A GOAL MET

As I mentioned in the previous post, I have had a goal for how many books I wanted to read in a year. I set the goal of 36 books for myself back in 2001 and this year I finally broke through. That first year I read 30, followed by years of 33, 34, 35, and then 38 this year. That is a grand total of 170 books in five years, an average of 34 a year. You know, seeing that number just seems astounding. I never thought of the grand totals, just about trying to reach the goal and hoping to enjoy everything I picked up. Naturally, not everything appealed and I had a few abandoned books along the way or others that took me a longer time to get through. On the whole, though, I was successful in enjoying at least parts of a book.

The author I read the most was T.C. Boyle. I believe I read all of his books during the past five years (I don't have an accurate record for 2001) for a total of 13 (his Stories collection contains everything from 4 previous story collections). He is one of my favorite writers after all.

I thought I would deliver a top twenty of the books I've read during this project. It puts a nice cap on things and helps to set the stage for the second half of my reading decade. And as always with this types of lists, on another day things could be different...

1. The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque by Jeffrey Ford
2. Stories by T.C. Boyle
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
4. The Fantasy Writer's Assistant by Jeffrey Ford
5. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
6. John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead
7. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
8. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
9. The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle
10. Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix by J.K. Rowling
11. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
12. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
13. Critical Space by Greg Rucka
14. Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link
15. Set This House in Order by Matt Ruff
16. Little Children by Tom Perrotta
17. Counting Heads by David Marusek
18. The Savage Girl by Alex Shakar
19. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
20. Parasites Like Us by Adam Johnson