Saturday, January 05, 2008

The First Annual Bibliolatry Awards

I've been dreading a recap of my year's readings, because I knew all the linking would be a pain in the ass. Not surprisingly, it was.

To follow is a list of all the books I've read this year. All links are internal and will take you to my review. At the end of this post, I'll give out some awards.


JANUARY

1. Divided Kingdom, by Rupert Thomson
2. White Apples, by Jonathan Carroll
3. Revenge, by Stephen Fry
4. The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield
5. Earth Abides, by George Stewart
6. Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner


FEBRUARY

7. Fallen, by David Maine
8. Mailman, by J. Robert Lennon
9. Frog King, by Adam Davies
10. Many Lives, Many Masters, by Brian Weiss, M.D.


MARCH

11. H.P. Lovecraft: Tales
12. Fluke, by Christopher Moore
13. Next, by Michael Crichton


APRIL

14. The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova
15. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
16. Reading Like a Writer, by Francine Prose
17. The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
18. How I Became a Nun, by Cesar Aira
19. The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, by George Saunders
20. Bastard out of Carolina, by Dorothy Allison


MAY

21. Remainder, by Tom McCarthy
22. Misfortune, by Wesley Stace
23. New Sudden Fiction, edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas
24. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
25. The Marquise of O-- and Other Stories, by Heinrich von Kleist
26. Zodiac, by Robert Graysmith


JUNE

27. Unspun, by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson
28. Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy
29. State of Fear, by Michael Crichton
30. The Butterfly Revolution, by William Butler
31. Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy
32. Cosmicomics, by Italo Calvino
33. On the Road, by Jack Kerouac
34. New British Poetry, edited by Don Paterson and Charles Simic
35. The Book of Nightmares, by Galway Kinnell
36. Grendel, by John Gardner
37. The Ghost Writer, by John Harwood
38. The Fortress of Solitude, by Jonathan Lethem
39. The Collector, by John Fowles


JULY

40. Eeeee Eee Eeee, by Tao Lin
41. Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen
42. Everything's Eventual, by Stephen King
43. Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks
44. Light of Day, by Jamie Saul
45. The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick
46. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, by Philip K. Dick
47. Philosophy in the Boudoir, by Marquis de Sade
48. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
49. Ubik, by Philip K. Dick
50. Hell Hath No Fury: Women's Letters from the End of the Affair, edited by Anna Holmes


AUGUST
51. Klepto, by Jenny Pollack
52. Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn
53. Come Closer, by Sara Gran
54. We Need to Talk about Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
55. Bag of Bones, by Stephen King
56. More Than Human, by Theodore Sturgeon
57. The Voice at 3:00 A.M., by Charles Simic


SEPTEMBER

58. The Zombie Survival Guide, by Max Brooks
59. Life Before Man, by Margaret Atwood
60. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
61. The Girl Next Door, by Jack Ketchum
62. Samedi the Deafness, by Jesse Ball
63. Men Like Bars, Women Don't Have a Penis, by Iron Balz
64. Who Stole the Funny?, by Robby Benson


OCTOBER

65. Deeper, by Jeff Long
66. A Spot of Bother, by Mark Haddon
67. The Fifth Child, by Doris Lessing
68. The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold


NOVEMBER

69. The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson
70. Atonement, by Ian McEwan
71. The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs
72. The Grass is Singing, by Doris Lessing


DECEMBER

73. Bee Balms & Burgundy, by Nelson Pahl
74. Saturday, by Ian McEwan
75. The Long Walk, by Stephen King
76. The Book of Dave, by Will Self
77. Hell House, by Richard Matheson

So, how'd I do? Well, for one, I'm pissed that I didn't even read more books, but for the record, I've read several more that I simply haven't had the time to review yet. If I count them, I'm at 82. Respectable, sure, but I can do better.

Now for the Bibliolatry Awards. Drumroll, please.


THE BEST
Winner: Atonement, by Ian McEwan
Runner up: The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

THE WORST
Winner: White Apples, by Jonathan Carroll
Winner: State of Fear, by Michael Crichton
Runner up: Fluke, by Christopher Moore

MOST DISAPPOINTING (A.K.A. COULDA BEEN SO MUCH BETTER)
Winner: The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova
Runner up: The Zombie Survival Guide, by Max Brooks

MOST SURPRISING (IN A GOOD WAY)
Winner: Deeper, by Jeff Long
Winner: The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
Runner up: Misfortune, by Wesley Stace

MOST TERRIFYING
Philosophy in the Boudoir, by Marquis de Sade

PAINFUL BUT AWE INSPIRING
Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy

PAINFUL AND SHITTY
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac

7 comments:

The Library Nook said...

Some good reads on there and some I haven't read so I will have to look out for those! Well done for your hard work getting all those together:)

ErinPaperbackstash said...

Sadly I've only read one of those books, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Such a shame, there's so many books out there I Just never get to

JRH456 said...

I stumbled upon your blog through a couple other links and I am going to make sure that I add it to my blogroll!

I am a manager of a bookstore (company name ommitted) and also a fairly avid reader, although I read so much less now that I work for a bookstore!

Anyway- The Road by Cormac McCarthy is by far one of the best books I read in the past couple years, an I am currently reading Blood Meridian! Also, I will recommend Shadow of the Wind. Not anything like McCarthy but a fantastic book.

Happy Blogging and check out my blog at www.jrh456.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Ah, the Bibliolatrist has out shined the RabbitReader. I lagged in my reading the last two weeks of the year because of the holidays, family visits, etc, etc, and I only had a paltry 76 books.

This was the first time i ever counted, so now I have a benchmark, and my goal this year is to crack 100.

-Chiron

Anonymous said...

I agree with all of your awards. Now, the possibilities for a new year... doesn't that excite you?

Unknown said...

definitely book marking this for future refernce- Thank you for all the links. Nice job. Will you be at THE AWP in NYC at the end of the month? I'll be there JAn 31-Feb 3 stalking JOhn Irving

Linda
linda.sands@charter.net

Anne Brooke said...

The Time Traveller's Wife - it's sooo fab!!

:))

A
xxx