I made it to 38. Most were young adult books (1st, because I took a YA class in college, 2nd, because I want to be able to recommend good books to my students, and 3rd, because the covers are so awesome!), so they were easy to read, but many of them were really awesome. I read a lot of crap (O'Reilly's book was particularly stupid. But of course I was biased before I started it. Not too crazy about hatred in print), and nothing particularly heady, although I read some complicated stuff in my college classes that I didn't list here because they were only excerpts. I also read some other books that I didn't list because they were too short or too dumb, to the point of being embarrassed to list them.
I was always curious of how many books I usually read a year, and 38 is not that great, but it's more than I though. We'll see how I do in 2010.
38. Fight Club By Chuck Palahniuk. I just read this because I had it in my iPod and didn't have anything else around. I loved the first 3/4 of the book. Then it got really silly. Although I already knew what was going to happen because I watched the movie, I don't like how the writer handled the main character's split personality issue, especially when the second personality starts telling the first one about his mental condition. Too Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, but without the beautiful verbosity.
37. Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon By Garrison Keillor. I love Garrison Keillor's novels. He has this awesome ability to describe something in just a few words, and you're there. This is a great book, although nothing much happens; it's mostly recollections by the different characters, but it feels very homey. Keillor is a master of the "light" stream of conscience also. He can take you into someone's head and make you go through their thought processes, disconnected as they usually are, and still don't feel dizzy or bored. Loved it.
36. Standing Up to the Madness By Amy and David Goodman. Really great information on how to stand up against what we see as unjustices, and great examples of people who did. Couldn't help feeling at times that the book was a huge ad for the radio show, though...
35. Smiles to Go By Jerry Spinelli. Spinelli is one of my favorite YA authors. That's why I was so excited about this book. And that's why it is so disappointing that it sucks...
34. The Stonekeeper By Kazu Kibuishi. This is a YA graphic novel that one of my students' parent bought for me, which is nice, but the book is the dumbest crap I've ever read.
34. Freakonomics By Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt. So awesome!! Like the authors say, the book doesn't have a unifying theme, just a bunch of facts analyzed and put together in a very cool way.
33. Lord Loss By Darren Shan. Another YA book. Way stupid. I'm definitely not recommending this to my students... (Although my students recommended it to me!)
32. Common Sense By Glen Beck. Holy cow, this guy is a big time conspiracy theorist! It's too bad you can't see him twitching on the book, though. It would have been funier.
31. To Kill a Mockingbird By Harper Lee. First time I read it. Such a beautiful book.
30. The Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini. So sad.
29. Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future By Will Bunch. Despite its title, it's not really a negative book, it just distinguishes the myths from the facts of his presidency ("Facts are stubborn things," like John Adams would say. Or "Facts are stupid things," like Reagan would say, when quoting John Adams). Reagan was good in many instances, not so good in many others. The bottom line is, he wasn't the amazing real life movie hero that his propaganda campaign made him to be. Tough book to read though: tons of technical information and lots of information in general in each page.
28. Three Shadows By Cyril Pedrosa. I thought it was stupid. But then, it's just my opinion...
27. Paul Goes Fishing By Michel Rabagliati. I got this book because I thought looked cool, and I was amazed to find out that it talks about foster care, infertility issues, etc. all in a very realistic and moving way.
26. Watchmen By Alan Moore. I loved the movie, so I figured I'd read the book. There are a few differences, but it was great also.
25.The Host By Stephanie Mayer. Triple gag. If it wasn't because it was all I had in my iPod while I worked in my yard, and because I really wanted to know what Stephanie Mayer would do in order to make this book interesting, I would've stopped listening to this after the first chapter. I wish I had. The super duper happy ending didn't help either.
24.Death Note By Tsugumi Ohba. Holy crap, that was long. It could've been done in 5 books. After that, it just draaaaaged. Spoilers: the good guys win.
23.A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity By Bill O'Reilly. You can't say I don't try. This is probably the most irrelevant book you'll ever read. Here you will learn what you need to do if you want to be O'Reilly's friend, about the times when he mocked French club employees because of their names, about how he tortured nuns (but it was all "in good fun"), about the times he cheated his customers when he had a painting company, of the times he sabotaged his customers' ice creams when he worked at an ice cream stand, and about at least one felony he committed and of which he seems to be very proud. You'll also be surprised to learn that he likes Bush but hates Carter and Clinton. I know, I know. Shocking. Oh, and by the way, this "is not about him." How do I know, because that's the first thing he says in the book.
22.V for Vendetta By Alan Moore and David Lloyd
21.What Obama Means for Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Future By Jabari Asim: See May 3's entry
20.The I Hate Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity... Reader: Edited by Clint Willis. It's funny, but since it came out four years ago, it feels pretty outdated. A new edition would be awesome.
YA Books I had to read for my class:
19.SOUE: Book 8, The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket. Ditto
18.SOUE: Book 7, The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket. This book is so dumb it's not even funny,and yet, I really need to know what's going to happen next...
17.The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yonel: Once you get past the excruciating intro, the book gets pretty good. The ending is amazing.
16.Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan: Grunt.
15.Little Brother by Cory Doctorow: Interesting book about losing your privacy in time of war and fear mongering. Pretty entertaining, and, best of all, it's free from Doctorow's website. I actually read the whole thing in my cell phone.
14.Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse: Incredibly depressing. It gets better though.
13.The Wish List by Eoin Colfer: It's kind of cute, but the religious part is just weird.
12.Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card: Gag.
11.Whirligig by Paul Fleischman: I saw the guy live, and he was pretty cool. This book, not so much.
10.Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi: Very, very awesome.
9.Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes: I like the multi-voice thing, and the poems explaining what's in the kids heads. I'm not too crazy about the Hispanic stereotypes, though.
8.Catcher in the Rye: First time I read this. Very cool book, although the swearing gets a little annoying (I still can't figure out what's the purpose for the swearing, because there has to be one!).
7.Tangerine, by Edward Bloor: A sort of "Blue Velvet" for middle schoolers.
6.Nothing But the Truth, by Avi: This book made me mad as hell. So I guess it's really good.
5.American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang: Great book about accepting who one is. Not new age crap, though, but actual literature in graphic novel form
4.Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher: I absolutely loved this book. Until the last chapter...
3. Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, by Brandon Sanderson: Even more awesome than its name!
2. Who Ran my Underwear up the Flagpole? by Jerry Spinelli: the worst Spinelli I've read!
1. Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson: interesting
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