Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Carlton's Favorites from a Year of Reading (2008)

When I sat down to write up this list, I realized just how much I enjoyed nearly all the books that I read this year. I didn't really come across any stinkers, besides The Good German, which was horrible. Otherwise, this was a really good year of reading.

10. The Assault on Reason
I read this during the final weeks of the presidential election. Al Gore went up a few points in my book (that's right, I keep a book in which I rank everyone I know on a scale of one to seven) and Dubya went down a few more.

9. Timothy; or Notes of an Abject Reptile
One of the weirder books that I read this year.

8. The Tale of Despereaux
I am all about anthropomorphic animals.

7. The Napoleon of Notting Hill
Earlier this year, I read a collection of Chesterton's Father Brown stories, and The Man Who Was Thursday was my favorite read of 2007. Chesterton is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. And he's so dreamy.

6. The Golden Compass
I absolutely loved this book and the two that followed it (The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass). It is sad that the film adaptation was so abysmal.

5. At Large and At Small
A collection of essays
Both enlightening and fun,
I would recommend
This to anyone.

4. The Green Mile
This is only the second book by Stephen King that I have read. I read The Shining a few years ago, and it scared the bajeezes out of me. The Green Mile was not scary, but it sure thrilled the bajeezes out of me. Bottom line: I've got bajeezes that can't wait to be teased out of me.

3. The Idiot
I was nearly halfway through this book before I realized it was not a biography of Pauly Shore.

2. Twilight in Delhi
Ahmed Ali beautifully blurs the line between prose and poetry in this novel set in early 20th century India.

1. Life of Pi
When I put this book down, I knew that it was going to be a hard one to beat. The rest of the books on this list have moved around, and some that were initially a part of the list were dropped, but Life of Pi has always remained in the top spot.

Book Review of Mine with the Weirdest Comments
Assassination Vacation

Sexiest 50 Booker
Christopher Chilton (sorry Brooke, good effort)

My Book Resolution for 2009: More books with bunnies.

5 comments:

Amanda said...

I read that thread with the "weirdest comments" and you're absolutely right, that's one of the most bizarre threads I've ever read.

Carlton Farmer said...

I love the last one. Although is creeps me out just a bit.

Christopher said...

Two years running.

Brent Waggoner said...

Three for me.

Amanda said...

I'm partial to the spider.