2005 Recap

There was only one new year's resolution, a tripartite goal between Lindsey, Davey, and I: read 52 books this year.

I'm afraid the finale was not a trifecta finish. One stipulation was that books over 400 pages should count as two (or was it 200 pages?), but I read so much children's literature that I don't think that's fair.

In conclusion: I definitely did not read 52 books this year. In the spirit of the Polysyllabic Spree, here's what I did read. Boys? E-mail me your final tallies and I'll post 'em. The escapist tendencies of my literary taste are a little embarassing; judge not, my friends.

By order read, re-reads annotated with an (R)

1. The Outlaw Sea, by William Langewiesche
2. I Am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe
3. Delta Wedding, by Eudora Welty
4. Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov
5. Edisto, by Padgett Powell
6. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers
7. Cuba Diaries, by Isadora Tattlin
8. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson
9. Naked, by David Sedaris
10. The Magus, by John Fowles
11. Edisto Revisited, by Padgett Powell
12. They Marched Into Sunlight, by David Maraniss
13. Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson
14. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
15. Dog of the South, by Charles Portis
16. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
17. Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
18. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling
19. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, ibid.
20. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, ibid.
21. Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain (R)
22. Glamorama, by Bret Easton Ellis
23. Miami, by Joan Didion
24. Up For Grabs: A trip through time and space in the sunshine state, by John Rothchild
25. Norwood, by Charles Portis
26. A Place to Come To, by Robert Penn Warren
27. Oblivion, by David Foster Wallace
28. Lunar Park, by Bret Easton Ellis
29. A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby
30.The Elementary Particles, by Michel Houllebecq
31. The Silver Chair, by C.S. Lewis (R)
32. Bright Lights Big City, by Jay Macinerny
33. Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris
34. Pastoralia, by George Saunders (R)
35. The Brief and Terrifying Reign of Phil, by George Saunders
36. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, by David Sedaris
37. Prince Caspian, C.S. Lewis (R)
38. Scoop, by Evelyn Waugh
39. Jarhead, by Anthony Swofford
40. A Room With a View, by E.M. Forster
41. Howard's End, by E.M. Forster
42. The Black Dahlia, by James Ellroy
43. Persuasion, by Jane Austin

If you wanted to count the Wolfe, Dickens, Fowles (3?), Ellis, etc. as two each then I almost made it. But then the C.S. Lewis shit would have to count as like half a book. One must keep up, if only slightly, with current events, at the sufferance of a simple resolve.

Also:
Favorite 2005 release goes to Nick Hornby for A Long Way Down, which made no critic's list but was so good.
Favorite old book: E.M. Forster ties with himself.
Favorite not-so-literary book: Snow Crash.
Genius, as usual: Oblivion.