I made a goal to read fifty-two books this year… which is one book each week of the year. My reading habits aren’t that consistent, so I didn’t know how it would turn out. I tend to read a lot for a few weeks and then go on a break for another couple, with a little reading inbetween. I tried to read more non-fiction this year than I have in previous years and I think that my goal for this coming year will be to read even more, but I can’t help it, I like reading novels. (Also, I know I didn’t have to add the “56 1/2″ to my list, but I’m half-way through a 1,100 + page book — Allen Ginsberg’s collected poetry. It’s difficult to read that many poems straight through, and I didn’t realize this until a dozen or so poems in. I thought I might finish the book before the start of the new year, but I was wrong. I had to add this book because I’ve been reading it on and off since late October, therefore making it a book I’ve read in 2007 — possibly one of the best I’ve read this year)
Books read this year:
56 1/2. Collect Poems 1947-1997 by Allen Ginsberg
56. Either/Or by Soren Kierkegaard
55. Fargo Rock City : A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota by Chuck Klosterman
54. In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
53. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
52. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
51. The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula by Eric Nuzum
50. She Came To Stay by Simone De Beauvoir
49. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
48. The Pargiters: The Novel-Essay Portion of the Years by Virginia Woolf
47. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
46. Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 2: Scott Pilgrim Versus The World by Bryan Lee O’Malley
45. Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
44. Perfect from Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life By John Sellers
43. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
42. Oh The Glory of It All by Sean Wilsey
41. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
40. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
39. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad
38. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
37. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
36. Daydream Nation by Matthew Stearns (33 1/3 series)
35. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
34. The Woman Destroyed by Simone DeBeauvoir
33. How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York by Jacob Riis
32. The Longest Journey by E.M. Forster
31. A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
30. Other Inquisitions: 1937-1952 by Jorge Luis Borges
29. Heavy Metal and You by Chris Krovatin
28. White Teeth: A Novel by Zadie Smith
27. Scott Pilgrim, Volume 1: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O’Malley
26. The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois
25. Collected Articles of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
24. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass
23. A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
22. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
21. Complete Short Fiction by Oscar Wilde
20. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
19. Neal Cassady: The Fast Life of a Beat Hero by David Sandison and Graham Vickers
18. Heaven & Other Poems by Jack Kerouac
17. Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will by William Shakespeare
16. Twenty Years at Hull-House by Jane Addams
15. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness that Changed America by Erik Larson
14. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
13. Dry by Augusten Burroughs
12. Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer’s Guide to Getting It Right by Bill Bryson
11. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
10. The Ice Storm by Rick Moody
9. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
8. The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir
7. Greenwich Village (including the East Village and SoHo): A Primo guide to shopping, eating, and making merry in true bohemia by Robert Heide and John Gilman
6. Everyone’s Pretty by Lydia Millet
5. A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
4. Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear by Jan Bondeson
3. Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje
2. The Burroughs File by William S. Burroughs
1. The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice