Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Non-Food Post - Books Read in 2008

At the beginning of 2008, I decided to keep track of all the books I read for the year. I was about to add another to the list, when I realized it's 2009 now!

So, here's what I read last year:

Dark Love – ed. Nancy A. Collins
The Man Who Ate Everything – Jeffrey Steingarten
Drinking, Smoking & Screwing – ed. Sara Nicklès
Duma Key – Stephen King
The Art of Eating – MFK Fisher
Dragon’s Winter – Elizabeth Lynn
Going Postal – Terry Pratchett
Consider the Eel – Richard Schweid
Best Food Writing 2001 – ed. Holly Hughes
The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar and the Geography of Desire – Richard Adams Carey
Best Food Writing 2002 – ed. Holly Hughes
Best Food Writing 2003 – ed. Holly Hughes
Best Food Writing 2005 – ed. Holly Hughes
A Fortress of Grey Ice – J.V. Jones
Best Food Writing 2006 – ed. Holly Hughes
The Amber Spyglass – Phillip Pullman
Shadows – John Saul
One Door Away from Heaven – Dean Koontz
The Man Who Ate the World – Jay Rayner
Amador – Fernando Savater
The Black Dahlia – James Ellroy
Serve the People – Jen Lin-Liu
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure – Dave Gorman
Garlic Lover’s Cookbook – Gilroy Garlic Festival Committee
Eight Immortal Flavors – Charles Leong, Johnny Kan
The Origins and Development of the English Language – Thomas Pyles
A Widow for One Year – John Irving
The Magician’s Guild – Trudi Canavan
The Novice – Trudi Canavan
The High Lord – Trudi Canavan
Just After Sunset – Stephen King
In Evil Hour – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Linguistic History of English – Robert A. Peters
Shattered Mirror – Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Of Love and Other Demons – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

That's 37 books in 365 days, or about 1 every 10. Admittedly, some of them were cookbooks, albeit with long sections of text and minimal recipes. Some of them were brutal (but I loved them anyway), specifically the 2 English language history books. Apparently, I like to punish myself, because I have two Anglo-Saxon Readers, an Old English anthology, and a book on the Indo-European dialects on the list for this year. Yes, I'm insane.

I'm always looking for reading recommendations - what do you suggest?

6 comments:

Bob said...

Great list! I love knowing what people read. :)

Well, let's see. I'm a bit book crazed myself, so if you really want to open this can of worms...

I particularly enjoyed "Climbing Mount Improbable" by Richard Dawkins, if you are into biology.

Or if you like fantasy I would suggest "Assassins Apprentice" (and all the books that follow) by Robin Hobb and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

I see Stephen King on your list, have you read Clive Barker? I'm a big fan of his stuff.

My blogger profile has a list of authors under favorite books. I recommend all of them. :)

Vicki said...

Hey Bob - Always meant to read Hobb, never have, and Rothfuss is a new one to me - fantasy is my go-to genre when I need to escape the heavier stuff :)

I think I've read some Barker, will have to re-explore, and being a (bio)chemist, Dawkins sounds interesting.

Thanks for the tips!

Betts said...

The Black Dahlia is in my pile o'books to read. Some of your other titles look interesting, so I'll have to look into those. What a great idea to keep a list.

I would recommend something by Isabelle Allende... especially "Daughter of Fortune".

Vicki said...

Hi Betts - I'm an obsessive collector of data in any form :)
Been meaning to try Allende, will add her to the to-read list.

Melissa said...

I have to admit the title "Drinking, Smoking & Screwing" provoked me to look it up on Amazon. Heh.

You read a great variety of stuff there. I'm interested in many of the food books. But I have a special spot in my heart for The Alchemist.

I just started reading Vonnegut in the last couple of years. I would recommend anything by him - Sirens of Titan is at the top though. It rocketed right to the top of my favorite books ever after I read it.

Vicki said...

Hi Melissa -
I've got Galapagos by Vonnegut, don't think I've read anything else by him. Adding to the list...