2005: The year in reading

The finalized 2005 reading list:

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson--fiction
The Elfin Ship by James P. Blaylock--fiction
The March by E.L. Doctorow--fiction
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury--fiction
No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy--fiction
Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game by William Kennedy--fiction
Waltzing through the Endtime by David Bottoms--poetry
Legs by William Kennedy--fiction
The Circus in Winter by Cathy Day--fiction
Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure by Paul Auster--nonfiction
Letters From New Orleans by Rob Walker--nonfiction
In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat by Rick Atkinson--nonfiction
Harry Potter and the Mountains of Moolah by Some Rich English Broad--fiction
Them: Adventures With Extremists by Jon Ronson--nonfiction
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane--fiction
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon--fiction
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem--fiction
The Bottom of the Harbor by Joseph Mitchell--nonfiction
Old Mr. Flood by Joseph Mitchell--fiction
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck--fiction
The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck--fiction
Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck--fiction
The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq--fiction
The Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers--fiction
Meditations on First Philosophy by Rene Descartes--nonfiction
A History of Western Philosophy vol.2 by W.T. Jones chapters 1-4--nonfiction
Why Dogs Chase Cars by George Singleton--fiction
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell--fiction
Selections from Plato: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, The Republic--nonfiction
"Education Through Violence" from A History of Western Philosophy vol.1 by W.T. Jones--nonfiction
"Consolation for Unpopularity" from The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain De Botton--nonfiction
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson—fiction

I like the unintentional symmetry of beginning and ending with novels by Marilynne Robinson. I read a lot of fiction this year. My unofficial goal was to read one novel a month in 2005. I easily surpassed that. Why did I set out to do this? Because I’d spent years in grad school and then teaching and was unable to fully indulge my taste in fiction. So I decided to read a lot of it. A few of the books on this list are old favorites that I’ve read numerous times and excluding those I’d say the best reads from 2005 were Cloud Atlas by Mitchell and Gilead by Robinson. The March by Doctorow was also quite good and I recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of his or has an interest in Sherman’s march to the sea or American history generally. No Country for Old Men was also good…a powerful narrative of decline disguised as a page-turning crime novel. Rob Walker’s Letters From New Orleans was a great read and the fact that I finished it just a couple of weeks before the hurricane only served to make it more meaningful. Hmmm…there were lots of good books on this list and I can’t point to a single one that was bad. Lucky me! That said the 2005 Trickgnosis book award goes to Cloud Atlas with Gilead as the first runner-up. Mitchell’s novel was a mix of serious skill and balls that has stuck with me even after a year. I’ll read it again someday. I have also realized that I am glad to have a record of my reading...well some of my reading anyway and I shall continue the practice.