Wednesday, April 3, 2013

"And to do that, you have to let yourself get hooked."

Beginning in April 2007, I started keeping a list of all the books I'd read the previous year. You can find links to previous years at the bottom of this entry. Without further ado, welcome to 2012-2013, the Year of David Mitchell (or: 26 Books, 17 Authors).

Books
1) Affinity by Sarah Waters
2) The Inner Voice of Love by Henri J.M. Nouwen
3) Lord John and the Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon
4) Following Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci
5) The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett*
6) Queens' Play by Dorothy Dunnett*
7) Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
8) The Disorderly Knights by Dorothy Dunnett*
9) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
10) The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
11) Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
12) Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
13) People by Alan Bennett
14) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle*
15) A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle*
16) A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle*
17) Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle*
18) number9dream by David Mitchell
19) Lions and Shadows: An Education in the Twenties by Christopher Isherwood
20) Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
21) Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
22) We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
23) Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg
24) Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel by C.M. Butzer
25) Down There on a Visit by Christopher Isherwood
26) A Dublin Carol by Conor McPherson

*re-reads

I have continued the trend of reading fewer and fewer books since graduating from college. Although only being able to list 26 books here depresses me, there is cause for hope! So far, I am only 3 books behind my 50-book challenge for 2013, and several of these were read as a direct result of the pressure to keep up with that challenge.

It may well be that I chose my books more carefully this year. It was, after all, a year of author binges and re-reads. Looking over this list now, there are only four I would not re-read, given the chance, and none that inspired the kind of dislike I've felt for books on the list in the past. It was also, my mother would urge me to point out, a good year for female authors.

Top Five of the Year, in descending order
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Down There on a Visit by Christopher Isherwood
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg
Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Past years
2011-2012
2010-2011
2009-2010
2008-2009
2007-2008

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