Sunday, December 31, 2006

The Year in Review

Another year has come and gone. Is about to leave.
I read almost 40 books in 2006, and so it turned out to be actually a slow year for me, reading-wise.
Usually I will be reading closer to 50 books, or thereabouts.
As I reflect on the past year’s reading, several books stand out as being exceptionally good. To call them the “best” is inaccurate, I don’t even really like the word at all. But they were exceptionally enjoyable, and well-written. They were, [an equally horrible word] my favorites.
Throughout the past twelve months you have heard me babble on about most of these, so here I will merely list them.

The Bookpuddle© Favorite Reads of 2006.

Fiction:
The Way The Crow Flies– Ann-Marie MacDonald
Life Mask – Emma Donoghue
Seeing – Jose Saramago
My Life As A Fake – Peter Carey
The Book of Revelation – Rupert Thomson




Non-Fiction:
The End of Faith – Sam Harris
Will In The World – Stephen Greenblatt
The Architecture of Happiness – Alain de Botton
The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
Letter To A Christian Nation – Sam Harris

I am currently reading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and I am quite sure that it will displace one in the fiction category, but I must wait until I turn the last page to make such an assessment.

Happy reading to you all, in 2007!
**********

9 comments:

Stefanie said...

Yay for Seeing! It was one of my favorites on 2006 as well. I've got Rupert Thomson's Divided Kingdom I hope to get to in 2007. I've not read him before. Heard good things though so I am looking forward to it.

Happy New Year!

Carl V. Anderson said...

Happy New Year to you as well!!!

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year from London all its Starbucks...something new for me.

Anonymous said...

And a very Happy New Year to you, BookPuddle!

I wish you peace and happiness and love and lots of strong hot coffee accompanied by a multitude of wonderful books.

Cipriano said...

Thank you, all.
Stefanie, is it wrong for me to want a new Saramago book for '07?
Oh, he is my favorite author, for sure he is!
I hope he has a hundred books, still in him!
To everyone, a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
READ MORE!
LOVE MORE!
-- Cip

Isabella K said...

The Carey book was one of my faves the year I read it. Why have you not reviewed it?

Wishing you and Jack a very Happy New Year!

Cipriano said...

Isabella:
Oh, sometimes I am so lazy, this is the problem.
I have not reviewed the Carey book because I am such a sloth!
It was such a great read!

Anonymous said...

Thanks to your recommendation I finally bought Life Mask! Now to get it read! Happy New Year...a few days late.

Cipriano said...

Danielle, I assure you, Life Mask will not be a disappointment. It is a wonderfully good book.
I look forward to hearing what you think of it.
All the best.
-- Cip