A Year in Books

As I posted previously, I now use LibraryThing to keep track of the books I read.

I read, by my count, 26 books this year...although I feel like I am missing a couple.

Here's the list:

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Best American Short Stories edited by Stephen King
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
The Dark Tower (Books 1-7) by Stephen King
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding (for the third time)
March by Geraldine Brooks
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier
Snow by Orhan Pamuk
Stanger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo by Eric Hansen
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace, One School at a Time by Greg Mortensen
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmeal Beah
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff


I just started to list my favorites of the year and I realized I was going to copy half of the list. I really enjoyed almost all of the books I read this year.


If you haven't read it, you MUST read The Poisonwood Bible. It's haunting.

Bel Canto is a great tale, as is Water for Elephants.

The Golden Notebook was fabulous, as was The Name of the Rose. I loved Umberto Eco's style of writing and the historical aspect of the story.

I actually read more non-fiction than normal this year. Stranger in the Forest I read before we took our trip to Malaysia and I loved it. What a great tale of travel and immersion in another culture. I wish I was as brave as the author is when it comes to just letting it all go and living a totally different life. Three Cups of Tea was fascinating and made me realize how much more I could be doing to help change the world. Inspiring.


What did you read this year? What would you recommend?

Feel free to check out my library over at LibraryThing.com.