I’ve updated my Books in 2009 page. This year I read 18 fiction books and 13 non fiction. Plus (which I haven’t fessed up to), lots more re-reads of various books that I’ve read and re-read over the years. In what I expect is the start of a long term trend, quite a few of the fiction books were books that Chatterboy was reading – not great literature, but surprisingly good reads. I think I’d rather be reading one of those than re-reading books, a lazy habit I’ve increasingly got into over the last few years.
For me, the top rated fiction was a tie between Anathem, by Neal Stephenson, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer. Very different books – Anathem needed a fair bit of concentration, but rewarded it with some fascinating conceptual thinking about the universe, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was frothier, and a lighter read, but with some steel to it underneath. Top rated non fiction was Bailout Nation, How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and shook the world economy, by Barry Ritholtz, with Aaron Task – a very readable polemic about the financial crises, and who was and continues to be to blame for the mess the world financial system got itself into.
I’m not going to make any resolutions about my reading this year – given that my main one last year (which was not to re-read so many books) was a dismal failure.
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