Sunday, January 1, 2012

reading list rundown 2011

Just like my reading list rundowns for 2010 2009 and 2008, I present you with the books I read in 2011. I'm a little sad I to admit I've read less books this year than last, though I would like to think the fact that I got married in the middle of the year gives me a little bit of an excuse. Also, you'll see a preference to a few authors in there. One of which (Emily Giffin) seemed great for pre-wedding reading and the other two (Neal Shusterman and Nancy Werlin) were authors that visited the Omaha area so I wanted to get more familiar with their works. The asterisk indicates the book I read that was on my booklists. Clearly, that's something I need to get better about as well. Links are provided for reviews (hopefully more coming soon). Bolded books were my top 8 of the year.


January - Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain, Portia de Rossi
January - Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson
January - Emotionally Engaged: A Bride's Guide to Surviving the "Happiest" Time of Her Life, Allison Moir-Smith
February - The Imperfectionists, Tom Rachman
February - Goodbye, Chunky Rice, Craig Thompson
February - Hector and the Search for Happiness, Francois Lelord
March - The Giver, Lois Lowry
March - Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
March - Lock and Key, Sarah Dessen
April - William & Kate: A Royal Love Story, James Clench
April - A Place of Yes: 10 Rules for Getting Everything You Want Out Of Life, Bethenny Frankel
April - The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (while one of my absolute favorite books, I'm not bolding it since this is somewhere around the fourth or fifth time I've read this book)
April - The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler
May - Something Borrowed, Emily Giffin
May - Something Blue, Emily Giffin
May - Love the One You're With, Emily Giffin
June - What Happened To Goodbye, Sarah Dessen
June - Bossypants, Tina Fey
June - The Secret Circle: Initiation and The Captive Part 1, L.J. Smith
June - Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell

July - The Secret Circle: The Captive Part 2 and The Power, L.J. Smith
July - The Help, Kathryn Stockett
August - One Day, David Nicholls
August - Beastly, Alex Flinn
September - Dread Locks, Neal Shusterman
September - Dirty Little Secrets, C.J. Omololu
September - Bruiser, Neal Shusterman
October - The Best Advice I Ever Got, Katie Couric
October - The Year We Left Home, Jean Thompson
October - Everlost, Neal Shusterman
November - A Visit from the Goon Squard, Jennifer Egan
November - The Killer's Cousin, Nancy Werlin
November - The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick
November - Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs
November - The Rules of Survival, Nancy Werlin
December - Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), Mindy Kaling
December - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson*


2011= 37 books read
2010 = 42 books read
2009 = 30 books read
2008 = 33 books read

3 comments:

Charlotte said...

I know you're a librarian and all, but I'm totally impressed by the number of books on here! I always say I want to read more, any tips on making it happen?

melanie said...

You're right that being a librarian helps - mostly because I'm surrounded by books and have the opportunity to see so many interesting ones. This ensures that I almost never get to a point where I have nothing to read.
As for finding time to read them, I don't have the best solution other than making time (and if it's a good book, this will be easier to do and you won't even regret staying up until 3 a.m. reading it like I was doing last night).
Finally, never feel like you have to finish a book if you don't like it. It took me a long time to get to this point, but no one is forcing you to read the book (unless, of course, it's for class or a book club). Nancy Pearl, a rock star in the library world, says if you don't like it after the first 50 pages, move on to something you like better which goes back to the other point about if you like it - you'll want to read it faster.
Hope that helps! If I think of anything else to add, I'll let you know ... or maybe make it into it's own blog post!

melanie said...

Another thing I thought of that helps - audiobooks. Since I work two jobs and drive a lot, I also listen to books a lot. 11 of the books on this year's list were audiobooks. The only problem sometimes is whether you like the narrator of the book. There have been a few I've just stopped listening too because I just didn't like the voice reading it.

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