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For me, this was a great year of reading!
The Millions is running a neat series of essays, asking people to look back and reflect on the books they read this year. I love this idea!I can't talk about my reading this year without talking about the mechanics. I can divide 2011 into two halves: The Borders Era and The Kindle Era. Up until June or so, I was a Borders.com addict. I bought SO MANY BOOKS using their constant flow of email coupons, plus the free shipping on orders over $25.
Then Borders went under, and I mourned. For about two weeks. Then I scraped together the money to buy myself a Kindle for my birthday, and my reading life was changed forever. The Kindle makes reading fun, and it makes it SO EASY for me to buy books. And there are a lot of great deals on Kindle books if you keep an eye out - this blog became my favorite alert system for cheap Kindle books.
I read more this year than any other year of my adult life. One reason being that I committed to reading every day, even if it was only 10 minutes. One of my tricks was to set a kitchen timer for 30 minutes before I sat down to read. This created a sort of "walled garden" when I knew I could relax and just enjoy the book without getting distracted by the million other things always vying for my attention. It's amazing how many books you end up reading if you actually, like, devote time to reading.
2011 brought so many great books! It was hard to winnow down the list.
Non-Fiction
Bossypants, Tina Fey: As great as this book was, I listened to the audiobook version, which Tina Fey reads herself, thus making the experience better by a factor of 4.
A Life In Stitches, Rachael Herron: Set a new standard for the knitting memoir.
The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson: Possibly one of the most useful non-fiction books I've ever read.
Richistan, Robert Frank: A fascinating look into the lives of the 1%.
Fiction
Winter's Bone, Daniel Woodrell: Bleak, heartbreaking, and engrossing.
Achewood V. 2 and 3, Chris Onstad: Bleak, heartbreaking, and engrossing.
Most Puzzling Failure: Embassytown. I have been a China Mieville fan since Perdido Street Station was published in 2000. But for some reason, I just couldn't get into Embassytown.
Book I'm Most Likely to Read Again: a tie between Jonathan Franzen's Freedom and Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping
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