My Year in Books: 2009

And so here is my final tally! In 2009, I actually read fifty-THREE books! I feel quite accomplished, and it certainly was an arduous undertaking. I answered some specifics regarding books and how I read and what I choose to read in this post, but here I'll list all the books and my star ratings! The ones in bold have become a part of my all-time favourite books list. Leave a comment if you have any more questions or inquiries regarding the project or if you too love a book I loved or are even doing your own reading of fifty two books for 2010! I think we all know I love to talk about books!

01 A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin (01.05.09) ****
02 World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks (01.18.09) ****
03 Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer (01.20.09) *
04 The Road, Cormac McCarthy (01.22.09) *****
05 Y: The Last Man, Brian K. Vaughn (01.27.09) ***
06 Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyers (01.31.09) **
07 Infinity Blues, Ryan Adams (02.12.09) ****
08 The Best American Magazine Writing 2008 (02.28.09) ****
09 First Love, Ivan S. Turgenev (03.08.09) ****
10 Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (03.15.09) *****
11 Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy (03.16.09) *****
12 The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera (03.24.09) *****
13 Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro Kazuo (03.29.09) *****
14 The Last Vampire, Christopher Pike (04.05.09) *****
15 Whisper of Death, Christopher Pike (04.13.09) *****
16 Monster, Christopher Pike (04.21.09) ****
17 A Storm of Swords, George R.R. Martin (04.30.09) *****
18 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Seth Grahame-Smith (05.15.09) ****
19 Crimson, Brian Augustyn (06.15.09) **
20 2666, Roberto Bolaño (06.07.09) *****
21 The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson (06.17.09) ****
22 The Uncommon Reader, Alan Bennett (06.19.09) ****
23 The Lover, Marguerite Duras (06.22.09) *****
24 The Sound of My Voice, Ron Butlin (06.25.09) *****
25 Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy (07.07.09) ***
26 L.A. Confidential (Film Criticism), Manohla Dargis (07.10.09) ****
27 Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea, Chelsea Handler (07.12.09) *****
28 Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card (07.18.09) *****
29 The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (07.26.09) ****
30 Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger (08.05.09) ****
31 Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion (08.09.09) *****
32 Seven (Film Criticism), Richard Dyer (08.15.09) ****
33 Delta of Venus, Anais Nin (08.17.09) *****
34 The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende (08.23.09) *****
35 The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters (09.05.09) ****
36 To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf (09.10.09) **
37 White Teeth, Zadie Smith (09.27.09) *****
38 Breakfast at Tiffany's, Truman Capote (09.29.09) *****
39 Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Márquez (10.02.09) *****
40 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson (10.08.10) ****
41 Jesus' Son, Denis Johnson (10.12.09) ****
42 Perfect Fifths, Megan McCafferty (10.13.09) ****
43 The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (10.19.09) *****
44 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson (10.27.09) ***
45 Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill (11.03.09) *****
46 Come Together, Fall Apart, Cristina Henriquez (11.09.09) *****
47 Daughters of the North, Sarah Hall (11.15.09) ***
48 Night, Elie Wiesel (11.16.09) *****
49 I, Lucifer, Glen Duncan (11.22.09) *
50 Delirium, Laura Restrepo (11.30.09) ****
51 1984, George Orwell (12.09.09) *****
52 Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert (12.20.09) *****
53 The World in Half, Cristina Henriquez (12.29.09) *****

So what's next, then? What do I have planned for 2010? Well, as of January 1st, I began reading Tolstoy's behemoth War & Peace. I'm reading it with my fellow book club (FSJBCB) member, Sean, who you may remember read Tolstoy's Anna Karenina with me last year. Others have expressed their interest in our lofty goal and decided to join us, as well.

In related news: I've decided not to spend this year working towards reading another fifty-two books. Instead, I plan to read the gargantuan novels that reside on my shelves - the novels I was hesitant to pick up last year because they would take far too much time to read, really grasp, and enjoy. In 2010, I'm reading the big ones! I'm starting off with War & Peace, and will continue on through the year reading other novels like Bolano's The Savage Detectives, Steinbeck's East of Eden, and Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov - among other works. I'll continue to update my Goodreads page with my progress! I plan on keeping the same pace as I did last year in terms of how much reading, but my list will likely be much shorter because of the heavy tomes I've decided to take on.

Jesse really helped determine my goal this year - for Christmas, he got me a Kindle. He almost didn't get me one because I had railed against them in the past. I truly do love carrying a book, flipping it's pages, and sometimes studying it's cover. There's a tangibility there I cherish, and it's not available with e-books. However, I realized that with novels like War & Peace, it would be much harder to carry the 1800+ page book on the subway every day without feeling completely weighed down and burdened. Enter the lovely, beautiful, sleek and lightweight Kindle. I'll continue to buy actual books, but there are many reasons owning a Kindle is beneficial to my reading habits and future-library-planning. Besides having a much lighter version of a heavy book, there are some books I'd be interested in reading but not in owning (like certain best-sellers everyone is talking about), and the Kindle is absolutely perfect for travel. I don't have to lug a few books for a long trip like I did for the honeymoon (seriously, I brought like ten books, and books weigh so much!).

To everyone that is reading fifty-two books this year: GOOD LUCK! I'd love to hear about your own experiences doing so! Most are already my Goodreads friends, but if you're not, add me! I love hearing about what others are reading, and if you happen to be blogging about it - the better. Leave me a link!

I'd trade in my plot of land for a plane to anywhere.

Happy New Year! I owe an update, I know. I've just been having so much fun!

I still have to post a couple of more answers to your questions, a recap of my 52 Books in 2009 project, and MORE. Yes, there's more. I won't do a recap besides the books, because I'm pretty sure everyone knows how great the year 2009 was for this girl. Also, I've never been one for resolutions; I'm just ready to dive right into whatever 2010 has in store for me! And more importantly, what I have in store for it.

For now I wanted to check in and say that the past four days have been unbelievably fun, what with Curbside-r and lovely bestie Christy in town!! She's been visiting from Austin, Texas and it's so fun to have her back for a few days! We've been carousing with the other good people here in New York (including other superfun visitors like Jesse's friend Colin and Sean's friend Jess!), and rang in the new year with board games and Rock Band. I also decided to forgo any sequins or glitter and wear the loudest pants I owned in the 2000s:

(photo courtesy of the husband, watching my surely spectacular performance on Rock Band vox)

As you can see, bright, tight pants are probably a thing that I should keep to my past. I would share more pictures, but there was no time for photos with all the fun going on.

It's been unbelievably cold in New York, but that hasn't prevented us from going out to a couple of bowling alleys, shopping, and getting manicures (I'm sporting a dark gray, I love it). We've also spent plenty of time indoors with (you guessed it!) Rock Band, but also watching movies like I Love You Man, 500 Days of Summer (Christy obvs needed a recap on my Top Films of 2009) and two films I knew she had to see, given her love of traveling and mysterious strangers - Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. And then she gave me a tour of YouTube's finest Taylor Kitsch interviews. Tonight is her last night and I'm going to be ultra-bummed to say bye. Luckily, a trip to Austin seems to be in the cards this year...

Also, I'd just like to say that Jesse and I were the final two teams in our Fantasy Football League and went head to head this past weekend in the "Superbowl." And Jesse won. I came in second, which I am A-OK with mainly because my main fb-squeeze Chris Johnson broke 2,000 rushing yards this weekend and then had a (I quote) "CJ2K" party to celebrate. How I wish I could have been there! However, I was most likely drumming my wrists out to "Sunday Morning."