reading list rundown 2008

The following is the list of books read, in full, in 2008:

January - The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon
January - Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon
February - V for Vendetta, Alan Moore
February - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon
February - Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History, Art Spiegelman
February - Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began, Art Spiegelman
March – Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer
March - Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer
March - Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
March - The Little Black Book of Style, Nina Garcia
April - Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
April - The Dive From Clausen’s Pier, Ann Packer
May – Persepolis I: The Story of A Childhood, Marjane Satrapi
May - Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library, Don Borchert
May - Persepolis II: The Story of A Return, Marjane Satrapi
June – Reasons To Live, Amy Hempel
June - At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, Amy Hempel
June - I Was Told There’d Be Cake, Sloane Crosley
July - The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need, Daniel H. Pink
July - Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
July - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
August - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
August - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
August - Library 2.0 A Guide to Participatory Library Service, Michael E. Casey and Laura C. Savastinuk
September - Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
September - New Moon, Stephenie Meyer
September - Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer
September - Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
October - Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Anne Lamott
November - Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell
November - The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama
November - My Antonia, Willa Cather
November - Local Wonders: Season in the Bohemian Alps, Ted Kooser

You'll see I did pretty good on "themed" months for awhile until the summer hit. January was Michael Chabon month. February was comic book/graphic novel related items. March was Jon Krakauer month with a little bit of fashion advice thrown in. April was fiction, May was non-fiction, June was short stories. July and August were a sort of hodgepodge of books. I was going to start re-reading all the Harry Potter books in anticipation for the next movie but then the movie's release date got changed to this summer. Then instead I went to the Twilight series (and I still need to see the movie) and finished up the month with some non-fiction and some Nebraska literature. Not too bad.

I liked the idea of the themes but I'm not sure I'll be keeping it up this year. I started Anna Karenina in December but am still no where near finishing it. I want to get that out of the way and then continue on to the following list for 2009 (in no particular order):

Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Lynne Truss (one I've owned for years and haven't actually read yet.)
Blindness, José Saramago
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson (another owned for years)
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
Persuasion, Jane Austen
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Gregory Maguire

Suggestions are definitely welcome for others you think I should add to that list.

Also, for some book cover eye candy, check out this nifty new site stumbled upon via kottke.org. It's called The Book Cover Archive and has hundreds of interesting and pretty book covers.