I read a lot of comics in January and July and surprisingly my most reading-est month was October. I posted my list below in case you're also an OCD list maker/checker (also, post your list in the comments if you keep one, of course I want to examine what you read too!) I also set some "new year" goals for 2011 for reading:
1. I WILL finish The Instructions and start and finish Infinte Jest. I just will.
2. I will find another comic series to devour (maybe Transmetropolitan?)
3. I will read over 100 books again.
4. I WILL READ MORE NON-FICTION
5. Read more published-in-2011 books so reviews and recommendations can be timely.
Regarding #3 - I know, I know, size doesn't matter, but come on. It kind of does. Weirdly, I read the most when I was in graduate school and working a full time job; I think I hit 120 books that year. So really, I have no excuses. If I can just figure out a way to not fall asleep every time I lay down to read, I might actually accomplish it.
What are your book reading goals, if you have any? Can you recommend any good non-fiction? Do you think I'm weird for having book goals?
My full list after the jump
January 2010
1. Hard Rain Falling – Don Carpenter
2. Nine Stories – J.D. Salinger
3. A Way of Life Like Any Other – Darcy O’Brian
4. Stitches: a memoir – David Small (graphic novel)
5. A Fair Maiden – Joyce Carol Oates
6. Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1-5 – Bryan Lee O’Malley
7. The Walking Dead Vol. 1-11 – Robert Kirkman
February 2010
8. There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales – Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
9. And The Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks – Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs
10. The Boat – Nam Le
March 2010
11. Burmese Days – George Orwell
12. Galapagos – Kurt Vonnegut
April 2010
13. Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain
14. Committed – Elizabeth Gilbert
May 2010
15. Fishtown (comic) – Kevin Colden
16. Any Easy Intimacy (comic) - Jeffrey Brown
17. Eat When You Feel Sad – Zachary German
18. Dimanche and Other Stories – Irene Nemirovsky
19. The Plague – Albert Camus
20. Livability – Jon Raymond
June 2010
21. The Chrysalids – John Wyndham
22. The Most Beautiful Book in the World – Eric- Emmanuel Schmitt
23. Hotel Iris – Yoko Ogawa
24. Medium Raw – Anthony Bourdain
25. On a Dollar a Day – Christopher Greenslate & Kerri Leonard
26. How Did You Get This Number – Sloane Crosley
July 2010
27. Mr. Peanut – Adam Ross
28. The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne – Brian Moore
29. After the Fall – Kylie Ladd
30. Y the Last Man, vol. 1-10 – Brian K. Vaughn
31. Bad Marie – Marcy Dermansky
August 2010
32. A Common Pornography – Kevin Sampell
33. Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy
34. The Group – Mary McCarthy
35. My Abandonment – Peter Rock
36. True Grit – Charles Portis
37. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – David Mitchell
September 2010
38. Freedom – Jonathan Franzen
39. Sourland – Joyce Carol Oates
40. Room – Emma Donaghue
October 2010
41. Await Your Reply – Dan Chaon
42. Skippy Dies – Paul Murray
43. 703: How I Lost More Than a Quarter of a Ton and Gained a Life – Nancy Makin
44. Let the Right One In – John Ajuvide Lindqvist
45. Brooklyn – Colm Toibin
46. Outer Dark – Cormac McCarthy
47. Let The Great World Spin – Colum McCann
48. This is Where I Leave You – Jonathon Tropper
49. The Secret Lives of People in Love – Simon Van Booy
50. We Were the Mulvaneys – Joyce Carol Oates
51. Little Bird From Heaven – Joyce Carol Oates
52. Walking Dead #12
November 2010
53. Celebrity Chekhov – Ben Greenman
54. The World According to Garp – John Irving
55. Devil in the White City – Erik Larson
December 2010
56. Arkansas – John Brandon
57. The Imperfectionists – Tom Rochman
58. Where Men Win Glory – Jon Krakauer
59. Mr. Toppit – Charles Elton
60. Just Kids – Patti Smith
Books I attempted but failed to finish (but still have illusions of finishing)
1. The Instructions – Adam Levin
2. Lords of Misrule – Jaimy Gordon
3. Wuthering Heights
4. I, Robot – Isaac Asimov
5. Foundation I – Isaac Asimov