Year-End Wrap-Up: Books

At the beginning of the year, I posted a number of goals that focused on reading. Namely, I had a goal to read at least 50 books this year, some of those being selections from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list.

I am happy to report that I did not read 50 books this year: I read 61 (18,240 pages)! 16 of these were from the 1001 list, and added to the 3 short stories that were on the list, I have reached a total of 69 out of 1001.

For those interested, the books I read this year were:

1. The Modigliani Scandal - Ken Follett
2. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
3. Blueberry Muffin Murder - Joanne Fluke
4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
5. Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris
6. How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff
7. Lady Chatterly's Lover - D.H. Lawrence 8. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys 9. The Hound of the Baskervilles - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 10. The Plot Against America - Philip Roth
11. The Post-Birthday World - Lionel Shriver
12. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto - Michael Pollan
13. The Devil and Miss Prym - Paulo Coelho
14. Cavern - Jake Page
15. How Starbucks Saved My Life - Michael Gates Gill
16. Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life - Amy Krouse Rosenthal
17. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
18. Crime Brulee - Nancy Fairbanks
19. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
20. The Monsters of Templeton - Lauren Groff
21. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach
22. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
23. The Spellman Files - Lisa Lutz
24. The Turn of the Screw - Henry James
25. The Devil's Highway - Luis Urrea
26. Howards End - E.M. Forster 27. Lolita - Vladimir Nobokov
28. Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri
29. Shades of Earl Grey - Laura Childs
30. Color - Victoria Finlay
31. Eleven on Top - Janet Evanovich
32. The Edge of the Crazies - Jamie Harrison
33. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
34. Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Reim
35. The Septembers of Shiraz - Dalia Sofer
36. The Tea Rose - Jennifer Donnelly
37. My Hutterite Life - Lisa Marie Stahl
38. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
39. The Monk - Matthew Lewis 40. Casino Royale - Ian Flemming
41. The Blood of Flowers - Anita Amirrezvani
42. Running With Scissors - Augusten Burroughs
43. The Brief History of the Dead - Kevin Brockmeier
44. The Death of Vishnu - Manil Suri
45. The Monster of Florence - Douglas Preston
46. Eats, Shoots and Leaves - Lynne Truss
47. When You are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris
48. In the Company of the Courtesan -Sarah Dunant
49. The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson
50. Panic in Level 4 - Richard Preston
51. A Fatal Inversion - Barbara Vine
52. The Geography of Bliss - Eric Weiner
53. Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks
54. The Curse of the Spellmans - Lisa Lutz
55. Summer - Edith Wharton
56. Bonk - Mary Roach
57. Friends, Lovers, Chocolate - Alexander McCall Smith
58. Thyme of Death - Susan Wittig Albert
59. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
60. The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West
61. Coraline - Neil Gaiman

I usually pick one book each year that was my ultimate favorite. This year, I found it hard to choose just one - so I'll tell you some of the worst books I read this year. Topping the list would have to be Cavern - haven't heard of it? Yeah, for good reason! I also agonized through The Turn of the Screw, The Death of Vishnu, and Crime Brulee.

All right, fine! I'll pick a top five:
1. The Age of Innocence
2. The Tea Rose
3. Unaccustomed Earth
4. The Secret History
5. The Devil's Highway