In Which I Brag That I Can Read

Inspired and a wee bit intimidated by Elliott Holt's 2011 reading list, I sat down today in avoidance of a deadline and set upon the arduous task of listing every single book I read in 2011.

At the start of the year, I hoped to read 70 books. A quick look at my Netflix queue might have you guess, correctly, that I failed. I truly believe the list would be a lot longer if I hadn't wasted four hours watching the Kardashian marriage, if "articles about Zac Hanson" counted as books, if I hadn't watched the entire run of Family Ties on Netflix, and if I hadn’t wasted all that time reading Mormon mommy blogs working.

I reread a lot of old books. Some I revisited out of nostalgia; some out of that itchy feeling that I couldn't remember exactly what had happened. I reread a few childhood favorites when I was in the hospital and recovering. (I ordered a Judy Blume set off Amazon when I was sad/drunk one night.) I made quite a few lifestyle changes this year; that should excuse the two self-help books on the list, both by Kris Carr, cancer pioneer.

I’m a firm believer that what we read shapes and changes us; that investing our time in literature and nonfiction not only makes us smarter, but better, too; that we very may well be what we read. (In that case, I’m an adult child who loves depressing memoirs!)

And with that said, I present everything I can remember reading in 2011. The items in bold are my favorite new reads that came out this year or last. The books are listed in no particular order, except the last few that are currently being read.

I command thee to go forth and read!

THE LIST

1. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? Mindy Kaling
2. Henry IV, William Shakespeare
3. The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach
4. Bossypants, Tina Fey
5. Blueprints for Building Better Girls, Elissa Schappell
6. A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor (reread)
7. Hypocrite in a White Pouffy Dress, Susan Jane Gilman (reread)
8. Everything is Wrong With Me, Jason Mulgrew
9. Half a Life: A Memoir, Darin Strauss
10. Sisterhood Everlasting, Ann Brashares (Don’t judge. I had to see how it ended!)
11. Maine, J. Courtney Sullivan
12. The Long Goodbye, Meghan O'Rourke
13. State of Wonder, Ann Patchett
14. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett (reread)
15. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, Nick Flynn
16. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
17. The Imperfectionists, Tom Rachman
18. Truth & Beauty, Ann Patchett (reread)
19. Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy (reread)
20. Say Her Name: A Novel, Francisco Goldman
21. An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, Elizabeth McCracken
22. Love at First Bark, Julie Klam
23. Great House, Nicole Krauss
24. Just Kids, Patti Smith
25. A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
26. The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson
27. This is Where I Leave You, Jonathan Tropper
28. Love and Obstacles, Aleksander Hemon
29. A Widow's Walk, Marian Fontana (reread)
30. Are You There Vodka, It's Me, Chelsea, Chelsea Handler (Okay, judge me.)
31. Summer Sisters, Judy Blume (reread)
32. Other People We Married, Emma Straub
33. The Ticking is the Bomb, Nick Flynn
34. Crazy Sexy Diet, Kris Carr
35. Crazy Sexy Cancer, Kris Carr
36. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, Siddhartha Mukherjee (Shit, I read a lot about cancer.)
37. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling (reread)
38. Adrienne Rich's Poetry and Prose, Adrienne Rich
39. Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?, Raymond Carver (reread)
40. Blue Nights, Joan Didion
41. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
42. Sag Harbor, Colson Whitehead
43. The Summer Before, Ann M. Martin (I wasn’t kidding.)
44. Fudge-a-mania, Judy Blume
45. Superfudge, Judy Blume
46. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Judy Blume (much better than Chelsea)
47. [sic]: A Memoir, Joshua Cody
48. The Two Kinds of Decay, Sarah Manguso (reread for the millionth time)
49. Complications, Atwul Gwande
50. Swamplandia, Karen Russell (in progress)
51. This is Not Your City, Caitlin Horrocks (in progress)
52. Zone One, Colson Whitehead (in progress)