I began keeping a list of every book I read since 1999, so I’m taking advantage of yet another snowy afternoon to look back on what I’ve read over the past decade. This is the first time I’ve read through the lists since I began keeping them, and what is most striking is that they reflect the events of the year. For example, during the years I was in graduate school, I read nearly 100 books per year, but almost all of them were assigned reading. Many, read in the wee hours of the morning, I barely remember. After graduation, I’ve settled back into a pattern of about half of that; between 40 and 50 books per year seems to be the average. Even on those lists, there are books I would be hard pressed to tell someone about. I remember really enjoying Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (December 2002), but I don’t recall any details. After 2005, things become a little clearer.
Based on the past five years, these are the books (adult and young adult’s) that still make my heart jump in recollection of how much I love—and remember—them:
Adults:
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak (I know this is considered a young adult book as well. I put it here because it’s cross-marketed, and because it is the first book on my list regardless of where it’s shelved.)
The Rain Before It Falls by Jonathan Coe
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Atonement (and Saturday) by Ian McEwan
Netherland by Joseph O’Neill
Young Adults:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell
Hunger Games and Firecatcher by Suzanne Collins
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
Sommer Reading 