2008 in Books.

As promised, here is a list of what I read last year. This time the re-reads are asterisked. Ratings are equally subjective, but I guess they're a little different for books. Hmm, maybe something like this:

(1) - It was an utter waste of time.
(2) - I can't in good conscience describe it as a "good book."
(3) - It was fun and/or useful to read.
(4) - It delighted and/or educated me.
(5) - It crawled inside my head and moved things around, or burrowed inside my heart and made a little nest there.

What I Read in 2008

Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott (5)
Lamott always challenges me: to dare to hope, grieve, trust, live harder, laugh louder, and be recklessly honest.

Kindred by Octavia Butler (5)
What would antebellum slavery look like firsthand to an African-American woman from the 1970s? A beautiful and painful book.

Living More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre (3)
A Mennonite compilation of ideas about how to make the world better in small, practical ways. Not as good as I was hoping.

Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Peter Dickinson & Robin McKinley (4)
Fun fantasy fiction. McKinley's stories are more accessible, Dickinson's more challenging, both plenty entertaining.

The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye: Five Fairy Stories by A.S. Byatt (3.5)
Fairy tales by a modern author. Worth it for the fifth story alone, in which the djinn finally gets some love.

Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip vol. 2 (5)
I grew up re-reading Jansson's kid lit, but the comic strips are new to me, and I think they're pretty much the best thing since sliced fjords.

Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip vol. 1 (5) *
Had to reread after getting my hands on the second volume. Gorgeous, humbly brilliant, further adventures of old friends who haven't changed a bit.

Sorcerers & Secretaries vol. 1 by Amy Kim Ganter (4) *
Shamelessly mushy Ameri-manga. Shy business school student is distracted from secret fantasy fiction project by... a flirtatious boy!

Sorcerers & Secretaries vol. 2 by Amy Kim Ganter (3.5)
Not as good as the first one, but still cute.

Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier (4)
A remarkably readable exploration of the science, history, and anthropology of the female body.

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake (2.5)
First in the Gormenghast trilogy, and the wrong book to take to Hawaii with me. Really slow and wordy, and I didn't like the characters much.

Put Your Life on a Diet: Lessons Learned from Living in 140 Square Feet by Gregory Johnson (3)
Practical thoughts on simplifying your lifestyle: why and how. Not a lot new here.

Radical Simplicity: Creating an Authentic Life by Dan Price (4)
Entertainingly illustrated journal by a guy who's obsessed with living in tipis, tents, and hobbit-holes.

Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon by Chuck Palahniuk (4)
Made me want to explore my city more, and ask more questions. And document everything in a gossipy, sensationalistic tone.

Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link (3.5)
Link is so weird. So weird. Sometimes in a really, really good way, and sometimes just in a weird way. Loved the one about the Snow Queen.

Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones (3)
Good goofy kid-fantasy fun. Well-done and (for me at least) forgettable.

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (2)
Ugh. I am so not the target audience for this.

Heartland: Short Stories from North-Western Wales (3)
The ones translated from the Welsh just didn't work for me. Cultural storytelling conventions are apparently way different here.

Pirateology by Dugald A. Steer (2)
Again, I am really not the target audience. A special-effects book with text apparently designed to be ignored.

Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold by Alisa Kwitney (3.5)
Graphic novel. Decent Sandman spinoff about Pestilence, as in the rider of the apocalypse.

Perfect Example by John Porcellino (2.5)
Graphic novel. If Chris Ware says a book makes him happy, you know it's gonna be a downer.

The Dance of Anger: A Woman's Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships by Harriet Lerner (4)
Not actually about anger so much as asserting yourself responsibly. Some good lessons here.

Action Philosophers! vol. 1, by Fred Van Lente & Ryan Dunlavey (3)
Graphic novel. Cute, wacky, irreverent, and educational!

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, vol. 1, by Allan Moore (3) *
Graphic novel. I enjoyed it a little less on this second reading, but it's still Moore, which means it's still top-notch storytelling.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, vol. 2, by Allan Moore (3)
Of course, that also means parts of the story are going to be hard to stomach, and he saved most of those for v. 2. Eww.

And that's it, kids. I know, you'd think a librarian would average more than two books a month, but this is actually about on par for the last several years. I would like to have read more than 25 books by the end of 2009 (already got one under my belt: Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, short and sweet). But that's not a resolution, just sort of a vague inclination.