Book of the year?

By Andrew Schultz · December 14, 2009

The book doesn't have to be published this year. Just something you read this year.

I tend to keep a lot of my books, since it is relatively simple to do so. My favorite for 2009:

The Go-Between, by L P Hartley. It has the semi-famous, and memorable, first line "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." I read about this first line several times before actually reading the book.

It's one of those dreadfully sad loss-of-innocence books set in England about 100 years ago that just does it right.

Honorable mention to Trenton Lee Stewart's Mysterious Benedict Society for the first 80 pages, a fabulous example of an entrance exam with odd rules.

I do recommend logging the books you've read because it's really neat to look at at the end of the year--I wish I would've done so more rigorously, as this is the first year I've really done so. It feels pedantic to do so but even having the list at the end of the year is great, to look back and forward.

Comments 3

EmP Staff Dec 14, 2009

Hartley is synonymous with quality writing.

My biggest regret of the last few years is that time restraint have forced me to slip from an avid reader of anything I could get my hands on to someone who has maybe read one or two books all of 2009.

bloomer Dec 15, 2009

I read 26 novels so far this year, which is a lot for me. I am not a fast reader.

I re-read a bunch of the original Dragonlance novels that I haven't read since high school. They actually have trouble holding my attention at times.

I re-read a couple of Harry Potters. I read a couple of fun but egregious 70s/80s med horror books called 'The Unborn' (not bad!), and more ridiculously, Robin Cook's 'Brain' (baaaad)

I read a few books by my fave author Ruth Rendell / Barbara Vine. I re-read Portobello, which is very impressive, A Dark Adapted Eye, one of her most famous novels, and The Birthday Present, a recent one.

I read a good number of books about serial killers, including The Only Living Witness about Ted Bundy, and a far frothier one called Unholy Messenger, about BTK.

I also read Crime & Punishment for the first time, which was certainly impressive, and the original Phantom of the Opera, which is kind of zany - lots of secret passages.

Amongst all that I don't think there was a super standout for the year I could name.

wolfqueen001 Dec 16, 2009

I haven't had time to read for myself lately, either... thanks to school. I don't even think I've managed to finish one book this year, and I used to read tons. Of course, I'm not counting school books here... Those don't count since they're basically work. haha And even if I did, I've usually only read parts of them as opposed to the whole thing.