I only read about 44 books this year, which is down about 8 or so from last year. That’s interesting to me, as I have been reading pretty voraciously. The NYPL digital book service is making my total go up, however a shorter commute, and the lack of using an ipod to read audiobooks (a combined effort of my larger ipod dying and NYC being too loud to listen to an ipod at normal audio levels). I also consulted a lot of books, but didn’t READ them fully, especially about travel. I need to figure out a better way to deal with that.

17 fiction/39% (20 last year/ 1% more than last year)
27 non-fiction/61% (32 last year/1% less than last year)

Wow, I am so consistent.

Only 2 could be construed as “religiously themed.” But food (7) and music (4) figured prominently.
5 books were of authors I met.
19 were audiobook, which is way up from last year–thanks NYPL!

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Biggest surprise: To Catch a Predator
Biggest letdown: Omnivore’s Dilemma, Smashed
Favorites: Nightmare Alley, They Shoot Horses Don’t They, the Dexter books, Outposts, God’s Harvard
Most Overrated: Omnivore’s Dilemma
Books I could not finish this year included:
Lenin’s embalmers (I will finish this, but haven’t yet–carryover from last year)
Lamb by Christopher Moore (Started on the plane)
4-Hour Work Week (started before I left home)
Thunderstruck (Started before I left home)

by John Grisham

I am not a regular Grisham reader, but this is such an odd direction for him. A book about a couple who skip Christmas. I really really really want to skip Christmas. Seriously I am such a grinch. I would prefer to say I am actually quite pro-Christmas, but not the form Christmas takes–running around, buying people gift cards, stressing, guilt, etc. The first half of this book was amazing, but inevitably it becomes a heartwarming xmas tale. Blech. Still good, but I hated seeing the character I liked and agreed with so much get demeaned. I think you are supposed to think he’s an ass in the beginning, but instead I liked him. Harumph.

by jennifer crusie

I have been on a fictional binge!  I liked this one, it had actual male characters unlike some of her other books.  But more wacky dog hijinks.  I don’t care about wacky dog hijinks.

by john green

Wow why am I only reading depressing books? This is very Catcher in the Rye, but funnier. Another one from John Green of Brotherhood 2.0. I enjoyed the whole emphasis on people’s last words.

by Jennifer Crusie

I am reading pretty much every Jennifer Crusie book.  I enjoy them all about the same (which is a lot–they are funny and quick to read).  I also have the same, “I really don’t want people to see me reading this very pink book” shame about them, which, IS WRONG.  I know this because I had a whole class on it in library school, and I generally do believe, as a librarian that anything anyone enjoys reading is totally acceptable.  For some reason I can’t quite apply that to myself!

by john green

I don’t normally read a lot of YA, but I have been obsessively been watching Brotherhood 2.0 all week since I discovered it. John Green and his brother Hank have decided to not textually communicate for a year and thus video blog to each other. If you are a ZeFrank fan, you’ll love it.

So after I exhausted all the videos, I went on to the audiobook. I kind of wish this weren’t YA. I think this book would have been more awesome if set with adults. But nonetheless it was really funny, personal, and dorky. I hear the print version has crazy charts and footnotes so I am going to check that out too. I read this in a day.

Wow this is a really depressing look at city life. The bummer side of all the coincidental things about living in a large city. The anonymity which makes people fall through the cracks. Still good, but, whew a downer.  I picked this up/completed it around my New Yorkerversary, when I went to the OLDEST library in New York–it’s the coolest.  It has glass stacks!  I felt like I was back in ye olde maths library.  Awwww.

by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

I started this on audiobook and hated it.  I read it in real book form and much preferred it.  I liked the whole mystery aspect but I do prefer her books without it….

by Ben Woods

Ben Woods is my MySpace friend. I am guessing he found me because I list Max Barry as one of my favorite authors. He mentioned he was coming on a book tour to Champaign. What odd luck, I thought–an author who seems similar to another author I love coming to where I live! However it was on a day I was out of town. So it was not meant to be.

Later he told me he was doing a free book to every state, if I agreed to review it. So here I am. I like that publishers are now using online media to get the word out on their books. It is especially a great marketing tool for independently published books.

I have been putting off reviewing it because I feel a little weird about this–I never intended to be a book publicist. While I have reviewed a self-published book before the author did not know that I blogged when he gave it to me. I know the author will read this review, and, I am, minutely indebted to him by getting the free book. In fact, though I am sure no one noticed this, I also review a LOT of Harper-Collins books, as I get free books of theirs through a friend. Again, I feel completely FINE saying I hate their books, but I like to be as transparent as possible. In fact, while reading this book, I got another offer of a free book in exchange for a review.

I read this book a long time ago but felt weird reviewing it since the author will probably read this.  I write my reviews mainly so that I can refer back to what I thought of something and because my friends frequently ask what I am reading.  So this is new!  Basically I really liked this book.  Like, I missed my stop on the subway when reading it.  I thought there was some trail off at the end, and it could use another edit, but especially for something self-published it was great.  It was incredibly funny and reminded me of “microserfs” by doug coupland and “Company” by Max Barry.  I highly recommend it to anyone who has worked in a techie office.

by Ayn Rand

I have tried to read this book many times in my life, but have never gotten through more than 100 pages. A few years ago I even read Atlas Shrugged, but still could not get through this book. I read both on audiobook which made the whole affair much, much longer, but parts of these books are so boring, I think if forced to read it in paper, I would have hurled the book across the room.

I am not the kind of person who forces myself to read things. There are far too many things to read in my life that I will never get to. However, I am a libertarian and when I tell people that they usually think I am an Ayn Rand wacko. So I felt I had to read this if only to not associate myself with it.

I really dislike Ayn Rand. First of all, she shouldn’t be writing fiction. Her fiction is a roundabout allegory for all of her “teachings.” If you want to teach me a lesson that emphatically (i.e. every page is agenda), write some non-fiction.
Very little happens for long, long stretches in this book. The major “action” is when people say inappropriate things. To realize these things are inappropriate you need 200 pages of backstory about their personal life goals. Because the themes that one lives one’s life by are very, very tied into their relationships.

I know Ayn Rand is supposed to be uber-rationalist, but the main romance of this novel makes no sense. Clearly by page 200 it is obvious that 2 main characters should be together, yet one decides that is exactly why she shouldn’t be with him? Huh? That makes no sense. Then she marries several men, whom she doesn’t love (which, in the Rand way would be more like, “respect”) and breaks up with them inevitably. For as free market as Ayn Rand is, all relationships are really feelinglist and communist.
The beginning of this book is very boring because I think you are supposed to be fully convinced of what a rational badass Howard Roark is. Instead he seems to range from semi-normal, if boring, rationalist to cold, unfeeling sociopath. I assume I am supposed to like him? And I guess, relative to other people in the book I do, but honestly I don’t feel one way or the other about anyone in this book as they are all puppets playing out the “TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE SELF” agenda. There was a brief period in the middle that was fine, but then, 1/2 way through it just kept getting worse and worse. I felt like I was in an abusive relationship with The Fountainhead.

The annoying thing is that I mainly AGREE with the agenda of this book yet I still did not like it.

I think in retrospect I did like Atlas Shrugged more. But really they’re the same book, since the stories are totally irrelevant.

by Christopher Moore

Read the entire entry …

by Jeff Lindsay

Of course not as good as the first but a very interesting premise.  I am excited to see how it plays out in the tv show.  The end of this really dragged for me, and the villian wasn’t that interesting to be.  But good overall.

by William Gresham

When I saw Harry Anderson’s show he did a very dramatic version of the story of how someone becomes a sideshow geek. It was an AMAZING retelling of the story which led me to watch the movie for Nightmare Alley and the book, from which the story came. In a sense, these could only be a let down, because Anderson’s version was so good. The book is REALLY LONG. It’s well thought out, but it’s funny that long books used to be superpopular crap lit. As expected, it’s a huge downer. Sadly the whole geek thing unravels very slowly, and, like “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” The last line is sort of a long drawn out punch line. I guess that’s something that unified the crime genre in the 30s or something.

So, as I say, some of the fun of this book was already over before I read it. But it is very funny and excellently period. Sometimes the antiquated slang required more attention. However, it had great lines like “Look here polack, I don’t fight no midgets!” Upon reading this line, I called a friend and yelled it at her. Sadly, I had the wrong number. So I am sorry to whoever in the Moline area code I called and shouted racial slurs to.

For a “fun” book, I had to concentrate a lot while reading this book, like it was something for school. I thought it might be the period, but considering the speed with which I read “They Shoot Horses Don’t They” (from the same collection), I don’t think that’s it. I would say only read this book if you like sideshows, circus stuff, mindreading, grifty type stuff.

I look forward to reading the graphic novel version of this.

by Horace McCoy

So I have never seen the film version of this, so excuse me if this is obvious popular culture, but, given the title, and the fact that I found this in a crime novel compendium, I was quite shocked that this was about a dance marathon.  I have never heard of a dance marathon outside of the Gilmore Girls (episode “They Shoot Gilmores, Don’t They?”  Wow, that makes sense now.).  But this book, though 98% about a dance marathon, is really 0% about a dance marathon.  The dance marathon could be excluded from the book and it could be as effective as it currently is.  In fact, this would make an awesome short story.  It reminds me of a joke, since the title is also the punchline, one that won’t really make sense until a page before it ends.

This book walks a fine line between “existentialist” and “pointless.”  I don’t know what I am supposed to have gotten out of it.  It was a very fast read and I felt like it was going somewhere, but at the end you know as much as in the beginning.  So I guess I am just so-so about the book.

by Jennifer Crusie

Generically pleasant and a quick read, but kind of predictable and a little to romance-novely for me. That may sound stupid, but I like her other books because they are not the traditional “stupid girl gives up her whole life to get in whirlwind romance with dude who takes care of her.” But that’s pretty much what this is. Disappointing, but still a little fun. I felt like a total tool reading it in public.

by Jeff Lindsay

I usually don’t read mysteries, but I do read a lot of true crime. In fact, whenever I have been forced to read mysteries, I have truly hated them. Mainly I have read PD James and oldetymey English stuff. However, I love the tv show Dexter. So I tried it out. And I loved it, but I have to say, while the TV show is very true to the book, there are some major interesting differences.

But now I am at a crossroads–read the next book or wait until the second season. Well I cannot wait, so I will forge ahead!

by Gideon Defoe

One would be hard pressed to combine so many of my interests into a book if they tried very hard–pirates, communists, ham. I got two copies of this for Christmas, and when I tried to return a copy, the manager at Borders yelled at me!  She was very sad and wondered how I could hate ham so much.  When I explained, she grudgingly accepted this “story.”

And she’s right!  It’s so good!  I liked the first one best of course, but this is definitely a close runner up!  Hilarious!  Go out and get it!