Thursday, December 31, 2009

Books Read in 2009

Happy New Year!! 2009 was a somewhat slow blogging year, and I missed writing about the books I'd read. Even so, it was a good reading year. I finished 58 books, which is close to my all-time record. Most of those books were read prior to September 5, which is when I returned to school and become a full-time student. The last quarter of the year has been spent reading design theory course packets and Joseph Albers' Interaction with Colors (seminal color theory and art),  Construction for Interior Designers, but I still managed to knock out Dan Brown's latest blockbuster (though it took me six weeks to read what would normally take a few days). For posterity, here is the list of books that I read in 2009, followed by a sm statistical analysis:


1. Dressed for Death (Donna Leon)
2. Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
3. Ghostwalk (Rebecca Stott). book group, 41 for 41
4. Unaccustomed Earth (Jhumpa Lahiri), Conversations with Books, 41 for 41
5. Deltora Quest 04: Shifting Sands (Emily Rodda), read aloud to Little Bibliotonics
6. Warriors 02: Fire and Ice (Erin Hunter), read aloud to Little Bibliotonics
7. Me Talk Pretty One Day (David Sedaris), audio
8. House (Michael Ruhlman)
9. Death and Judgment (Donna Leon) 
10. Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (E. Lockhart), Tournament of Books
11. Netherland (Joseph O’Neill) audio, Tournament of Books
12. Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates), book group, 40 for 40
13. Deltora Quest 05: Dread Mountain (Emily Rodda), read aloud to Little Bibliotonics
14. Little Bee (Chris Cleave)
15. Warriors 03: Forest of Secrets (Erin Hunter), read aloud to Little Bibliotonics
16. Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman), 41 for 41
17. Yarn Harlot (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee)
18. Little House on the Prairie (L. I. Wilder), 41 for 41, re-read
19. Warrior 04: Rising Storm (Erin Hunter), read aloud to Little Bibliotonics
20. Script and Scribble (Kitty Burns Florey) 
21. Acqua Alta (Donna Leon) 
22. Delicate Edible Birds (Lauren Groff)
23. Loving Frank (Nancy Horan) audio, Conversations, 41 for 41
24. Fatally Flaky (Diane Mott Davidson)
25. Other Side of the Mountain (Allegra Goodman), 41 for 41
26. Beat the Reaper (Josh Bazell) audio
27. Warriors 05: Fatal Path (Erin Hunter), read aloud to Little Bibliotonics
28. James and the Giant Peach (Roald Dahl), read aloud to Little Bibliotonics
29. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver), 41 for 41
30. Quietly in Their Sleep (Donna Leon) 
31. Bad Mother (Ayelet Waldman) 
32. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Diaz), Caryl
33. Case Histories (Kate Atkinson), book group, 39 for 39
34. Barefoot (Elin Hilderbrand)
35. White Mary (Kira Salak) audio, book group
36. How I Live Now (Meg Rosoff), Caryl
37. Warriors 06: The Darkest Hour (Erin Hunter), read aloud to Little Bibliotonics
38. Unseen (Mari Jungstedt) 
39. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (Judy Blume), read aloud to Little Bibliotonics
40. Deltora Quest 06: Maze of the Beast (Emily Rodda), read aloud to Little Bibliotonics
41. Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons), 41 for 41
42. Spy Who Came in from the Cold (John leCarre), read in Sweden, 39 for 39
43. Elephanta Suite (Paul Theroux), 41 for 41
44. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (J.K. Rowling), read aloud to Little Bibliotonics, Sweden
45. Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins) 
46. A Noble Radiance (Donna Leon)
47. You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons (Mo Willems)
48. The Sweet Life in Paris (David Leibovitz) 
49. Race to Dakar (Charley Boorman), read aloud to Mr. Bibliotonic
50. Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan), read aloud to Little Bibliotonics
51. One Good Turn (Kate Atkinson) audio, 39 for 39
52. Secret Speech (Rob Tom Smith) audio
53. Mysteries of Pittsburgh (Michael Chabon), 41 for 41
54. Lost Symbol (Dan Brown)
55. Lost Art of Gratitude (Alexander McCall Smith)
56. Far North (Marcel Theroux), National Book Award finalist
57. Palace Council (Stephen L. Carter), audio
58. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Steig Larsson), 41 for 41


Statistics
Fiction: 51
Nonfiction: 7
Books written by women: 36
Books written by men: 22
41 for 41 challenge: 11
Mystery/thrillers: 13
Travel essays: 2
Culinary essays: 1
Donna Leon: 5
Children’s: 19
Story collections: 3
Audio: 8
Classics: 4
Graphic novels/memoirs: 1
First novels: 6