Not a compulsion. Just a habit.

I love lists. Lists of 10s, 20s, 100s. The beginning of a new year is great for lists because you can look back at all the stuff you did over the course of the old year and fondly remember without having to take copious notes.

Let me preface by saying that I read a lot and I read very, very quickly. I read an entire book in five hours yesterday. I've always been this way. My parents and I used to go out for dinner every Sunday night when I was younger, and I always had a book with me throughout the entire meal during my elementary and middle school years. I think I was in high school before I would even get into a car without a book. I look at books the way I look at pens - there are a lot and I must use them all.

I'm not one of those people who continues to read a book they don't enjoy. I used to feel bad, thought I owed it to the author to keep going. Then one summer night, while living in a professor's basement, I decided that was stupid and immediately put down the terrible book I was reading. So not everyone is on here - just the ones I finished. Books I loved are marked with *.

Books I read in 2009, in chronological order:

1. Free-Range Knitter: The Yarn Harlot Writes Again, by Stephanie Pearl McPhee.
2. Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk *
3. The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
4. The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum
5. My Secret: A PostSecret Book, by Frank Warren
6. Timeline, by Michael Crichton
7. My Custom Van, by Michael Ian Black
8. The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation, by Elizabeth Berg
9. The Fairy-Tale Detectives (The Sisters Grimm, #1), by Michael Buckley
10. Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag, by Michael Tonello
11. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins *
12. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters, by Mark Dunn
13. Airframe, by Michael Crichton
14. Disclosure, by Michael Crichton
15. Microserfs, by Douglas Coupland
16. Summer at Tiffany, by Marjorie Hart *
17. The Burn Journals, by Brent Runyon
18. Exercises in Style, by Raymond Queneau
19. Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year, by Anne Lamott *
20. Publish and Perish: Three Tales of Tenure and Terror, by James Hynes
21. Waiting for Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Relgions, Five Infertility Doctors, an Oscar, an Atomic Bomb, and a Rom, by Peggy Orenstein
22. The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror, Version 2.0, by Christopher Moore
23. Haunted, by Chuck Palahniuk
24. The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch *
25. It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita, by Heather B. Armstrong
26. The Prestige, by Christopher Priest
27. How We Are Hungry, by Dave Eggers
28. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, by Vincent Bugliosi
29. Live Through This: A Mother's Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love, by Debra Gwartney
30. Diary, by Chuck Palahniuk
31. The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, by Louise Murphy *
32. The Talented Mr. Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith
33. Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut
34. A Dirty Job, by Christopher Moore *
35. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - and - But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes: The Illuminating Diary of a Professional Lady, by Anita Loos
36. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, by Winnifred Watson *
37. Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiterm, by Phoebe Damrosch
38. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood
39. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain
40. Housekeeping vs. The Dirt, by Nick Hornby
41. Firestarter, by Stephen King
42. Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass, Or, Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office, by Jen Lancaster *
43. The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein
44. Such a Pretty Fat: One Narcissist's Quest to Discover if Her Life Makes Her Ass Look Big, or Why Pie is Not the Answer, by Jen Lancaster
45. Izzy & Lenore: Two Dogs, an Unexpected Journey, and Me, by Jon Katz
46. The 101 Dalmations, by Dodie Smith
47. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis
48. Chasing Harry Winston, by Lauren Weisberger
49. Old School, by Tobias Wolff
50. Shakespeare Wrote for Money, by Nick Hornby
51. Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Soroity Girl's Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idios and Why Do They All Live Next Door to Me?, by Jen Lancaster
52. The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments, by David Lebovitz
53. Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America, by Firoozeh Jazayeri Dumas
54. Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, by Bill Buford *
55. Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris
56. The Partly Cloudy Patriot, by Sarah Vowell
57. Taking Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story of the Woman Who Shot at Gerald Ford, by Geri Spieler
58. Heart and Soul, by Maeve Binchy
59. The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion, by King Arthur Flour
60. JPod: A Novel, by Douglas Coupland
61. Skin and Other Stories, by Roald Dahl
62. Bone in the Throat, by Anthony Bourdain
63. The Informers, by Bret Easton Ellis
64. Cheaper by the Dozen, by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr.
65. The Sweet Life in Paris: A recipe for Living in the World's Most Delicious City, by David Lebovitz
66. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larson
67. A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, by Molly Wizenberg
68. The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a shattered Rock Star, by Nikki Sixx
69. Lullaby, by Chuck Palahniuk
70. Under the Table: Saucy Tales from Culinary School, by Katherine Darling
71. The Book of Animal Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know is Wrong, by John Lloyd
72. The Silver Chair, by C.S. Lewis
73. Coraline, by Neil Gaiman
74. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer *
75. Miss Harper Can Do It: A Novel, by Jane Berentson
76. All Families Are Psychotic, by Douglas Coupland *
77. Columbine, by Dave Cullen
78. The Fifth Vial, by Michael Palmer
79. Fraud: Essays, by David Rakoff
80. Peeps, by Scott Westerfeld
81. Edmund and Rosemary Go to Hell, by Bruce Eric Kaplan
82. Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas, by Matthew O'Brient
83. Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden *
84. The Mailbox, by Audrey Shafer * (seriously the saddest book I have ever read - I cried the entire way through)
85. Diary of Indignities, by Patrick Hughes
86. Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction, by Luke Davies
87. Pygmy, by Chuck Palahniuk
88. Going Solo, by Roald Dahl
89. Naked Pictures of Famous People, by Jon Stewart
90. Blankets, by Craig Thompson *
91. Life is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days, by James and Kay Salter
92. The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, by Peter Handke
93. I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir, by Josh Kilmer-Purcell
94. Confections of a Closet Master Baker, by Gesine Bullock-Prado
95. Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism, by Paul S. Collins
96. The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness, by Lori Schiller
97. Commencement: A Novel, by Courtney J. Sullivan
98. A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book, by Frank Warren
99. Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, by Ruth Reichl *
100. Thirty Days Has September: Cool Ways to Remember Stuff, by Chris Stevens
101. Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories, by Kevin Wilson *
102. Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson
103. The Unusual Suspects (The Sisters Grimm, #2), by Michael Buckley
104. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, by Michael Pollan
105. American Wife: A Novel, by Curtis Sittenfeld
106. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
107. From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden, by Amy Stewart
108. Geography Club, by Brent Hartinger

We're five days into the new year and I've already finished three books and have started two more. Although the real test will be to see if I finish Jane Eyre this year - I've been listening to an audio book of it for two years.

Comments

[Jessica]

That's a really amazing list! I'm always fascinated to get your updates on GoodReads, though I realize I'm being a slacker friend by not posting my reads on there, um, ever. You would love my fantastic book club here in St. Louis (though of course it would require the indignity of living in snobby St. Louis)--we've read several on your list so far this year and have discussed reading a few others.

I just started on Operating Instructions, though it's really not grabbing me yet. Is it really a book worth finishing?

[paul]

What did you think of In Defense of Food?