I’ve said it before: I like this guy Austin Kleon, not least because he’s interested in the creative process, as I am. (Click on creativity in my tag cloud, you’ll see.)
But also because he’s a reader.
When I read Kleon’s post “33 thoughts on reading” about a year ago, I wrote a blog post about it. And I was electrified by number 18: I will keep a list of books I have read. I will share this list.
I’ve been keeping my annual list since 2007. (Now, of course, I wish I’d been doing this since I was Kleon’s age. But … I was busy being a single mom, earning a living, and so on. Oh well. Late bloomer.) But I have kept the lists—and I’m going to share them now (and from now on).
A preface list:
1 It seems that Kleon curates his lists. That is, he only mentions his favorites, he only lists the titles he feels like sharing. But these are my unvarnished, unashamed lists.
2 I’ve been sharing my favorite book of the year since 2012 (and you can see those here: 2012, 2013, 2014).
3 I’ll tag all these posts “#myreadingyear,” just in case you’re interested.
4 I’ve already shared my complete 2014 list. It’s in two posts: nonfiction and fiction. For the sake of continuity, I’ll combine them here.
5 These lists are my pleasure reading. They do not include manuscripts read for work.
6 If I’ve specifically blogged about a title, I’ll link it.
7 Oh, and the classification key is at the bottom. Have fun!
✱ 2007–2008
(A combined year because I could remember what I’d read since I moved house in June 2007, but not when.)
Margaret Atwood / Oryx and Crake / LF
Paul Auster / The Book of Illusions / LF
John Banville / The Sea / LF
Pattie Boyd / Wonderful Tonight / NF
T. C. Boyle / Talk Talk / LF
Libba Bray / A Great and Terrible Beauty / YA
Libba Bray / Rebel Angels / YA
Libba Bray / The Sweet Far Thing / YA
James Lee Burke / Last Car to Elysian Fields / GF
James Lee Burke / Crusader’s Cross / GF
James Lee Burke / Purple Cane Road / GF
James Lee Burke / Jolie Blon’s Bounce / GF
Thomas Cahill / Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea / NF
Joseph Caldwell / The Pig Did It / LF
Eric Clapton / Clapton: The Autobiography / NF
Harlan Coben / Just One Look / GF
Susan Cooper / Over Sea, Under Stone / YF
Susan Cooper / The Dark is Rising / YF
Susan Cooper / Greenwitch / YF
Susan Cooper / The Grey King / YF
Susan Cooper / Silver on the Tree / YF
John Dalton / Heaven Lake / LF
Siobhan Dowd / A Swift Pure Cry / LF
Claudia Emerson / Late Wife / Poetry
Leif Enger / Peace Like a River / LF
Anne Fadiman / The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down / NF
Elizabeth Gilbert / Eat, Pray, Love / NF
Sam Harris / The End of Faith / NF
Peter Hart / Mick: The Real Michael Collins / NF
Nick Hornby / Slam / LF
Nick Hornby / Songbook / NF
Khaled Hosseini / The Kite Runner / LF
Khaled Hosseini / A Thousand Splendid Suns / LF
Sarah Lyall / The Anglo Files / NF
Frances Mayes / A Year in the World / NF
Ian McEwan / Saturday / LF
Stephenie Meyer / Twilight / YA
Stephenie Meyer / New Moon / YA
Stephenie Meyer / Eclipse / YA
Stephenie Meyer / Breaking Dawn / YA
J. R. Moehringer / The Tender Bar / NF
Azar Nafisi / Reading Lolita in Tehran / NF
Michael Ondaatje / Divisadero / LF
Iain Pears / The Portrait / LF
Richard Peck / A Year Down Yonder / YF
Jodi Picoult / The Pact / GF
Jodi Picoult / The Tenth Circle / GF
Jodi Picoult / My Sister’s Keeper / GF
Jodi Picoult / Vanishing Acts / GF
Bob Quinn / The Atlantean Irish / NF
J. K. Rowling / Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows / YF
Richard Russo / Bridge of Sighs / LF
Diane Setterfield / The Thirteenth Tale / LF
Alexander McCall Smith / Friends, Lovers, Chocolate / LF
Alexander McCall Smith / The Right Attitude to Rain / LF
Alexander McCall Smith / Espresso Tales / LF
Alexander McCall Smith / / Love Over Scotland / LF
Alexander McCall Smith / Blue Shoes and Happiness / LF
Jeanette Walls / The Glass Castle / NF
Total = 59
NF = 14
F = 45
Pace = n/a
✱ 2009
Muriel Barbery / The Elegance of the Hedgehog / LF
James Lee Burke / Pegasus Descending / GF
James Lee Burke / Tin Roof Blowdown / GF
Thomas Cahill / Mysteries of the Middle Ages / NF
Frank Delaney / Tipperary / LF
Kate DiCamillo / The Magician’s Elephant / YF
Tana French / In the Woods / GF
John Gimlette / Theatre of Fish / NF
Jonathan Gould / Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles’ Britain & America / NF
Ken Grimwood / Replay / GF
Lauren Groff / The Monsters of Templeton / LF
M. Halasa and R. Salam / The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie / NF
Mohson Hamid / The Reluctant Fundamentalist / LF
Steve Hely / How I Became a Famous Novelist / GF
Nick Hornby / Juliet, Naked / LF
Colin Irwin / In Search of the Craic / NF
Diane Johnson / Le Mariage / LF
Diana Johnson / Lulu in Marrakech / LF
Haven Kimmel / A Girl Named Zippy / NF
Haven Kimmel / She Got Up Off the Couch / NF
Lucy Knisley / French Milk / GNF
Laura Lippman / Life Sentences / GF
Laura Lippman / What the Dead Know / GF
Ian McEwan / On Chesil Beach / LF
Audrey Niffenegger / Her Fearful Symmetry / LF
Philip Norman / John Lennon: The Life / NF
Julie Powell / Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously / NF
Ruth Reichl / Tender at the Bone / NF
Mort Rosenblum / Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark & Light / NF
Richard Russo / That Old Cape Magic / LF
M. A. Shaffer & A. Barrows / The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society / LF
Alexander McCall Smith / The Good Husband of Zebra Drive / GF
Alexander McCall Smith / The Miracle at Speedy Motors / GF
Alexander McCall Smith / The Careful Use of Compliments / GF
Alexander McCall Smith / The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday / GF
Alexander McCall Smith / The Lost Art of Gratitude / GF
Alice Steinbech / Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman / NF
Elizabeth Strout / Olive Kitteridge / LF
Hannah Tinti / The Good Thief / LF
Adriana Trigiani / Very Valentine / GF
Molly Wizenberg / A Homemade Life / NF
Total = 41
NF = 13
F = 28
Pace = 8.9
✱ 2010
Nicholson Baker / The Anthologist / LF
Alan Bradley / The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie / GF
Alan Bradley / The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag / GF
Geraldine Brooks / Year of Wonders / LF
Bill Bryson / At Home: A Short History of Private Life / NF
Andrew Clements / Frindle / YF
Kate DiCamillio / Because of Winn-Dixie / YF
Kate DiCamillio / The Tale of Despereaux / YF
Terry Eagleton / The Truth About the Irish / NF
Dave Eggers / Zeitoun / NF
Elizabeth Gilbert / Committed / NF
Georgette Heyer / Regency Buck / GF
Mary Karr / Lit / NF
Jeff Kinney / Diary of a Wimpy Kid / YF
Christina Baker Kline / The Way Life Should Be / GF
Elizabeth Kostova / The Swan Thieves / LF
David Lebovitz / The Sweet Life in Paris / NF
Kate Morton / The Forgotten Garden / LF
Kate Morton / The House at Riverton / LF
David Nicholls / One Day / LF
Stacey O’Brien / Wesley the Owl / NF
Louise Penny / Still Life / GF
Louise Penny / A Fatal Grace / GF
Louise Penny / The Cruelest Month / GF
Louise Penny / A Rule Against Murder / GF
Alexander McCall Smith / The World According to Bertie / GF
Alexander McCall Smith / The Unbearable Lightness of Scones / GF
Alexander McCall Smith / Tea Time for the Traditionally Built / GF
Thomas McCormack / The Fiction Editor, the Novel, and the Novelist / NF
Håkan Nesser / Borkmann’s Point / GF
Amy Krause Rosenthal / Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life / NF
Jerry Spinelli / Loser / YF
Kathryn Stockett / The Help / LF
Julia Stuart / The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise / LF
Graham Swift / Tomorrow / LF
William Trevor / Love and Summer / LF
Adriana Trigiani / Brava, Valentine / GF
David Foster Wallace / Consider the Lobster / NF
Fareed Zakaria / The Future of Freedom / NF
Total= 39
NF = 11
F = 28
Pace = 9.35
✱ 2011
Christa Allan / The Edge of Grace / LF
Brunonia Barry / The Lace Reader / LF
Aimee Bender / The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake / LF
Alan Bradley / A Red Herring Without Mustard / GF
Alan Bradley / I Am Half-Sick of Shadows / GF
James Lee Burke / Swan Peak / GF
Andrei Codrescu / New Orleans, Mon Amour / NF
Benedetta Craveri / The Age of Conversation / NF
Frank Delaney / Shannon / LF
de Rosnay, Tatiana / Sarah’s Key / LF
David Hackett Fischer / Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America / NF
Jonathan Franzen / Freedom / LF
Tana French / The Likeness / GF
Robert Goddard / In Pale Battalions / LF
Seth Godin / The Dip / NF
Sue Grafton / “A” Is for Alibi / GF
Jeannette Haien / The All of It / LF
Georgette Heyer / The Unknown Ajax / GF
Liz Jensen / The Ninth Life of Louis Draz / LF
Guy Kawasaki / Enchantment / NF
Joyce Magnin / Blame It on the Mistletoe / LF
Joyce Magnin / The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow / LF
Giles Milton / Nathaniel’s Nutmeg / NF
Liane Moriarty / What Alice Forgot / LF
Michael Morpurgo / War Horse / YF
Kate Morton / The Distant Hours / LF
Laura Munson / This Is Not the Story You Think It Is: … Unlikely Happiness / NF
David Nicholls / The Understudy / LF
Louise Penny / The Brutal Telling / GF
Louise Penny / Bury Your Dead / GF
Louise Penny / A Trick of the Light / GF
Susan Elizabeth Phillips / Natural Born Charmer / GF
Michael Pollan / Food Rules / NF
Michael Pollan / The Omnivore’s Dilemma / NF
Charles Portis / True Grit / LF
Ransom Riggs / Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children / YF
Rick Riordan / The Lightning Thief / YF
Alexander McCall Smith / The Charming Quirks of Others / GF
Samantha Sotto / Before Ever After / LF
Shaun Tan / The Arrival / graphic
Cindy Thomson / Brigid of Ireland / GF
Markus Zusak / The Book Thief / YA
Total = 42
NF = 9
F = 33
Pace = 8.69
✱ 2012
Chris Van Allsburg / The Chronicles of Harris Burdick / LF
Jay Asher / Thirteen Reasons Why / YA
Jay Asher, Carolyn Mackler / The Future of Us / YA
Sebastian Barry / A Long, Long Way / LF
Sarah Blake / The Postmistress / LF
Michael Chabon / The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier & Clay / LF*
Loretta Chase / Lord of Scoundrels / GF
Michael Dahlie / A Gentleman’s Guide to Graceful Living / LF
Marc Eliot / Steve McQueen: A Biography / NF
Gillian Flynn / Gone Girl / LF
Tarquin Hall / The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken / GF*
Gabrielle Hamilton / Blood, Bones, and Butter / NF
Chad Harbach / The Art of Fielding / LF
David Levithan / Every Day / YA
Penelope Lively / How It All Began / LF
Penelope Lively / Moon Tiger / LF
Inverna Lockpez & Dean Haspiel / Cuba: My Revolution / GNF
Hilary Mantel / Wolf Hall / LF
Jill Medoff / I Couldn’t Love You More / ICK*
James Meek / The Heart Broke In / LF
Maile Meloy / The Apothecary / YF
David Mitchell / Black Swan Green / YA
David Monagan / Ireland Unhinged: Encounters with a wildly changing country / NF
Erin Morgenstern / The Night Circus / LF
Patrick Ness / A Monster Calls / YA
Josh Neufeld / A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge / GNF
Ann Patchett / State of Wonder / LF
Georgia Pellegrini / Food Heroes: 16 Culinary Artisans / NF
Ian Rankin / Hide and Seek / GF
Ian Rankin / Knots & Crosses / GF
Nigel Slater / Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger / NF
Alexander McCall Smith / The Forgotten Affairs of Youth / GF
Alexander McCall Smith / The Importance of Being Seven / GF
Anne Zimmerman /An Extravagant Hunger: M. F. K. Fisher / NF
Total = 33
NF = 8
F = 24
Pace: = 11.06
✱ 2013
Reza Aslan / Zealot / NF
Kate Atkinson / Life After Life / LF
Chris Bojalian / The Sandcastle Girls / LF*
Amy Brill / The Movement of Stars / LF
Michael Dahlie / The Best of Youth / LF
Vanessa Diffenbaugh / The Language of Flowers / WF
Emma Donoghue / Room / LF
Anne Enright / The Gathering / LF
Louise Erdrich / The Round House / LF
Gillian Flynn / Sharp Objects / GF
Tana French / Broken Harbor / GF
Neil Gaiman / The Ocean at the End of the Lane / FA
Adam Gopnik / The Table Comes First / NF
John Green / The Fault in Our Stars / YA
Michael Hainey / After Visiting Friends / MEM
Dermot Healy / Long Time, No See / LF
Aidan Higgins / Langrishe, Go Down / LF
Michael Hopkinson / Green Against Green / NF
Eddie Huang / Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir / MEM
Molly Keane / Good Behaviour / LF
Laura Anderson Kurk / Glass Girl / YA
Thomas Maltman / Little Wolves / LF
Anouk Markovits / I Am Forbidden / LF
Colum McCann / TransAtlantic / LF
Jon McGregor / So Many Ways to Begin / LF
John E. McIntyre / The Old Editor Says / NF
Jason Merkoski / Burning the Page: The Ebook Revolution… / NF
Claire Messud / The Woman Upstairs / LF
Liane Moriarty / The Husband’s Secret / LF
Patrick Ness / The Knife of Never Letting Go / YA
Patrick Ness / The Ask and the Answer / YA
Patrick Ness / Monsters of Men / YA
Kate O’Brien / The Land of Spices / LF
Mary Oliver / New & Selected Poems, Vol. 1 / poetry
Michael Paterniti / The Telling Room / NF
Caroline Paul / Lost Cat / NF
Louise Penny / The Beautiful Mystery / GF
Louise Penny / How the Light Gets In / GF
DBC Pierre / Vernon God Little / LF
Ramona Richards / Memory of Murder / GF
Meg Rosoff / Picture Me Gone / YA
Orna Ross / After the Rising / LF
Orna Ross / Before the Fall / LF
Gary D. Schmidt / Okay for Now / MG
Maria Semple / Where’d You Go, Bernadette / LF
Jacqueline Sheehan / Now & Then / FA (also, it’s crap)
Alexander McCall Smith / The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds / LF
M. L. Stedman / The Light Between Oceans / LF
Colm Tóibín / The Blackwater Lightship / LF
Colm Tóibín / The Testament of Mary / LF
Sarah Waters / Fingersmith / LF
Elizabeth Wein / Code Name: Verity / YA
Jincy Willett / Amy Falls Down / LF
Meg Wolitzer / The Interestings / LF
Total = 54
Fiction = 46
Nonfiction = 8
Pace = 6.75
✱ 2014
Carol Anshaw / Carry the One / LF
Diana Athill / Somewhere Towards the End / MEM
Diana Athill / Stet: An Editor’s Life / MEM
Elizabeth Bard / Lunch in Paris / NF
Julian Barnes / Levels of Life / NF
Jean-Dominique Bauby / The Diving Bell & the Butterfly / MEM
Katherine Boo / Behind the Beautiful Forevers / NF
John Bradshaw / Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science … / NF
Susannah Cahalan / Brain on Fire / MEM
Paul Collins / The Trouble With Tom / NF
Patrick Comerford / Embracing Difference / NF
Cara De Silva, ed. / In Memory’s Kitchen / NF
Edmund de Waal / The Hare with Amber Eyes / MEM
Kate di Camillo / The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane / MG
Rachel Held Evans / A Year of Biblical Womanhood / NF
Anne Fadiman / Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader / NF
Richard Ford / Canada / LF
Gayle Forman / If I Stay / YA
Gayle Forman / Where She Went / YA
Karen Joy Fowler / We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves / LF
Michael Gates Gill / How Starbucks Saved My Life / NF
John Green / An Abundance of Katherines / YA
Hugh Halter / Flesh / NF
Ben Hatch / Are We Nearly There Yet? / NF
Colleen Hoover / Slammed / YA
Joshilyn Jackson / Someone Else’s Love Story / GF
Jenny B. Jones / Can’t Let You Go / YA
Douglas Kennedy / Leaving the World / LF*
Piper Kerman / Orange Is the New Black / MEM
Julie Kibler / Calling Me Home / WF
James Lasdun / Give Me Everything You Have / MEM
Greg Lawrence / Jackie as Editor / NF
Lois Lowry / The Giver / MG
Anthony Marra / A Constellation of Vital Phenomena / LF
Grace McCleen / The Land of Decoration / LF
Ian McEwan / The Children Act / LF
Liz Moore / Heft: A Novel / LF
Liane Moriarty / The Hypnotist’s Love Story / WF
F. Ndabatamiye, A. Parker / Frederick / MEM
Jandy Nelson / I’ll Give You the Sun / YA
David Nicholls / Us / LF
Ann Patchett / Truth and Beauty / MEM
Rajdeep Paulus / Swimming Through Clouds / YA
Louise Penny / The Long Way Home / GF
William Powers / Hamlet’s Blackberry / NF
Joe Queenan / One for the Books / NF
Phyllis Rose / The Shelf / NF
Meg Rosoff / The Bride’s Farewell / LF
Rainbow Rowell / Eleanor and Park / YA
Donal Ryan / The Spinning Heart / LF
Will Schwalbe / The End of Your Life Book Club / MEM
David Sedaris / When You Are Engulfed in Flames / NF
Maurice Sendak / Caldecott & Co. / ESS
Joshua Wolf Shenk / Powers of Two / NF
Rebecca Skloot / The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks / NF
Gary Taubes / Why We Get Fat / NF
Barbara Brown Taylor / Learning to Walk in the Dark / NF
Colm Tóibín / Nora Webster / LF
Carol Wall / Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening / MEM
Patricia J. Williams / Open House / ESS
Simon Winchester / Krakatoa / NF
Simon Winchester / The Professor and the Madman / NF
James Wood / How Fiction Works / NF
Daniel Woodrell / The Maid’s Version / LF
Sara Zarr / The Lucy Variations / YA
Total = 64.5 *
NF = 37
F = 28
Pace = 5.6
Classification Key:
FA = fantasy
GF = genre fiction
GN = graphic novel (or graphic nonfiction GNF)
LF = literary fiction [very loosely defined]
MEM = memoir
NF = nonfiction
WF = women’s fiction
YA = young adult fiction
YF = youth fiction
ESS = essays
* = gave up on it
So that’s it. My 2015 list will be a separate post.
Tweet: Do you share your reading list? Here’s mine.
Tweet: I’ve been keeping my annual reading list since 2007. Late bloomer.
Tweet: These are my unvarnished, unashamed lists. Good, bad, ugly.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”