Book Report

So this year I'd like to try and read 52 books. For you non-math wizards out there, that's a book a week. It's a little ambitious--I'm a quick reader, but not a fast reader, if that makes any sense--that's a lot more agressive than my goal for last year.

At the beginning of 2008 I made a goal to read 25 books, including repeats, but when I finished that goal sometime around July, I revised the goal to be 52 with no repeats. I didn't quite make it, but here's what I did read this year. Numbered books are books I either hadn't read before or had read so long I ago I had no memory of them. The dates are the date I finished the book. My top five for the year are bolded. It was hard to choose just five, though, especially since two of my all-time favorites were on this list (The Great Gatsby and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). So I guess it's my five favorite books that I hadn't read before 2008.

1. Ethan Frome (1/21/08)
2. The Kite Runner (1/26/08)
3. A Raisin in the Sun (2/8/08)
Pride and Prejudice (2/8/08)
Shutter Island (2/15/08)
Their Eyes Were Watching God (3/2/08)
4. The Old Man and the Sea (3/16/08)
5. The Poe Shadow (3/24/08)
Frankenstein (3/24/08)
The Great Gatsby (4/14/08)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (4/15/08)
1984 (5/5/08)
6. I Love You, Beth Cooper (5/13/08)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (5/16/08)
7. Give a Boy a Gun (5/18/08)
8. Winter's Tale (6/04/08)
9. The Big Over Easy (6/8/08)
10. Then We Came to the End (6/15/08)
11. Jane Eyre (6/24/08)
12. Spook (7/2/08)
13. The Eyre Affair (7/9/08)
14. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (7/16/08)
15. Haroun of the Sea of Stories (7/20/08)
16. Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance (7/24/08)
17. HeartSick (7/26/08)
18. Anansi Boys (8/2/08)
19. The Price of Privilege (8/16/08)
20. Angela's Ashes (8/18/08)
21. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (8/21/08)
22. A Clockwork Orange (8/23/08)
23. Native Son (8/28/08)
24. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher (9/1/08)
25. The Fourth Bear (9/7/08)
26. Slaughterhouse Five (9/11/08)
27. As I Lay Dying (9/15/08)
28. The Color Purple (9/17/08)
29. Wise Blood (9/20/08)
30. The Bell Jar (9/28/08)
31. King Arthur & His Knights of the Round Table (10/3/08)
32. For Whom the Bell Tolls (10/13/08)
33. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (10/14/08)
34. In the Woods (10/21/08)
35. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (10/27/08)
36. The Graveyard Book (10/31/08)
37. The Savior (11/3/08)
38. A Game of Thrones (11/27/08)
39. And Then There Were None (11/30/08)
40. The Book Thief (12/13/08)
41. Alive in Necropolis (12/27/08)
42. Siddhartha (12/30/08)

If I count repeats I got 50 books, which isn't bad. The problem is some things really slow me down. A Game of Thrones, for example, I LOVED, but it was 700 pages of very dense print. It basically took most of November to read. A few others really slowed me down as well.

I don't know if this will be the year I make the goal or not, but it is really fun pushing myself. As much as I love reading, it's easy to get distracted by movies, tv, video games, and this blessed curse: the Internet. As always I'm up for recommendations, but for now I have to get back to reading.