Book List 2009

For several years, I have kept my book list. I write down every book I read during the year and try and read more than I did the year before. I didn't beat last year, and I know for damn sure that I won't be setting any record in 2010 with little Bumble coming (are reading baby books going to count? Because I know I will be reading a lot to baby....haha).

Anyways, I used to use my listography account for all sorts of lists, now it's really just to keep up with my book list. So here it is, my 2009 book list.

1. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
2. Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley
3. Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult
4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
5. The Watchmen by Alan Moore
6. The Meaning of Wife: A provocative look at marriage in the twenty-first century by Anne Kingston
7. Easter Parade by Richard Yates.
8. The Southern Haunting of Truman Capote by Marie Rudisill with James C. Simmons.
9. Elephants on Acid and other Bizarre Experiments by Alex Boese
10. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
11. Hard Bodies by Susan Jeffords****
12. Coraline by Neil Gaiman.
13. The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
14. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
15. The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
16. The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy
17. The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson
18. Silk by Alessandro Baricco
19. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
20. Blubber by Judy Blume
21. Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales & James Andrew Miller
22. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
23. One for the Money (Stephanie Plum series) by Janet Evanovich
24. Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi by Bob Woodward
25. Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris
26. Batman: The Man Who Laughs by Ed Brubaker (graphic novel)
27. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
28. Two for the Dough (Stephanie Plum series) by Janet Evanovich
29. The Fog by James Herbert
30. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Haff
31. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
32. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
33. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
34. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

I had set a goal to read all of the Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes before the New Year, and I did not meet that goal, but I am a little relived. Holmes really needs to be something you pick up here and there and enjoy a story and put it down until you want to enjoy another. Too much back to back and all the stories start to bleed into one another.

I also found a few new favorites. Flowers for Algernon absolutely broke my heart and I loved it for each page of it. It's probably been the one I have suggested to many people after ready. I also loved both Neil Gaiman's Coraline and The Graveyard Book. 

Some of the bigger disappointments were:

•  Elephants on Acid -interesting little stories, but not well written
  
• Stephanie Plum mystery books- I read 2 of the them, and I just didn't find them very entertaining or funny; which was sad because 2 friends who's opinions I value highly really enjoy them! 
  
• The Alchemist- just a bit too up itself for my pleasure
• The Southern Haunting of Truman Capote

I also re-read The Scarlet Letter, which I hadn't read since high school. I reconfirmed my belief that we rarely enjoy what we are given to read in high school and should just seek out the good reading when we're older. I thoroughly enjoyed that book and have added it to my favorites as well. 

Overall, a good year of reading I think. 

****This is not some bizarr-o work out book about having a hard body. It's about 80's masculinity portrayed in cinema, specifically Stallone and Ah-nold. I read it for school and it was fantastic. I just felt the need to clarify that before you start thinking I'm going to try and beef up (as if!!! lol!!!)