(Special Edition) My Year in Books: 2010

My book life this year, by the numbers:

I finished 22 books, nine of which were fiction, and 13 non-fiction. Five of these were memoirs, and three were books of short stories. Nine were written by male authors (2 by Kurt Vonnegut), and twelve were written by female authors (4 by Lorrie Moore). One was written by a man and a woman (Your Money or Your Life). I published a review of If We Can Put a Man on the Moon in a trade magazine for transit professionals.

I met one author: Chris Guillebeau. (See photos from the DC stop of his Unconventional Book Tour.) I contacted five authors besides Guillebeau: Marlee Matlin, Lorrie Moore, David Carr, Michael Idov, and Daniel Pink. I heard back from Marlee Matlin, David Carr, and Daniel Pink (and Michael Idov reTweeted me – does that count?).

THE BEST BOOKS I READ IN 2010 are:

(Fiction) The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Ground Up by Michael Idov; and

(Non-Fiction) The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell and Lessons in Becoming Myself by Ellen Burstyn.

Here is the entire list:

(*=highly recommended)

1. I’ll Scream Later by Marlee Matlin

2. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

3. The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell*

4. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore*

5. If We Can Put a Man on the Moon by Bill Eggers and John O’Leary

6. Like Life by Lorrie Moore

7. Emergence by Steven Johnson

8. The Help by Kathryn Stockett*

9. Self-Help by Lorrie Moore

10. Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut

11. Novel About My Wife by Emily Perkins

12. The Night of the Gun by David Carr*

13. Lessons in Becoming Myself by Ellen Burstyn*

14. Anagrams by Lorrie Moore

15. Ground Up by Michael Idov*

16. Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez*

17. Cleaving by Julie Powell

18. The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau

19. The Case for Books by Robert Darnton

20. Drive by Daniel Pink

21. A Man without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut

22. Lucky by Alice Sebold*

Some of the books burning a whole on my shelf for 2011 include Your Money: The Missing Manual, There Will Be Rainbows, Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us, Sundown Towns and The Happiness Project. Stay tuned.