2009 reading wrap-up: how did I do?

At the end of 2008, I posted some general thoughts about what I hoped to read during 2009. Looking back at the books I listed, I did read Atonement by Ian McEwan, my short story collection by Chekhov, Crime and Punishment, and The Hungry Self: Women, Eating, and Identity by Kim Chernin. I’m also about a third of the way through Vanity Fair, which I’ve unfortunately “stalled out” with in the past week or so. I won’t finish it in 2009, but I haven’t abandoned it, either; just taking a break to read some poetry, and hoping to get back to it in the next few weeks. My short list of “other novels that are in my sights” are all still in my sights and never got into my hands to read. Makes me a little sad, but I’m trying to think of them as Worlds Still To Be Explored, which sounds pretty cool, right? 😉

So what DID I read in 2009? I read (or listened to) 42 books, having just finished my new Billy Collins book. Here’s the whole list (edited to add ** by my favorites):

1. Atonement — Ian McEwan **
2. Lady with Lapdog and Other Stories — Anton Chekhov
3. So Many Books, So Little Time — Sara Nelson
4. Crime and Punishment — Fyodor Dostoevsky **
5. Dead Souls — Nikolai Gogol
6. To Kill a Mockingbird — Harper Lee **
7. The Leopard — Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
8. Duplicate Keys — Jane Smiley **
9. Intruder in the Dust — William Faulkner
10. Corsons Inlet — A. R. Ammons
11. At Paradise Gate — Jane Smiley
12. The Hungry Self: Women, Eating, and Identity — Kim Chernin
13. Evidence — Mary Oliver **
14. A Book Addict’s Treasury — edited by Lynda Murphy & Julie Rugg
15. Lucy Gayheart — Willa Cather
16. Out Stealing Horses — Per Petterson
17. The Browser’s Ecstasy: a Meditation on Reading — Geoffrey O’Brien
18. Miss Julie — August Strindberg
19. Questions about Angels — Billy Collins
20. The Woman in White — Wilkie Collins **
21. Bleak House — Charles Dickens **
22. Eva Cassidy, Songbird — Rob Burley & Jonathan Maitland
23. I am the Messenger — Markus Zusak
24. Life of Pi — Yann Martel
25. God’s Silence — Franz Wright
26. Strong Feelings: Emotion, Addiction, and Human Behavior — Jon Elster
27. Daphne — Justine Picardie **
28. Walking to Martha’s Vineyard — Franz Wright **
29. Beach Music — Pat Conroy
30. Florida — Christine Schutt **
31. The Progress of Julius — Daphne du Maurier
32. Tiny Alice — Edward Albee
33. Pere Goriot — Honore de Balzac
34. All Souls — Christine Schutt
35. Feed — M. T. Anderson
36. Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters — Scott Rosenberg **
37. Austenland — Shannon Hale ** (guilty pleasure!)
38. The Namesake — Jhumpa Lahiri
39. Man Walks into a Room — Nicole Krauss
40. The White Tiger — Aravind Adiga
41. Native Guard — Natasha Trethewey **
42. Ballistics — Billy Collins

Hopefully I’ll have a chance over New Year’s weekend to post about some reading plans for 2010, probably with fewer specific titles in it than last year’s plan. I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot before I even get started!