Monday, January 3, 2011

2010 Reading List and Commentary

In 2009 I read 38 books. In 2010, I read 22 books (less volume in 2010 partly because of one of the 22 being the Holy Bible from start to finish and also that I spent the first 5 months of the year trying to finish Wolf Hall before I finally just gave up).

Interesting fact for me was that in 2009, 42% of my books read were digital. In 2010, it was still only 45% that were digital. This may have been due to a number of the books in 2010 were loaned to me. The only books I bought in 2010 in hardback and why were:

The Road (on sale at Costco for cheaper than a digital copy)
The Glass Castle (same reason)
Racing Weight (not available digitally)
Blood Type A Diet (same)
What Technology Wants (I wanted Kevin Kelly, the author to sign it for me, which he did)

Here were my best reads of the year:

In It's Own Segment:

The Bible

Fiction:

1) Freedom
2) One Day
3) Tinkers
4) The Road
5) The Girl Who Played with Fire (favorite of the trilogy)

NonFiction:

1) What Technology Wants
2) The Glass Castle
3) Game Change


Books I Wish I Hadn't Read:


1) Wolf Hall (never finished)
2) Mastering the Marathon (nothing in the book I didn't already know)


Weirdest Juxtaposition of Reading:


Completed Freedom and went to start Decision Points by George Bush. Just couldn't do it so I had to put two books in between and carry Decision Points to 2011 (already done and I liked it a lot - surprisingly).


Best Page-turner:


The Girl Who Played with Fire


Most Challenging Read (outside of Wolf Hall):

Let the Great World Spin and What Technology Wants


Book Most Recommended to Others to Read:


What Technology Wants



Most Read Authors of 2010:


Laarson and McCarthy



2010 Reading List:



Game Change - Heilemann & Halperin

Let The Great World Spin - McCann

The Road - McCarthy

The Glass Castle - Walls

The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo - Laarson

(d) One Day - Nicholls

The End of Major Combat Operations - McDonell

The Girl Who Played With Fire - Laarson

(d) Mudbound - Jordan

(d) Await Your Reply - Chaon

(d) The Whiskey Rebels - Liss

(d) Tinkers - Harding (2009 Pulitzer Winner)

(d) Little Bee - Cleave

(d) Pearl Buck In China - Spurling

Racing Weight - Fitzgerald

The Sunset Limited - McCarthy

What Technology Wants - Kelly

Blood Type Diet A - Christiano

The Holy Bible -

(d) Freedom - Franzen

(d) Mastering the Marathon - Nix

(d) Blood Meridian - McCarthy


(d) digital version