I’m hungover but strangely energized. I’ll probably take a shower soon and finish cleaning the kitchen. Last night I got very drunk while watching a documentary on Hunter S. Thompson then crashed on the futon with Shadow. She woke a few times during the night, so I carried her out to pee, but she’s doing ok now, from what I can tell. She’s sleeping on her favorite blanket. I can’t get her to eat anything today. I wish she’d eat something. I tried eggs and chicken, both of which worked yesterday, but she turned both down. Maybe she just needs a break from food. I hope so. She never ate much anyway.

Here’s my 2008 booklist along with some comments. Enjoy More later.

1. Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte
2. Crooked Little Vein-Warren Ellis
3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas-Hunter Thompson (reread)
4. South of the Border, West of the Sun-Haruki Murakami
5. Soon I Will Be Invincible-Austin Grossman
6. Little Children-Tom Perrotta
7. Bluebeard-Kurt Vonnegut (reread)
8. Norwegian Wood-Haruki Murakami
9. Abstinence Teacher-Tom Perrotta
10. Sputnik Sweetheart-Haruki Murakami
11. Nasty Bits-Anthony Bourdain
12. Kitchen Confidential-Anthony Bourdain
13. Day of the Locust-Nathanael West
14. Vurt-Jeff Noon
15. Outlander-Diana Gabaldon
16. Alternadads-Neal Pollack
17. American Nerd-Ben Nugent
18. Boomsday-Chris Buckley
19. The Book of Vice-Peter Sagel
20. Atmospheric Disturbances-Rivka Galchen
21. Wiseguys-Nicolas Pileggi
22. Lost Continent-Bill Bryson
23. The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao-Junot Diaz
24. What I Think About When I Think About Running-Haruki Murakami
25. Perfect From Now On-John Sellers
26. Bridge of Sighs-Richard Russo
27. Housekeeping-Marilynne Robinson
28. I Was Told There’d Be Cake-Sloane Crosby
29. Neither Here Nor There-Bill Bryson
30. Best American Travel Writing, 2008 (Edited by Anthony Bourdain)
31. Wordy Shipmates-Sarah Vowell
32. The Learners-Chip Kidd
33. The Possibility of An Island-Michel Houellbecq
34. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell-Tucker Max
35. I Have The Right To Destroy Myself-Young-ha Kim

Comments!

I read more non-fiction than usual this year. Not including the re-reads 14 of 33 books, if I’m counting correctly, were non-fiction.

I feel somewhat disingenuous putting “Jane Eyre” on the list, as I finished it in 2008 but read most of the book in 2007. I’m also well into the Landmark Herodotus but I’m going to put that in 2009 because the book is so large, and my reading of the text so sporadic, that 2009 seems the correct designation.

The best book? The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, no doubt. There were a lot of solid runner-up books, though. The only books I read this year that failed me were the Tucker Max book, Alternadads, I Was Told There Would Be Cake, and The Possibility of An Island.

A lot of these books were quick reads. However, I read a lot this year, whether on the side of a baseball field, at home with the kids, or somewhere else.

The library provided 23 of 35 of the books. Yay libraries.