2008 Book Update...

For those of you who have been loyal readers for a long time, you'll remember that at the beginning of the year, I put together a list of 50 books to read this year. Well, this is the update, and it isn't pretty. I read a total of 12 off the list.

() The Fall (Camus)
() American Creation (Ellis)
(X) Man Gone Down (Thomas)
()World Without End (Follett)
()The Pillars of the Earth - re-read (Follett)
(X)Gentlemen of the Road (Chabon)
(X)The Yiddish Policemen's Union (Chabon)
(X)The Other Boleyn Girl (Gregory)
()Team of Rivals (Kearns)
()The Mascot (Kurzem)
(X)Then We Came to the End (Ferris)
()The Russian Concubine (Furnivall)
(X)Jane Eyre (Bronte)
()Thunderstruck (Larson)
()Schulz and Peanuts (Michaelis)
(X)A Thousand Splendid Suns (Hosseini)
()Tree of Smoke (Johnson)
()On the Road (Kerouac)
()The Savage Detectives (Bolano)
()Midnight's Children (Rushdie)
()The Fortress of Solitude (Lethem)
()A People's History of the United States (Zinn)
()The World is Flat (Friedman)
()Kabul Beauty School (Rodriguez)
()1776 (McCullough)
()My Life (Clinton)
()The Myth of the Rational Voter (Caplan)
()A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
(X)Eat Pray Love (Gilbert)
()The End of Poverty (Sachs)
()The Plot Against America (Roth)
()Ragtime (Doctorow)
()Parting the Waters (Branch)
()From Beirut to Jerusalem (Friedman)
(X)Clapton: The Autobiography (Clapton)
()What is the What (Eggers)
()White Teeth (Smith)
()Breakfast of Champions (Vonnegut)
()The Inheritence of Loss (Desai)
()The Good Earth (Buck)
()Boom! Voices of the Sixties (Brokaw)
(X)Daughter of Fortune (Allende)
(X)The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao (Diaz)
()Manhunt: The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer (Swanson)
()The Guns of August (Tuchman)
()Catch-22 (Heller)
()The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway)
()Marie Antoinette (Fraser)
()The Crimson Petal and the White (Faber)
()Emma (Austen)
(X)A Free Life (Jin)

The good news is, I still read 41 books this year:


Daughter of Fortune (Allende)
The Handmaid's Tale (Atwood)
Away (Bloom)
Jane Eyre (Bronte)
Debbie Harry Sings in French (Brothers)
Gentlemen of the Road (Chabon)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union (Chabon)
Clapton: The Autobiography (Clapton)
The Chocolate War (Cromier)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Diaz)
One for the Money (Evanovich)
Two for the Dough (Evanovich)
Then We Came to the End (Ferris)
Mistress of the Art of Death (Franklin)
The Serpent's Tale (Franklin)
Eat Pray Love (Gilbert)
The Constant Princess (Gregory)
The Other Boleyn Girl (Gregory)
The Nick Adams Stories (Hemingway)
A Thousand Splendid Suns (Hosseini)
A Free Life (Jin)
Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Lindsay)
Memories of My Melancholy Whores (Marquez)
No Country for Old Men (McCarthy)
The Book of Lies (Meltzer)
Twilight (Meyer)
New Moon (Meyer)
American Nerd (Nugent)
Snuff (Palahniuk)
The Golden Compass (Pullman)
The Enchantress of Florence (Rushdie)
Persepolis (Satrapi)
Naked (Sedaris)
Child 44 (Smith)
The Art of Racing in the Rain (Stein)
Man Gone Down (Thomas)
Tell Me Where It Hurts (Trout)
Chasing Harry Winston (Weisberger)
This Common Secret (Wicklund)
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (Wroblewski)
The Book Thief (Zusak)

Out of the books I read, I would have to say my favorite was "The Art of Racing in the Rain". I read this book while I was on vacation for a few days in Cleveland, and it was hard for me to put down. I fell in love with the main character Enzo, who happens to be a dog. It made me laugh and cry, and I highly recommend this book to everyone.

I haven't decided yet if I am going to make a 2009 list, or just say that I'm going to try to read 50 books. I noticed during the year that my reading tastes change quite a bit, and I did expand my horizons by reading some books I wouldn't normally read. In the process, I've come across some fun reads (such as Janet Evanovich and the Twilight series).

I will keep y'all posted!