It is not a comprehensive list, as it only includes new books that I actually completed. So, I didn't include any of the books I revisited, and I didn't include any new books I didn't finish. There were more of those this year than ever before. I think having an MFA has made me a bit of a book snob.
Before we get to the actual list, I did a little analysis this year of my genre reading habits:
Sorry for the blurry screen shot. I'm still using the 2003 version of Office and it hates me. Hates. me.
Anyway, so what the data tells me is that I started out 2008 reading a lot of fiction, and ended it reading a lot of crime. I also think it's interesting that my reading rate was relatively low during the months that I was unemployed (July-September, when I was spending my time divided between Six Feet Under and the Winter Cache Garden) and highest during the month I started working again (October, when I was practicing being an overacheiver).
OK, so here's the list. The first ten are my favorites, in no particular order and for no particular reason except that they continue to live in my head for one reason or another. These are the books I'm still thinking about, and most likely I wrote down a couple of quotes from them in my handy-dandy Moleskine.
The rest after that are in roughly the order I read them.
| Author | Title |
| Eggers, Dave | What Is the What |
| Brockmeier, Kevin | The Brief History of the Dead |
| Rak, Mary Kidder | A Cowman's Wife |
| Lowenthal, Michael | Charity Girl |
| Larson, Erik | Devil in the White City |
| Whitman, Walt | Leaves of Grass |
| Kyle, Aryn | The God of Animals |
| Thomas, Will | Some Danger Involved |
| Millhauser, Steven | Dangerous Laughter |
| Barlow, Toby | Sharp Teeth |
| King, Stephen | Lisey's Story |
| Updike, John | Terrorist |
| McGuire, Gregory | What the Dickens |
| Shawn, Allen | Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life |
| Lehane, Dennis | Coronado |
| Beller, Thomas | The Sleep-Over Artist |
| Hardinge, Frances | Fly By Night |
| Long, David | The Inhabited World |
| Goodman, Allegra | Intuition |
| McKewan, Ian | On Chesil Beach |
| Halberstam, David | Firehouse |
| Shah, Saira | The Storyteller's Daughter |
| Winterson, Jeannette | Tanglewreck |
| McCarthy, Cormac | No Country for Old Men |
| Ondaatje, Michael | Devisadero |
| Hegi, Ursula | The Vision of Emma Blau |
| Litman, Ellen | The Last Chicken in America |
| Bachman, Richard | Blaze |
| Hawthorne, Nathaniel | The Scarlet Letter |
| Grant, Richard | Another Green World |
| DeLillo, Don | Falling Man |
| King, Stephen | Best American Short Stories of 2007 |
| Clark, Joshua | Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life in its Disaster Zone |
| Connolly, John | The Book of Lost Things |
| Chabon, Michael | Gentlemen of the Road |
| Breslin, Jimmy | The Good Rat |
| Burroughs, Augustin | Running With Scissors |
| Roth, Philip | Everyman |
| Gaiman, Neil | Fragile Things |
| Burroughs, Augustin | Dry |
| Montiel, Dito | A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints |
| Burroughs, Augustin | Magical Thinking |
| Boylan, Jennifer Finney | I'm Looking Through You |
| Dully, Howard | My Lobotomy |
| Russo, Richard | Bridge of Sighs |
| Stowe, Harriet Beeche | Uncle Tom's Cabin |
| Henderson, Bill | Pushcart Prize XXXI: Best of the Small Presses |
| Lightman, Alan | Ghost |
| Griffith, Nicola | Always |
| Bloom, Elizabeth | The Mortician's Daughter |
| Erdrich, Louise | The Plague of Doves |
| Creech, Sharon | Walk Two Moons |
| Busch, Frederick | Girls |
| Wolf, Naomi | Promiscuities |
| Flynn, Gillian | Sharp Objects |
| Mosley, Walter | Cinnamon Kiss |
| Curtis, Chistopher Paul | Bud, Not Buddy |
| Kirino, Natsuo | Grotesque |
| Steinem, Gloria | Revolution from Within |
| Dillard, Annie | The Maytrees |
| Smith, Zadie | White Teeth |
| Sinha, Indra | Animal's People |
| Horvath, Patty | The Canning Season |
| Smith, Ali | Boy Meets Girl |
| Meyer, Stephenie | Twilight |
| Meyer, Stephenie | New Moon |
| Marr, Melissa | Wicked Lovely |
| Meyer, Stephenie | Eclipse |
| Thomas, Will | To Kingdom Come |
| Montgomery, Sy | The Good Good Pig |
| Cabot, Meg | All-American Girl |
| Sittenfeld, Curtis | Man of my Dreams |
| Thomas, Will | The Limehouse Text |
| Silber, Joan | The Size of the World |
| Farmer, Nancy | Sea of Trolls |
| Westerfeld, Scott | Pretties |
| Westerfeld, Scott | Uglies |
| Westerfeld, Scott | Specials |
| Gerritsen, Tess | The Bone Garden |
| Palahniuk, Chuck | Snuff |
| Thomas, Will | The Hellfire Conspiracy |
| Welch, Irvine | If You Liked School You'll Love Work |
| Oates, Joyce Carol | Blonde |
| Oates, Joyce Carol | Because it is Bitter, and Because it is My Heart |
| Mosley, Walter | Fortunate Son |
| Skye, Obert | Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo |
| Gerritsen, Tess | Gravity |
| Gerritsen, Tess | Bloodstream |
| O'Neill, Heather | Lullabies for Little Criminals |
| Gilbert, Elizabeth | Stern Men |
| Levine, Gail Carson | Fairest |
| Lowry, Lois | The Giver |
| McCrery, Nigel | Still Waters |
| Mosley, Walter | Diablerie |
| Samarasan, Preeta | Evening is the Whole Day |
| Kimmel, Haven | Iodine |
| Junger, Sebastian | A Death in Belmont |
| Cornwall, Patricia | Jack the Ripper: Case Closed |
| Meyer, Stephenie | The Host |
| Sedaris, David | When You Are Engulfed in Flames |
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