A Year of Reading

At the end of last April I began writing on Facebook about the books I read, later switching to blogging, with links to Facebook, and I am so glad I did, even if few even read the entries. For the first time in my life I have a record of what I read during the year. I wish I had kept a reading log forever.

I looked through my entries today, and, can you believe, I had already forgotten that I read some of them. The list included re-reads of classics and other old favorites, books from the Modern Library Top 100 (I'm aiming to have read all of them by the time I die!), books recommended by friends, best sellers, detective stories, science fiction and fantasy, and one non-fiction book (which has recently been revealed to be mostly fiction: Three Cups of Tea). I also counted them and found that I had read 92 books this year. This surprised me and tells me that maybe I need to get out and about more.

Here is my list of the top 10 books from a year of reading (in no particular order). It does not include books which I re-read.
Deliverance by James Dickey
The Wapshot Chronicles by John Cheever
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgacov (thanks to Aaron Baker)
The Cave by Jose Saramago (thanks to Brandon Watson)
Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shtyngart
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

OK, so that is the top 11. I can count; I just couldn't decide.