My 2010 Book List

One of my favorite annual events is the sharing of my Book List. It’s a tradition 10 years running, thanks to my buddy Greg who has been doing it even longer and encouraged me to back in 2000.

This past year was a great reading year for me. I “discovered” Roberto Bolaño, whose challenging but rewarding 2666 sent me off on a few paths: digging more into the illegal drug trade in Mexico and the U.S., checking out some other South American poetry, and reading more of Bolaño himself (more to come in 2011). I read a few books on different aspects of the current wars. And I continued to love my subscription to audible.com. Quite a few of these books were audiobooks, which allows me “read” while I’m working in my garden or doing projects around the house.

Here’s the link to my full 2010 Book List.* The books I read last year and what I thought of them. Below are my favorites of the year (i.e. the short version):

FICTION
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
Palladio by Jonathan Dee

NON FICTION
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Murder City by Charles Bowden
Methland by Nick Reding
The Good Soldiers by David Finkel

What did you read this past year? What did you think of it?

*A big shout-out to my awesome mom, who reads every review and catches my typos and grammatical errors. If this exercise ever bears financial fruit, she should rightly negotiate at least a 40% cut.