Wednesday, December 14, 2011

2011 in Books

I'm excited to start squeezing out Year-End Lists, as it likely means I am done with finals and have the time/mental fortitude to list out some of my favorite things (No Oprah). I thought I'd start the festivities off with a list of the books I read this year, roughly categorized. Not counting textbooks, I read 15 books this year. Not a banner year, but I'm sure I missed a few and really shifted into high gear over the last couple months. After taking a while to get into the groove, picking up my Nook has developed into a satisfying habit that is in many ways better than paper and ink. Without further ado:

BEST:

The Pale King - David Foster Wallace, 560p

Classic Feynman - Richard Feynman, 528p

TBC #32 - The Corrections- Jonathan Franzen, 576p



Great:


Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself - David Lipsky, 352p

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson, 672p


Steve Jobs- Walter Isaacson, 656p

TBC #27 - The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde, 178p

TBC #29 - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick, 210p

Moneyball - Michael Lewis, 317p


Awake In The Dark - Roger Ebert, 512p


Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John Le' Carre, 400p



GOOD


TBC #33 - Mao II - Don Delillo, 256p


Life Itself - Roger Ebert, 448p



MEH


TBC #28 - King Lear - Shakespeare, 384p
                                                            Looking good, Gandalf ;)

TBC #35 - Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 487p

TBC #36 - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot, 400p



BAD

TBC #30 - Monster - Sanyika Shakur, 400p

DID NOT FINISH


The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
Sex At Dawn - Christopher Ryan
Common Ground - J. Anthony Lukas
American Prometheus - Kai Bird
The Art of Fielding - Chad Harbach
Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises


I'm sure I forgot a few of them, but these are the books I could come up with after a cursory look around my room and my Nook. Some Great, Some Meh. Some I didn't finish for one reason or another. Doesn't seem like much when you cram it all into a blog post, but it shakes out to 7,336 pages all told, or 20 pages/day. Not staggering, but better than I would have expected, all things considered.

What have you read this year? Anything great? Any overlaps? Please share in the comments, I'm always itching for something new to read. Adieu!

1 comment:

  1. Oh mike! This is a good idea. Maybe I will copy this for a blog post. I also read The 'Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' and (as you know) 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. I actually finished 'Sex at Dawn', I win. And finish 'The Sun also Rises b/c I am falling in love with Hemingway Vonnegut style.

    ReplyDelete