My book haul this Christmas

Today, JT will disassemble Christmas in our little house while I’m at work, and when we deliver the (fat, beautiful) tree to the wood chipper later it will officially mark the end of the holiday season.

All of our presents have been exchanged and unwrapped — except for the two that I still haven’t sent to my coworkers in Toronto… whoops — and that means it’s time to take an inventory of the pile of books I was gifted this season.

In no particular order, the books I received are as follows:

  • The Back of the Turtle, Thomas King
  • The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell
  • Cataract City, Craig Davidson
  • Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
  • In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods, Matt Bell
  • How Should a Person Be, Sheila Heti
  • The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
  • Swamplandia!, Karen Russell

backofthe turtle

BoneClocks  cataractcity fight club mattbellheti

nightcircus swamplandia

What I read this year

Hello lovely readers.

My birthday was on Monday (yay!), which signals the end of one reading year and the start of another. This year I read about 35 books… that I remembered to write down. I know that some were missed.

In my tracking sheet (sorted by completion date below), there is a conspicuous absence of books in March and April, but for the life of me I can’t recall what I was reading then. Oh well. Next year I’ll try to be a bit more dedicated to this tracking process.

Anyway, the actual excel spreadsheet also includes columns for:

  • genre
  • who/what recommended the book
  • my rating from -5 to +5; and
  • some additional key notes about the book (e.g. The Book Thief: WWII, wonderful metaphors, sad; Mrs. Dalloway: beautiful writing, insightful, difficult; Breakfast of Champions: Satire, creative, over-hyped, addictive)

…but I thought that would be a bit much to post here. Maybe I’ll add it as a separate permanent page.

Title Author last name Author first name Completed on
Y: The Last Man, Unmanned Guerra Pia & Vaughan, Brian K. 22-Dec-13
Book Thief, The Zuzak Markus 23-Dec-13
Ready Player One Cline Ernest 31-Dec-13
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Adams Douglas 1-Jan-14
Mrs. Dalloway Woolf Virginia 2-Jan-14
Extraordinary Gilmour David 3-Jan-14
Breakfast of Champions Vonnegut Kurt 10-Jan-14
Divergent Roth Veronica 21-Feb-14
Insurgent Roth Veronica 25-Feb-14
Allegiant Roth Veronica 27-Feb-14
Squirrel Meets Chipmunk Sedaris David 4-Mar-14
Naming, The Croggan Alison 3-May-14
Riddle, The Croggan Alison 6-May-14
Crow, The Croggan Alison 11-May-14
Gone Girl Flynn Gillian 23-May-14
Emancipation Day Grady Wayne 27-May-14
Slaughterhouse-Five Vonnegut Kurt 8-Jun-14
Sense and Sensibility Austen Jane 11-Jun-14
Pride and Prejudice Austen Jane 19-Jun-14
Fault in our Stars Green John 6-Jul-14
Persuasion Austen Jane 14-Jul-14
Northanger Abbey Austen Jane 16-Jul-14
Emma Austen Jane 26-Jul-14
Year of the Flood Atwood Margaret 11-Aug-14
Name of the Wind, The Rothfuss Patrick 4-Sep-14
I Capture the Castle Smith Dodie 14-Sep-14
Room Donoghue Emma 7-Oct-14
Cloud McCormack Eric 17-Oct-14
Y: The Last Man, Cycles Guerra Pia & Vaughan, Brian K. 17-Oct-14
Accidental Apprentice, The Swarup Vikas 12-Nov-14
Flamethrowers, The Kushner Rachel 14-Nov-14
Super Sad True Love Story Shteyngart Gary 21-Nov-14
Animal Farm Orwell George 22-Nov-14
Rabbit Run Updike John  in progress
Brothers Karamazov, The Dostoyevsky Fyodor  in progress