Reading and Resolutions: 2009

Five Books I Wished I Had Read in 2008 and Planned to Read in 2009
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo check
The Mind of the Maker, by Dorothy Sayers check
Manalive, by G. K. Chesterton check
Mystery and Manners, by Flannery O'Connor check!
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy check

Best New Discoveries of 2009
Author: G.K. Chesterton (Orthodoxy, Father Brown stories)
Novel: Listening Valley, by D.E. Stevenson

Favorite Classic
This is tough. I should say Anna or Les Mis, but I'm not sure... Maybe Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens?

Favorite Mystery
Murder Must Advertise, by Dorothy Sayers

Greatest Reading Accomplishment
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo

Biggest Failure to Complete
Don Quixote, by Miguel Cervantes (again)

Favorite Reread
Jellicoe Road, by Melina Marchetta

Books I Won't Be Reading Again
Kiss Me, Kill Me, by Lauren Henderson
The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan
Wise Blood, by Flannery O'Connor
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, by Gregory Maguire
Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Young Unicorns, by Madeleine L'Engle

Books I Didn’t Think Would Be That Great But Ended Up Amazing
North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell
Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson

Books I Thought Would Be Amazing But Really Weren't That Great
A Brief History of Montmaray, by Michelle Cooper
The Reluctant Heiress, by Eva Ibbotson


Total count for 2009:
113 books. That's an exact tie with last year!

Books I Plan to Listen to in 2010
Middlemarch, by George Elliot
The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexander Dumas
Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens
Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Plus read the King James Bible again: in five months.


PHEW!

9 comments:

brilynne said...

I don't blame you for not finishing Don Quixote. I couldn't stand the book.

Reading Middlemarch now. Eliot is astoundingly astute in her observations of human nature.

Kelly said...

Jellicoe Road! I want to reread that, thanks for putting the idea in my head on the eve before I go spend all my gift card money at the local bookstore. :)

Noël De Vries said...

I am looking forward to Middlemarch, Bria. It's next on the list.

And Kelly, prepare yourself. I was dubious, but it actually IS humanly possible to adore Jellicoe MORE the second time!

hopeinbrazil said...

I liked your list, especially the categories for books that were surprisingly good and those that were amazingly not.

Laura said...

Just about everything by D.E. Stevenson is good!

Baley Petersen said...

I like your list! Anna Karenina is one of my all time faves. And I really enjoyed the Percy Jackson series. It's fun.

Sherry said...

I got my Bleak House read! (You'd helped me to decide to read that before NN. I liked it :) How can I not love anything Dickens, it seems.

Did you read the unabridged Les Mis?
My son read the abridged this year and decided that was enough.

Noël De Vries said...

hurrah for bleak house--and for you for sticking it out!

yes, unabridged... yikes. your son probably got just as much out of the shortened version as i did from the monster, rabbit-trail version. :) watched the liam neeson film on new year's ... talk about shortened version! but i liked it.

Maroussia said...

It will be great to watch Les Miserables, i have bought tickets from
http://ticketfront.com/event/Les_Miserables-tickets looking forward to it.