Books Read from July 2008 – 2009
Some of my unread books.
So, why am I keeping a reading log beginning in July 2008? Pretty arbitrary date, right? The thing is, before then, I was a casual reader. I picked up a book every few weeks or so (though I bought them pretty regularly), and I hardly knew my local library. Then, a friend of mine recommended a satirical novel to me, Maneater by Gigi Levangie Grazer (a spoof of chick lit). Money was tight, so I was thrilled to discover that the library had a copy. So I took out Maneater and read it in a day. Five years out of college and woefully out of practice, I could still inhale a book in a matter of hours. I took out several more books, and then several more, and the rest is history. In just sixteen months, I had devoured over 260 books (199 books in one year–I just missed the 200 mark).
What follows is a chronicle of my sixteen-months-and-counting book binge. My pace varies depending on my workload, but it is fair to say that I average 12-15 books per month (though, at one point, I was reading as many as 25-30). I have made a huge dent in my “bucket list” of books to read.
Warning/apology: There are some embarrassing titles in here. Some friends and I decided to read the 17 free e-books offered by Harlequin as an experiment, so you will see several of those in here. I also read some romance and chick lit last summer to get a feel for the modern romance market, as my manuscript will likely fall within the parameters of a contemporary literary romance. So if you see a lot of campy titles in the first part of the list, now you know why. 
Here they are, in ascending chronological order:
- Maneater - Gigi Levangie Grazer
- Living on the Edge: The Realities of Welfare in America – Mark Robert Rank
- Eden Close - Anita Shreve
- Where or When - Anita Shreve
- The Real Deal – Lucy Monroe
- The Pink Ghetto – Liz Ireland
- The Symposium - Plato
- On Bullsh** – Harry G. Frankfurt
- When I Think of You – Liz Ireland
- Goodnight Nobody – Jennifer Weiner
- Sea Glass – Anita Shreve
- Light on Snow - Anita Shreve
- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard
- Dream of the Walled City – Lisa Huang Fleischman
- Romantically Challenged – Beth Orsoff
- The Accidental Virgin - Valerie Frankel
- The Girlfriend Curse - Valerie Frankel
- Close to Perfect - Tina Donahue
- The Boy I Loved Before - Jenny Colgan
- The End of Marriage - Nina Vida
- Snowed In - Christina Bartolomeo
- Empress Orchid - Anchee Min
- The Last Empress - Anchee Min
- The Return of Jonah Gray - Heather Cochran
- Falling for Mr. Wrong - Caroline Upcher
- Snuff - Chuck Palahniuk
- Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
- Love, Work, Children - Cheryl Mendelson
- Mike, Mike & Me - Wendy Markham
- I’m Your Girl - J.J. Murray
- The Love Letter - Cathleen Schine
- Bump - Diana Wagman
- The Snow Fox - Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
- The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
- Diary – Chuck Palahniuk
- Beginner’s Greek - James Collins
- Stranger Than Fiction - Chuck Palahniuk
- A Little Love Story - Roland Merullo
- Something Borrowed - Emily Giffin
- Something Blue - Emily Giffin
- Rant - Chuck Palahniuk
- All’s Fair - Julie Coulter Bellon
- The Winter of Our Discontent - John Steinbeck
- Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
- New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
- Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer
- Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer
- The Gospel According to Sydney Welles - Susi Rajah
- After the Leaves Fall - Nicole Baart
- Lux - Maria Flook
- Wild Ginger - Anchee Min
- My Legendary Girlfriend - Mike Gayle
- Just Friends - Robyn Sisman
- Baby Proof - Emily Giffin
- The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
- Love the One You’re With - Emily Giffin
- On the Road - Jack Kerouac
- The Palace of Heavenly Pleasure - Adam Williams
- Shelter - Susan Palwick
- Peony in Love - Lisa See
- Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel García Márquez
- The Idea of Perfection - Kate Grenville
- The Host - Stephenie Meyer
- The Painter from Shanghai - Jennifer Cody Epstein
- The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
- Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
- A Clergyman’s Daughter - George Orwell
- Perfect Agreement - Michael Downing
- Becoming Madame Mao - Anchee Min
- Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
- The Pearl - John Steinbeck
- The Silent Cry - Kenzaburo Oe
- Happiness - Will Ferguson
- Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
- Life Before Man - Margaret Atwood
- The Necessary Beggar - Susan Palwick
- Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card
- Across the Nightingale Floor (Otori #1) – Lian Hearn
- Grass for His Pillow (Otori #2) - Lian Hearn
- Empress - Shan Sa
- Talking to Addison - Jenny Colgan
- Brilliance of the Moon (Otori #3) - Lian Hearn
- A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See
- Loves Me, Loves Me Not - Libby Malin
- The Harsh Cry of the Heron (Otori #4) - Lian Hearn
- Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
- Death of a Red Heroine – Qiu Xialong
- Heaven’s Net Is Wide (Otori prequel) - Lian Hearn
- Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
- Lost & Found – Jane Sigaloff
- A Trip to the Stars - Nicholas Christopher
- Eros - Helmut Krausser
- The Post-Birthday World - Lionel Shriver
- Brothers - Da Chen
- Veronica - Nicholas Christopher
- Angels & Demons - Dan Brown
- We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
- The Bestiary - Nicholas Christopher
- There a Petal Silently Falls - Ch’oe Yun
- Crossings - Chuang Hua
- A Bad Bride’s Tale - Polly Williams
- The China Lover – Ian Baruma
- The Secret Vampire - L.J. Smith
- Daughters of Darkness - L.J. Smith
- Soul Mountain - Gao Xingjian
- One Man’s Bible - Gao Xingjian
- The Wild Geese - Ogai Mori
- Shinju - Laura Joh Rowland
- Snow – Orhan Pmuk
- The Hakawati - Rabih Alameddine
- Red Dust - Ma Jian
- Red Poppies: A Novel of Tibet - Alai
- The Song of Everlasting Sorrow - Wang Anyi
- Cloud of Sparrows – Takashi Matsuoka
- Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present - Peter Hessler
- The Map of Love - Ahdaf Soueif
- Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata
- Heaven Lake - John Dalton
- The House of the Sleeping Beauties - Yasunari Kawabata
- Go Ask Alice - Anonymous
- Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare - Bertrand Russell
- And Then - Natsume Soseki
- The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
- Sunday at Tiffany’s - James Patterson
- The Noodle Maker - Ma Jian
- A Dirty Job - Christopher Moore
- Bloodsucking Fiends - Christopher Moore
- You Suck - Christopher Moore
- The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
- Sharmila’s Book - Bharti Kirchner
- I, the Divine - Rabih Alameddine
- Secret Ceremonies - Deborah Laake
- The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness - Lori Schiller
- Perfect Chemistry - Simone Elkeles
- Escape - Carolyn Jessop
- Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
- The Chinese Room - Vivian Connell
- The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
- Stolen Innocence - Elissa Wall
- Testimony - Anita Shreve
- A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
- One Nation Under Gods - Richard Abanes
- An Equal Music - Vikram Seth
- Baby Bonanza – Maureen Child (Harlequin experiment)
- The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie
- Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- The Ground Beneath Her Feet - Salman Rushdie
- Waiting – Ha Jin
- The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
- Shalimar the Clown - Salman Rushdie
- The Moor’s Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie
- Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
- Portnoy’s Complaint - Philip Roth
- East, West - Salman Rushdie
- The Lake - Yasunari Kawabata
- Haroun and the Sea of Stories - Salman Rushdie
- The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
- Pygmy - Chuck Palahniuk
- What Love Means to You People - NancyKay Shapiro
- The Ocean in the Closet - Yuko Taniguchi
- Mosquito - Roma Tearne
- Love in a Dead Language - Lee Siegel
- A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
- The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
- The Temple of the Wild Geese & The Bamboo Dolls of Echizen - Tsutomu Mizukami
- Mating - Norman Rush
- Beauty and Sadness - Yasunari Kawabata
- The Other Side of the Sky - Farah Ahmedi
- A Very Special Delivery - Linda Goodnight (Harlequin experiment)
- Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa
- Obasan - Joy Kogawa
- The Sound of the Mountain - Yasunari Kawabata
- This Is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn - Aidan Chambers
- The Stranger – Albert Camus (re-read)
- The Wedding Day – Catherine Alliott
- Dancing in the Moonlight - Raeanne Thayne (Harlequin experiment)
- Fool’s Errand – Louis Bayard
- The Romance Reader - Pearl Abraham
- Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
- The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon - Sei Shonagon
- The Rebel Doctor’s Bride – Sarah Morgan (Harlequin experiment)
- Koolaids: The Art of War - Rabih Alameddine
- Beijing Coma – Ma Jian
- Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
- First Love and Other Stories - Ivan Turgenev
- Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut
- Feathered Serpent - Xu Xiaobin
- Running Mother and Other Stories - Guo Songfen
- Brothers - Yu Hua
- Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
- Arrow of God - Chinua Achebe
- Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
- Homespun Bride - Jillian Hart (Harlequin experiment)
- Stranded with a Spy - Merline Lovelace (Harlequin experiment)
- Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
- Snowbound - Janice Kay Johnson (Harlequin experiment)
- Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
- Sea of Lost Love - Santa Montefiore
- Present Value - Sabin Willett
- Once the Shore – Paul Yoon
- Kiss Me Deadly – Michele Hauf (Harlequin experiment)
- Burnt Shadows – Kamila Shamsie
- The Rock: A Tale of Seventh-Century Jerusalem - Kanan Makiya
- An Obvious Enchantment - Tucker Malarkey
- Seventeen & J - Kenzaburo Oe
- Strangers When We Meet - Evan Hunter
- Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids - Kenzaburo Oe
- To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (1,000th book)
- Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy #1) - Naguib Mahfouz
- To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
- The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
- Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
- Palace of Desire (Cairo Trilogy #2) - Naguib Mahfouz
- Lime Tree Can’t Bear Orange - Amanda Smyth
- God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
- Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
- Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather – Gao Xingjian
- Oh Pure and Radiant Heart – Lydia Millet
- The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
- Sugar Street (Cairo Trilogy #3) – Naguib Mahfouz
- The Subterraneans – Jack Kerouac
- Kartography - Kamila Shamsie
- South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami
- The Rug Merchant - Meg Mullins
- Everything Asian - Sung J. Woo
- A Monster’s Notes - Laurie Sheck
- The Temple of the Golden Pavilion - Yukio Mishima
- The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
- Call Me by Your Name - Andre Aciman
- The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
- High Noon - Nora Roberts
- Howl and Other Poems - Allen Ginsberg
- Fear of Flying - Erica Jong
- A Change in Altitude - Anita Shreve
- Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
- The Consequences of Love - Sulaiman Addonia
- Slow Hands – Leslie Kelly
- Bone China - Roma Tearne
- Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
- The Great Pursuit - Tom Sharpe
- Hide in Plain Sight - Marta Perry
- The Worst Intentions - Alessandro Piperno
- Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
- The Most Beautiful Book in the World - Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
- The German Mujahid - Boualem Sansal
- Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl - Susan Campbell
- Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs
- Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
- Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- The Secret Life of Laszlo, Count Dracula - Roderick Anscombe
- Censoring an Iranian Love Story - Shahriyar Mandanipour
- Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
- A Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami
- Bright-Sided - Barbara Ehrenreich
- The Republic of Love - Carol Shields
- Lord of the Flies - William Golding
- Old Filth - Jane Gardam
- The Man in the Wooden Hat - Jane Gardam
- Supermarket - Satoshi Azuchi
- La Confession Impudique - Jun’ichiro Tanizaki (in French)
- The Tokaido Road – Lucia St. Clair Robinson
- Nine Parts of Desire - Geraldine Brooks
- Lamb – Christopher Moore
- Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
- Dearly Devoted Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
- Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay
- Firethorn – Sarah Micklem
- Kushiel’s Dart - Jacqueline Carey
- Dexter by Design – Jeff Lindsay
