Top Ten

There are two web sites that I'm aware of that allow you to keep track of the books you read. Thanks to Sarah, I started using Shelfari a year or so ago. This morning I got an email from Shelfari about posting the number of books I read in 2008. My goal for the last 18 years that I have kept track of what I read, has been to read 25 books a year. I have met my goal almost every year. Frankly, the number of books I read decreased when I discovered all the information on the internet. Reading blogs and articles online has certainly taken away from my book reading time. (Then there are also magazines to consider. Tracy just caught up on all the MacWorld and MacLife magazines so now there's a stack on my dresser for me to read.) So I've always thought 28 was a pretty good number, but my accomplishment is pathetic compared to most of those posting on this survey. Oh well, I will never read over 100 books in a year, nor do I want to try. There are too many other interesting things to do!

I also found a place on Shelfari to list the 10 Best Books you read in 2008. I thought that was a really interesting thing to consider, and here is my list:

Matrimony-Joshua Henkins
People of the Book-Geraldine Brooks
Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power-John Harwood
Intuition-Allegra Goodman
Take This Bread-Miles
Belongs To Me-Marissa de los Santos
No One You Know-Michelle Richmond
A Camera, Two Kids, and a Camel-Anne Belt
Run-Ann Patchett
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society-Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The best book was People of the Book, followed closely by Intuition and Matrimony. Another interesting insight was that I read a lot more fiction than nonfiction last year, which is unusual.