Wrapping It Up

At the end of every year all the booksellers and critics put out their "Best of" lists. Publisher's Weekly, Amazon, etc. And I just know everyone has been eagerly awaiting Running With Books's Best of 2008 list, right? Well at long last, my favorites of 2008...

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig
The Anatomy of Deception Lawrence Goldstone
The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin
The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir
Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
The Rhino with the Glue-On Shoes by Lucy Spelman and Ted Mashima
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
The Sister by Poppy Adams
Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith

Books that disappointed:
A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
The Dracula Dossier by James Reese

Book that were a big waste of my time:
How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard

I also made some reading resolutions last year. Let's see how I did...
1.) Read more books than last year (125 in 2007). Yikes. I really slipped this year. Only 108.

2.) Read the books that are already on my shelf instead of buying more books. I did succeed in buying less books. Instead of buying them, I checked them out from the library (which seems to be the case with a lot of people, considering that book sales are down and library circs are up). But I still failed at this resolution, since I read the books on the library's shelves instead of my own.

3.) Read a challenging book, such as Rushdie's Satanic Verses, Follett's The Pillars of the Earth, or anything by Hemingway. Well, I did read most of Hemingway's Green Hills of Africa, which was a challenge for sure. And I also read The Great Gatsby, which isn't really a challenging book, but it is a classic, so I'm counting it. I make the rules here.

4.) Read a book by James Patterson. (I felt like I probably shouldn't judge him since I'd never actually read anything by him.) Done. Early in the year I knocked out Patterson's First To Die, so I can officially say that I've read him and now I can continue to turn my nose up at him.

So, I guess 2 out of 4 isn't bad. My reading resolution for 2009 is to read less commercial fiction (i.e. NY Times bestselling authors) and more classics and literary fiction. Here's to a happy, healthy New Year, filled with wonderful new reads!