Dyrfinna's 2009 Reading

1. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen (176)

2. Such a Pretty Fat - Jen Lancaster (400)
3. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs - Chuck Klosterman (272)
4. The Paradox of Choice - Barry Schwartz (304)

5. A Thousand Hills - Stephen Kinzer (400)

6. I Know This Much is True - Wally Lamb (897)

7. Spend 'Til the End - Laurence J. Kotlikoff (336)
8. From A to X - John Berger (224)
9. Emotional Awareness - Dalai Lama (288)
10. The Great Railway Bazaar - Paul Theroux (352)
11. Easier Than You Think - Richard Carlson (208)
12. A Whole New Mind - Daniel H. Pink (288)

13. The Clothes on Their Backs - Linda Grant (304)

14. Ghost Train to the Eastern Star - Paul Theroux (512)
15. Black Water - Joyce Carol Oates (160)

16. American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis (399)

17. What It Is - Lynda Barry (209)
18. The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon (192)
19. Ulysses - James Joyce (736)
20. (Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents - Nan Mooney (272)

21. The Suicide Index - Joan Wickersham (336)
22. Why Men Marry Some Women and Not Others - John T. Molloy (240)

23. Clown Girl - Monica Drake (336)

24. The Samaritan's Dilemma - Deborah Stone (304)
25. How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People - Henry Alford (272)

26. The Library at Night - Alberto Manguel (384)
27. How to Read Novels Like a Professor - Thomas C. Foster (336)
28. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith (235)
29. Rome 1960 - David Maraniss (496)

Is the 'How to Read' book worthwhile?

I liked it, but it's full of spoilers just like his previous book. Though in your case, you've probably covered most of those titles... ;-)

30. Miles From Nowhere - Nami Mun (304)
31. You're Broke Because You Want to Be - Larry Winget (224)

32. The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga (288)
33. The Now Habit - Neil Fiore (224)

34. Black Flies - Shannon Burke (192)

35. Blindness - Jose Saramago (304)

36. Making It All Work - David Allen (305)
37. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys (192)
38. The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson (480)
39. Are the Rich Necessary? - Hunter Lewis (282)

January stats: 37 books, 11,901 pages

40. The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death - Charlie Huston (336)
41. The Magical Monarch of Mo - L. Frank Baum (232)

42. The Lost Dog - Michelle de Kretser (336)

43. Scratch Beginnings - Adam Shepard (240)

44. Emotionally Weird - Kate Atkinson (368)

45. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (384)
46. Incognegro - Mat Johnson (136)
47. What are You Optimistic About? - John Brockman (400)
48. Hack - Melissa Plaut (240)
49. Matrimony - Joshua Henkin (304)

50. The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards (432)

51. The Suicide Collectors - David Oppegaard (304)
52. Up for Renewal - Cathy Alter (336)

53. Bowling Alone - Robert D. Putnam (544)
54. Pure Pleasure - John Carey (256)
55. Nine Kinds of Naked - Tony Vigorito (416)
56. What Was Lost - Catherine O'Flynn (256)
57. Tears of the Giraffe - Alexander McCall Smith (240)
58. Body of Work - Christine Montross (320)

59. Creature - Andrew Zuckerman (300)
60. High Wire - Peter Gosselin (272)

61. We Are Now Beginning Our Descent - James Meek (352)

62. Republican Like Me - Harmon Leon (281)

63. The Midlander - Booth Tarkington (493)
64. Lout Rampage - Daniel Clowes (96)
65. Vietnam Zippos - Sherry Buchanan (176)
66. Dies the Fire - S. M. Stirling (592)

67. Serena - Ron Rash (384)

68. Disposable People - Kevin Bales (324)

69. Geek Love - Katherine Dunn (368)

70. Home - Marilynne Robinson (336)
71. Saturday - Ian McEwan (304)
72. Nothing to Fear - Adam Cohen (384)

73. Lark and Termite - Jayne Anne Phillips (272)
74. The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness (496)

February stats: 33 books, 11,120 pages
Yearly total (Jan-Feb): 71 books, 23,021 pages

75. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows (288)
76. An Imperfect Offering - James Orbinksi (448)

77. The Polysyllabic Spree - Nick Hornby (230)
78. Pussey! - Daniel Clowes (64)
79. The Guermantes Way - Marcel Proust (640)
80. Housekeeping vs. the Dirt - Nick Hornby (200)
81. Watchmen - Alan Moore (416)
82. The Power of the Possible - Auriela McCarthy (240)
83. Tarka the Otter - Henry Williamson (288)
84. The Mill on the Floss - George Eliot (544)

85. When All Hell Breaks Loose - Cody Lundin (450)
86. Underground America - Peter Orner (379)

87. Dear Exile - Hilary Liftin (208)
88. Don Quixote, Which Was a Dream - Kathy Acker (207)
89. Wake - Lisa McMann (224)
90. The Marriage Benefit - Mark O'Connell (224)
91. Men are Not Cost-Effective - June Stephenson (469)

92. The Flying Troutmans - Miriam Toews (275)

93. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage - Susan Squire (272)

94. Going to See the Elephant - Rodes Fishburne (304)
95. The Northern Clemency - Philip Hensher (608)

96. 2666 - Roberto Bolano (912)
97. Life was Never Meant to be a Struggle - Stuart Wilde (64)
98. The Braindead Megaphone - George Saunders (272)
99. Dangerous Laughter - Steven Millhauser (256)
100. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult (423)
101. Infinite Self - Stuart Wilde (227)
102. Silent Power - Stuart Wilde (128)
March total: 30 books, 10,412 pages

103. The Power of Less - Leo Babauta (170)
104. Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi (153)
105. Persepolis II - Marjane Satrapi (187)
106. Hands of My Father - Myron Uhlberg (232)
107. Dirty Snow - Georges Simenon (272)
108. Enough Already! - Peter Walsh (286)
109. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith (343)

110. Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult (448)

111. Testimony - Anita Shreve (320)

Good to see you're back. So, 2666, hot or not?

2666 was awesome! I understand the criticism but I was really swept up in it, so much that I carried it on vacation even though I only had 150 pages left.

112. Fear of Falling - Barbara Ehrenreich (292)

113. Revenge of the Spellmans - Lisa Lutz (384)

114. Yes Man - Danny Wallace (388)
115. How the Rich are Destroying the Earth - Herve Kempf (128)
116. The Limits of Power - Andrew Bacevich (224)
117. The Grim Grotto - Lemony Snicket (352)
118. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton (352)

119. Morality for Beautiful Girls - Alexander McCall Smith (227)

I guess I better get on the bandwagon before it leaves town and bump it up a few notches on my "big books" list. Thanks for the stamp of approval.

120. Elsewhere, U.S.A. - Dalton Conley (240)

121. Peak Everything - Richard Heinberg (224)
122. The Penultimate Peril - Lemony Snicket (368)

123. The End - Lemony Snicket (368)
124. American Photobooth - Nakki Goranin (224)

125. Envy - Joseph Epstein (144)
126. Anger - Robert A.F. Thurman (168)
127. Sloth - Wendy Wasserstein (144)
128. Greed - Phyllis A. Tickle (120)
129. Gluttony - Francine Prose (144)
130. The Song is You - Arthur Phillips (272)
131. A Great Idea at the Time - Alex Beam (256)
132. The Darkest Place - Daniel Judson (368)
133. A Voice Through a Cloud - Denton Welch (230)
134. The Anti-Bride Etiquette Guide - Carolyn Gerin (144)

135. Get Satisfied - Peter C. Whybrow (177)
136. Stuffed and Starved - Raj Patel (448)
137. Lust - Simon Blackburn (192)

138. The Book of Dead Philosophers - Simon Critchley (304)

139. Anyway - Kent Keith (128)
140. Sing Them Home - Stephanie Kallos (560)
141. Little Bee - Chris Cleave (288)

142. Anathem - Neal Stephenson (960)

143. The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai (384)

144. The Golden Argosy - Cartmell & Grayson (656)
145. The Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri (208)
April stats: 40 books, 11,613 pages
Yearly total: 143 books, 45,046 pages

146. Genesis - Bernard Beckett (160)
147. The Spirit of Disobedience - Curtis White (183)
148. Tinkers - Paul Harding (192)
149. How to Become Ridiculously Well-Read in One Evening - E. O. Parrott (188)

150. The Vagrants - Yiyun Lee (352)
151. I Don't Believe in Atheists - Chris Hedges (224)
152. The Rose and the Ring and the Magic Fishbone - Thackeray/Dickens (179)

153. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned - Wells Tower (256)
154. The Man in the Picture - Susan Hill (160)

155. The Crow Road - Iain Banks (500)
156. More Information Than You Require - John Hodgman (368)
157. The Kalahari Typing School for Men - Alexander McCall Smith (192)
158. American Nerd - Benjamin Nugent (256)

159. Waveland - Frederick Barthelme (240)
160. God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian - Kurt Vonnegut (79)
161. The Woman in Black - Susan Hill (144)
162. The Pornography of Power - Robert Scheer (288)
163. Alice Adams - Booth Tarkington (434)
164. Bone - Jeff Smith (1300)
165. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword - Ruth Benedict (336)
166. Disquiet - Julia Leigh (128)

167. Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me - Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson (304)
168. On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God - Louise Rennison (272)
169. Afterwhiles - James Whitcomb Riley (148)

170. The Water's Edge - Daniel Judson (416)
171. Amours de Voyage - Arthur Hugh Clough (37)
172. Citizen Girl - Emma McLaughlin (320)
173. Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas - Louise Rennison (208)

174. The Willoughbys - Lois Lowry (176)
175. Under the Snow - Kerstin Ekman (224)
176. Beware of God - Shalom Auslander (208)
177. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City - Nick Flynn (288)

178. Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants - Louise Rennison (240)
179. The Abstinence Teacher - Tom Perotta (368)
180. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (238)
181. Slouching Towards Bethlehem - Joan Didion (238)
182. Becoming Enlightened - the Dalai Lama (272)

183. Acedia and Me - Kathleen Norris (352)
184. The Hunter - Julia Leigh (176)
185. The Beach - Alex Garland (448)
186. The Church of 80% Sincerity - David Roche (160)

187. The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane (152)
188. Whatever, Mom - Ariel Gore (256)
189. How the Dead Dream - Lydia Millet (256)
190. David Boring - Daniel Clowes (136)
191. Early Bird - Rodney Rothman (256)

192. Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie (176)
193. In My Own Words - The Dalai Lama (224)
194. All the Living - C. E. Morgan (208)

195. The Fundamentals of Play - Caitlin Macy (304)
196. Away Laughing on a Fast Camel - Louise Rennison (304)
197. Death and the Penguin - Andrey Kurkov (192)
198. The Full Cupboard of Life - Alexander McCall Smith (208)
199. Deep Economy - Bill McKibben (272)

May stats: 56 books, 14,924 pages
Yearly total: 199 books, 59,970 pages

Now how do you expect me to make a come-back if you read the same number of books in May as I do? My next tactic is to read large print editions to catch up with your page count ;)

Oh, it's more complicated than that, mon ami. I always use the page count that shows up on Amazon.com. :-)

200. Like You'd Understand, Anyway - Jim Shepard (224)
201. The Man Who Forgot How to Read - Howard Engel (176)
202. The Outlander - Gil Adamson (416)

So that explains how you pumped an extra 100 pages out of 'Heart of Darkness!' And all this time I thought you were really reading all those introductions and indices ;)

I always try to be page perfect -- I've even been known to drop title pages from my final counts. Alas I am a soul to honest for this world.

203. Pygmy - Chuck Palahniuk (256)
204. The Not So Big House - Sarah Susanka (240)

Of course I read all the introductions, notes, etc.! I scoff at the implication that I am a page-count inflater! What seems more likely to happen is that I read the book in hardcover, then see that the page count on Amazon is for the paperback, which is usually lower due to denser print. It's depressing.

I'm in a contest with another reader, and we both agreed to use the Amazon page count so as to avoid the temptation to choose an edition based on large font size. ;-)

I did a whole blog post on this topic about 6 months ago: http://botheyes.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/100000-pages-a-screed/

Oh believe me, I run into the same difficulties considering how many audio books I listen to. Fortunately I can nab solid numbers from the great "look inside" Amazon feature, praise be to Bezos. The trickiest books are the longest where editions can have page counts that vary by hundreds of pages:

David Copperfield -
Modern Library: 896
Oxford World's Classics: 944
Penguin Popular Classics: 720

I've also picked on some standard page counts that publishers simply adapt font size and line spacing to meet. So in the end I guess the the only thing that truly matters is that we read them :)

I think one day we'll all read e-books, and then we can compare kbs. You can tell someone you read an entire mg.

205. She Had Some Horses - Joy Harjo (80)
206. Should You Leave? - Peter D. Kramer (320)
207. One of Ours - Willa Cather (371)

208. Garbage Land - Elizabeth Royte (336)
209. So Long, See You Tomorrow - William Maxwell (144)

210. The Ghosty Men - Franz Lidz (161)
211. B is for Beer - Tom Robbins (128)
212. A Cold Case - Philip Gourevitch (192)
213. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (384) re-read
214. Nobody Move - Denis Johnson (208)
215. The Secrets of Life - Stuart Wilde (160)

I read The Hunger Games back in January. I had to read it again because we are doing family reading hour and I wanted to share it. We are doing the sequel next week.

216. Don't Cry - Mary Gaitskill (240)
217. L.I.E. - David Hollander (256)
218. See You in a Hundred Years - Logan Ward (272)
219. The Driftless Area - Tom Drury (224)

220. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe - Carson McCullers (160)
221. Q's Legacy - Helene Hanff (192)
222. Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers - Louise Rennison (336)
223. The End of Poverty - Jeffrey Sachs (416)
224. Demons in the Spring - Joe Meno (300)
225. Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World - Donald Antrim (192)

226. American Widow - Alissa Torres (224)
227. A Perfect Mess - Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman (352)
228. The Reader - Bernhard Schlink (224)

229. 1066 and All That - W.C. Sellar and RJ Yeatman (172)
230. The Child in Time - Ian McEwan (272)
231. Ghost - Alan Lightman (256)
232. The Protector's War - S.M. Stirling (608)

233. The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald (128)
234. Startled By His Furry Shorts - Louise Rennison (304)
235. Decoding the Heavens - Jo Marchant (336)
236. Fun Home - Alison Bechdel (232)

June stats: 37 books, 9492 pages
YTD: 236 books, 69,462 pages

I think somebody is primed to start the '500 Book Challenge' group!

You know that's what I'm trying to do this year, right? ...But I don't think I'd try to do it twice!

Anyway, you'd probably be my only competitor, so what do you say? :-)

237. A Reliable Wife - Robert Goolrick (291)
238. Varieties of Disturbance - Lydia Davis (240)
239. Outwitting History - Aaron Lansky (328)
240. Cruel Shoes - Steve Martin (128)
241. The King in Yellow - Robert W. Chambers (304)
242. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley (384)
243. The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman (480)
244. Travel - Yuichi Yokoyama (202)
245. The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber (944)
...and that's what I call a reading marathon.

246. Cradle to Cradle - William McDonough and Michael Braungart (208)
247. The Story Sisters - Alice Hoffman (336)
248. The Ice Storm - Rick Moody (288)
249. Odditude - John R. Powers (256)

Yep, I'm reading #250 today!

I'm afraid you'll have to be satisfied with your status as the biggest reader in town; I'm still shooting for a hard fought 400.

Congrats on hitting the halfway mark!

250. Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading - Maureen Corrigan (240)
251. How Not to Die - Jan Garavaglia (288)
252. The Burning Plain - Juan Rulfo (175)
253. Tethered - Amy MacKinnon (272)
254. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins (400)
255. The Beats - Paul Buhle & Harvey Pekar (208)

256. Beloved - Toni Morrison (275)
257. The Urban Hermit - Sam MacDonald (304)
258. The Able McLaughlins - Margaret Wilson (268)
259. Disappearance Diary - Hideo Azuma (200)

260. Many Lives, Many Masters - Brian L. Weiss (221)
261. Shakespeare Wrote for Money - Nick Hornby (200)
262. Population, 485 - Michael Perry (272)

263. Beat the Reaper - Josh Bazell (336)
264. Why is God Laughing? - Deepak Chopra (192)
265. The Father of All Things - Tom Bissell (432)
266. Crimes Against Logic - Jamie Whyte (176)
267. So Big - Edna Ferber (272)

268. The City and The City - China Mieville (336)
269. Welcome to Lovecraft - Joe Hill (152)
270. Weetzie Bat - Francesca Lia Block (128)
271. The Blue Guide to Indiana - Michael Martone (120)
272. The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan (320)
273. The Strain - Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan (416)
274. Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York - Gail Parent (223)

275. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven - Susan Jane Gilman (320)
276. The Big Skinny - Carol Lay (208)
277. The Messiah of Stockholm - Cynthia Ozick (160)
278. Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead - Barbara Comyns (146)
279. Rats - Robert Sullivan (256)
280. How I Became a Famous Novelist - Steve Hely (224)

July stats: 44 books, 12,129 pages
YTD: 280 books, 81,591 pages

281. The Face on Your Plate - Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (288)

282. Timbuktu - Julia Goschke and Paul Auster (32)
283. You are Being Lied To - Russ Kick, Ed. (350)
284. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout (304)
285. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks (192)

Missed saying "woo hoo" to you :)

286. The Glister - John Burnside (240)
287. The End of the World As We Know It - Robert Goolrick (227)
288. The Ones You Do - Daniel Woodrell (224)
289. Pride - Michael Eric Dyson (160)

290. The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery (336)
291. Freedom's Battle - Gary J. Bass (528)
292. Good-Bye - Yoshihiro Tatsumi (208)
293. Shop Class as Soulcraft - Matthew B. Crawford (256)
294. The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson (512)

295. Me Cheeta - James Lever (336)
296. Airships - Barry Hannah (288)
297. Arrowsmith - Sinclair Lewis (480)

298. The Next 100 Years - George Friedman (272)
299. Blankets - Craig Thompson (592)
300. Why We Hate Us - Dick Meyer (288)
301. How to Paint a Dead Man - Sarah Hall (320)
302. The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder (160)

303. Scarlet Sister Mary - Julia Peterkin (376)
304. That Old Cape Magic - Richard Russo (272)
305. Eating People is Wrong - Malcolm Bradbury (298)
306. Hello, Again - Max Estes (160)
307. What Begings With Bird - Noy Holland (167)
308. Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn (272)
309. On Fire - Larry Brown (192)
310. The Quickening Maze - Adam Foulds

311. Everything Matters! - Ron Currie, Jr. (320)
312. The Ten Thousand Things - Maria Dermout (296)
313. A Bright and Guilty Place - Richard Rayner (288)

Okay, now I am leaving for my wedding and honeymoon! Back 9/8.

314. Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen (320)
315. Brooklyn - Colm Toibin (272)

August stats: 36 books, 10,322 pages
Year to date: 315 books, 91,689 pages

316. The Wilderness - Samantha Harvey (384)
317. Love and Summer - William Trevor (224)
318. The Magicians - Lev Grossman (416)
319. Not Untrue and Not Unkind - Ed O'Loughlin (288)
320. Beowulf: An Illustrated Edition - Seamus Heaney, trans. (224)
321. Bad Things Happen - Harry Dolan (352)
322. Border Songs - Jim Lynch (304)
323. The Rights of the Reader - Daniel Pennac (176)
324. The Seven Days of Peter Crumb - Jonny Glynn (240)

A belated congratulations are in order (how did I miss that?) so a very big ¡Congratulations! to you and your new husband. You've read more than 300 books this year and planned a wedding? Wow.

Why, thank you! Yes, not only did I plan a wedding, but we also both had to relocate. With pets. You can see why I've been reading a bit less lately.

325. Yes - Thomas Bernhard (140)
326. Couch - Benjamin Parzybok (256)
327. The 4-Hour Workweek - Timothy Ferriss (320)
328. The Green Bay Tree - Louis Bromfield (352)
329. The History Man - Malcolm Bradbury (256)
330. Possession - Louis Bromfield (504)

331. An Illustrated Life - Danny Gregory (272)
332. March - Geraldine Brooks (304)
333. Early Autumn - Louis Bromfield (312)
334. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (226)
335. The Kindly Ones - Jonathan Littell (992)
336. The Land of Laughs - Jonathan Carroll (256)

337. God Lives in St. Petersburg - Tom Bissell (224)
338. The Law of Similars - Chris Bohjalian (336)
339. Drink Play F#k - Andrew Gottlieb (240)
340. Laughing Boy - Oliver La Farge (208)
341. Stitches - David Small (336)
342. Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It - Maile Meloy (240)

343. The Tricking of Freya - Christina Sunley (352)
344. A Heckuva Job - Calvin Trillin (128)
345. Years of Grace - Margaret Ayer Barnes (592)
September stats: 30 books, 9454 pages
Year to date: 345 books, 101,143 pages

346. A Doll's House - Henrik Ibsen (122)
347. The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck (448)
348. Crazy for the Storm - Norman Ollestad (288)
349. Franny and Zooey - J. D. Salinger (208)
350. In Praise of Folly - Desiderius Erasmus (108)
351. Traveling Mercies - Anne Lamott (275)
352. This is Where I Leave You - Jonathan Tropper (352)
353. Seven Days in the Art World - Sarah Thornton (320)
354. Poetry as Insurgent Art - Lawrence Ferlinghetti (90)
355. Silverfish - David Lapham (160)

356. Evil at Heart - Chelsea Cain (320)
357. The Waxman Report - Henry Waxman (256)
358. The Magician's Elephant - Kate DiCamillo (208)
359. The Known World - Edward P. Jones (432)
360. Low Moon - Jason (216)
361. Witch Baby - Francesca Lia Block (128)
362. Juliet, Naked - Nick Hornby (416)

363. Local - Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly (384)
364. Stargirl - Jerry Spinelli (208)
365. The Store - T. S. Stribling (592)
366. The Freedom Manifesto - Tom Hodgkinson (352)
367. Lamb in His Bosom - Caroline Miller (338)
368. Now in November - Josephine Johnson (288)
369. Fred the Clown - Roger Langridge (192)
370. Idiot America - Charles P. Pierce (304)
371. Honey in the Horn - H. L. Davis (408)

372. The Late George Apley - John P. Marquand (368)
373. A Gate at the Stairs - Lorrie Moore (336)
374. The Yearling - Marjorie Kinnan Rowlings (480)
375. The Adventures of Tintin, vol. 1 - Herge

376. The New Valley - Josh Weil (352)
377. Fear the Worst - Linwood Barclay (416)
378. Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys - Francesca Lia Block (128)
379. The Song of the Cid - Anonymous (288)
380. Howards End - E.M. Forster (256)
381. The 13 Clocks - James Thurber (128)
382. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien (320)
383. In the Company of Cheerful Ladies - Alexander McCall Smith (256)
384. Sag Harbor - Colson Whitehead (288)

385. Jesus' Son - Denis Johnson (144)
386. The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford (256)
387. The Nobody - Jeff Lemire (144)
388. What the Dead Know - Laura Lippman (400)
389. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (464)

390. In This Our Life - Ellen Glasgow (467)
391. New World Monkeys - Nancy Mauro (304)
392. Dogs and Water - Anders Nilsen (96)
393. The Three Paradoxes - Paul Hornschemeier (80)
394. Curses - Kevin Huizenga (144)
395. The Recognitions - William Gaddis (976)
396. The Elements of Style - Strunk and White (128)
397. Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger (416)

I read all of "The Recognitions" in 24 hours!

To read "The Recognitions" in 24 hours, consecutive or otherwise, is a remarkable achievement (and those were 1000 oversized pages of infamously challenging text!) How did you find it?

Well, I went to Powell's and looked under G... ;-)

I loved it. I think reading it in one sitting actually helped the flow. The party scenes were antic and there were a number of things that made me laugh out loud. I'm looking forward to reading "JR" when I do the NBA's - maybe in '11. (Thinking of Bookers next year).

PS They were actually 24 consecutive hours (23 hours 20 minutes) - I decided to do only one book for this fall's read-a-thon.

398. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou (304)
399. The Satanic Nurses - J. B. Miller (208)
400. Girl in a Blue Dress - Gaynor Arnold (432)
401. Guns, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond (512)
402. Hungry Monkey - Matthew Amster-Burton (256)
403. Pygmalion - George Bernard Shaw (176)
404. The Adventures of Tintin, vol. 2 - Herge
405. Love is a Many Trousered Thing - Louise Rennison (304)
406. The Consolation of Philosophy - Boethius, trans. David R. Slavitt (208)
407. Tricked - Alex Robinson (320)
408. What the Dog Saw - Malcolm Gladwell (432)

409. The Amazing Remarkable M. Leotard - Eddie Campbell (128)
410. Premillennial Maakies - Tony Millionaire (256)
411. Lucky - Gabrielle Bell (112)
412. Important Artifacts from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris - Leanne Shapton (144)
413. The Book of Leviathan - Peter Blegvad (176)
414. Bigfoot: I Not Dead - Graham Roumieu (96)
415. Chronic City - Jonathan Lethem (480)
416. Blue Shoes and Happiness - Alexander McCall Smith (256)
417. Embroideries - Marjane Satrapi (144)
418. Stop in the Name of Pants - Louise Rennison (336)

October Stats: 60 books, 17,624 pages
Year to Date: 418 books, 121,855 pages

419. Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury (304) (re-read with kid)
420. If On a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino (304)
421. Chicken With Plums - Marjane Satrapi (96)
422. Sophie's Choice - William Styron (599)
423. Awkward and Definition - Ariel Schrag (144)
424. The Borden Tragedy - Rick Geary (80)
425. Tristram Shandy - Laurence Sterne (656)
426. Feed - M. T. Anderson (299)

427. The Lost City of Z - David Grann (416)
428. Eating Animals - Jonathan Safran Foer (352)
429. Nemesis - Jo Nesbo (480)
430. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive - Alexander McCall Smith (240)
431. Zeitoun - Dave Eggers (342)
432. The Bottom Billion - Paul Collier (224)
433. Dark Places - Gillian Flynn (349)

434. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, vol. 1 - Naoki Urasawa (200)
435. Bright-Sided - Barbara Ehrenreich (256)
436. Jack Wakes Up - Seth Harwood (304)
437. Thirteen Stories - Eudora Welty (252)
438. The Restless Sleep - Stacy Horn (336)
439. The Mabinogion - (320)
440. Asterios Polyp - David Mazzucchelli (344)

November stats: 32 books read, 9321 pages.
Year to date: 438 books read, 128,088 pages.

441. Waiting for Columbus - Thomas Trofimuk (336)
442. Land of the Lost Souls - Cadillac Man (304)
443. Crow Planet - Lyanda Lynn Haupt (240)
444. The Big Leap - Gay Hendricks (224)
445. A Bell for Adano - John Hersey (288)
446. Dragon's Teeth - Upton Sinclair (648)
447. First Love - Joyce Carol Oates (86)
448. Ironweed - William Kennedy (240)

449. Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us - Ralph Nader (736)
450. The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (384)
451. Micrographica - Renee French (208)
452. Journey in the Dark - Martin Flavin (432)
453. The Miracle at Speedy Motors - Alexander McCall Smith (240)
454. A Drifting Life - Yoshihiro Tatsumi (840)
455. Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann (400)
456. The Curse of Blessings - Mitchell Chefitz (96)
457. Boneshaker - Cherie Priest (416)

458. A Murder, A Mystery, and A Marriage - Mark Twain (112)
459. All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren (464)
460. Enchanted Night - Steven Millhauser (140)
461. Tales of the South Pacific - James Michener (384)
462. 2009 Action Plan - Suze Orman (209)
463. The Parrot Who Thought She Was a Dog - Nancy Ellis-Bell (256)
464. Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui - Karen Kingston (192)
465. Martin Dressler - Steven Millhauser (293)
466. Fathers and Sons - Ivan Turgenev (336)
467. Stick Out Your Tongue - Ma Jian (104)
468. The Pigeon - Patrick Suskind (115)
469. The Hours - Michael Cunningham (240)
470. The Hunter - Darwyn Cooke and Richard Stark (144)
471. Who Moved My Cheese - Spencer Johnson (96)
472. Red Dog - Louis de Bernieres (128)
473. Generation A - Douglas Coupland (320)
474. On Truth - Harry G. Frankfurt (112)
475. The Ballad of Peckham Rye - Muriel Spark (142)

476. Inspiration Sandwich - SARK (163)
477. House Made of Dawn - N. Scott Momaday (198)
478. The Shipping News - E. Annie Proulx (352)
479. Affirmations - Stuart Wilde (151)
480. The Force - Stuart Wilde (80)
481. Miracles - Stuart Wilde (80)
482. The Quickening - Stuart Wilde (160)
483. The Trick to Money is Having Some - Stuart Wilde (208)
484. No Impact Man - Colin Beavan (288)
485. What's Worth Knowing - Wendy Lustbader (256)
486. Manga Shakespeare: Midsummer Night's Dream - William Shakespeare (208)
487. A Summons to Memphis - Peter Taylor (224)
488. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (224)
489. A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain - Robert Olen Butler (288)
490. Elbow Room - James Alan McPherson (241)
491. The Game of Life and How to Play It - Florence Scovel Shinn (68)
492. Coraline: The Graphic Novel - Neil Gaiman (192)
493. On Searching the Scriptures - Your Own or Someone Else's - Jaroslav Pelikan (101)
494. Feng Shui Space Clearing and Purifying -Lillian Too (58)
495. Transformation Soup - SARK (160)
496. Everyday Positive Thinking - Louise Hay (448)
497. This Book Will Change Your Life - Benrik (384)
498. Falling Man - Don DeLillo (272)
499. Succulent Wild Woman - SARK (184)
500. The Bodacious Book of Succulence - SARK (144)

Yearly Total: 500 books read
143,789 pages
Average 393.94 pages per day
Average 287.58 pages per book

I'm not doing that ever again!

Congratulations! (and I know how you feel.)

I wasn't entirely certain that you could pull off the magic 500 given your numbers on the 15th but you really pulled out all the stops (43 books in 2 weeks?! Yikes!)

Woo hoo! Congrats!

I was lucky; we all had an "involuntary vacation" for 10 days at my work. I was also able to finish some things I had bookmarks stuck in. You might notice that I also read shorter books!

:( on the involuntary vacation.

And I read a couple of picture books :) - mostly to finish up the ABC reading challenge.