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Cover to Cover – 2009

Once again we come to the end of a year of reading and the beginning of a new one, and that means it's time for me to reveal the titles that have kept my eyes busy over the last year.  At some point during the year, I started doing more detailed book reviews for most everything I read, so I'll link to those for further reading as they come.

Interestingly, I read more fiction than nonfiction this year (42 to 30), which isn’t usually the norm.  I believe that stems from all the read-alouds I counted on my list this year.  This factor also contributed to my blowing away my previous record of 67 titles (in 2005) and settling on 72 for 2009.

(My page count was still off by 1400 or so, which I attribute to having read ~3400 pages of Harry Potter back in ‘05.)

If you missed my favorites/not-so-favorites post, you can go check it out.  I also posted my TBR List for 2010.

And now, the list!  Apologies for the Read More tag, but I don’t want to overrun my front page here.

1. Is Believing in God Irrational?, by Amy Orr-Ewing:  Borrowed from Katie while in Alaska.  This made a good follow-up to The Impossible Faith, addressing some of the common "new atheist" objections to Christianity.  Four days to read.  Of note is the fact that Katie bought it and read it on the same day.   Yeah, she's good.
2. The Inimitable Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse.  Library.  Simply delightful in almost every way.  Hilarious and witty.  Some of the best language I've read.  A week to read.
3. The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again, by J.R.R. Tolkien.  From my home library.  It definitely has its merits, but I'm just not that big a fan of Tolkien's writing anymore.  I've enjoyed the Lord of the Rings both times I've read them, but I've just lost interest in overly descriptive prose.  Took basically a month, but felt like three years.
4. Star Wars: The Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi, by Ryder Windham.  Borrowed from one of Ethan's friends.  This was really just plain fun.  I read it to Ethan at bedtime.  It follows Luke as he returns to Tatooine in preparation for rescuing Han in Episode 6.  In Obi-Wan's old hermitage, Luke finds and reads a journal that retells many stories from the movies, but from Obi-Wan's perspective, and also fills in a few expanded universe stories about Master Kenobi.  Very cool.  Took two weeks or so to read.
5. Your Heart Belongs to Me, by Dean Koontz.  Library.  It's interesting.  Every time I get one of his books, I know it's time to put a hold request in for the next one.  That's how prolific he is.  This one I really enjoyed, especially the first two thirds or so as the suspense was building.  I was slightly let down by the climax, but the ending was actually quite satisfying.  A week to read.
6. The House at Pooh Corner, by A.A. Milne.  From the home library.  I was scoping for something to read Ethan when I found this on our bookshelf.  As my first experience with Classic Pooh, I found it completely delightful.  And Ethan enjoyed it more than he'd probably admit.  Ten days or so to read.
7. The Revelation of Jesus Christ: An Open Letter to the Church from a Modern Perspective of the Book of Revelation, by Lynn Hiles.  InterLibrary Loan.  Oh, boy.  An old friend asked if I'd read this, based on my less-than-mainstream views on Eschatology.  I was happy to give it a look, but I'm not sure I'm happy anymore that I did.  It was really a grab-bag of "Umm...what?" and "Hmm...interesting."  But for my full review, check out my Theology Thursday Book Review.  Two weeks to read.
8. Snark: A Polemic in Seven Fits, by David Denby: Library.  Saw it on the RSS feed and thought the title looked interesting.  Unfortunately, it was a bit one-sided, not finding as many examples of the offending Snark on the political left as on the right.  The survey of satire through the ages was interesting, but the modern part really lost something in its bias.  Three days to read.
9. Righting the Mother Tongue: From Olde English to Email, the Tangled Story of English Spelling, by David Wolman.  Library.  This was my first had-to-return-it-last-year-but-got-it-again-this-year title.  And there was never any doubt that I'd finish it, because it was fascinating.  (The first time I got it, I was reading a few books already.)  The history of English spelling is truly tangled, and it was interesting to read about attempts, both successful and not, to simplify the tangle.  It's hard to say how long it took to read, but I'm guessing it was about ten days total.
10. Easy Company Soldier: The Legendary Battles of a Sergeant from World War II's 'Band of Brothers', by Don Malarky.  Library.  I picked this one up because I loved Band of Brothers (movie and book), and because Don Malarky has an Oregon connection.  It was well worth the read.  While BoB focused on the actions of the group, Easy Company Soldier was much more personal.  Four days to read.
11. Small Miracles of the Holocaust: Extraordinary Coincidences of Faith, Hope, and Survival, by Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal.  Library.  I got this one last year at some point but never got to it.  Elaine raced through it in like three days.  I finally got it again and used it as my before-bed-reading.  The chapters were short, and some of the stories were just amazing.  Took me about six weeks to read it.  (Theology Thursday Book Review)
12. The Tales of Beedle the Bard, by J.K. Rowling.  Library.  I'm not sure I'd have read this if it hadn't been on the Best-Sellers rack at the Library.  It's certainly not up to the standards of the Harry Potter series, but it was kind of fun.  Took a day to read.
13. Have a Nice Doomsday: Why Millions of Americans are Looking Forward to the End of the World, by Nicholas Guyatt.  Library RSS.  Just amazingly well written and interesting.  I tore through this in just a couple of days, and was glad to see someone tackle this topic with honesty and balance.
14. Rapture for the Geeks: When AI Outsmarts IQ, by Richard Dooling.  Library RSS.  I'm not Rapture-obsessed!  Honest!  This one's about Singularity, the term for the hypothetical future time when computers become more intelligent than humans.  Very witty and entertaining, even if not completely convincing.  Five days to read.
15. The Shack, by William P. Young.  Purchased.  I figured I needed to give this one a read since everybody else read it.  I'm a bit up and down on it.  I didn't find it particularly well-written, and there were definitely some interesting passages in it.  Still, there was definitely some good stuff there, too.  See my full Theology Thursday Book Review for more detail.  I started and stopped (due to the powerful boringness of the first third or so), but probably only took five or six days to read it.
16. The Hardy Boys: The Tower Treasure, by Franklin W. Dixon.  Library.  Figured we should feed Ethan something other than baseball and Star Wars.  And he loved it.  He begged me practically every night to read "just oooonnneee more!!!!"  Took about three weeks to read.
17. Coaching Youth Baseball, by the American Sports Education Program.  Library.  All in the name of preparing to coach Ethan's baseball team.  Definitely worth picking up if you're in a similar spot.  Ten days to read.
18. The Associate, by John Grisham.  Library.  Engaging and easy to read, until Grisham ran out of steam and just ended it.  I think it really needed another fifty pages or so.  Three days to read.
19. The Hardy Boys: The House on the Cliff, by Franklin W. Dixon.  Library.  Again, Ethan was totally glued to it.  Coupla weeks to read.
20. Flashforward, by Robert J. Sawyer.  Library.  This is one I requested after seeing that it was being made into a television series.  It's really quite interesting.  For more, see my Monday Morning Musings about it.  Two weeks to read.
21. Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Grievous attacks!, by Rob Valois, et al.  Library.  This was an adaption of four episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and it probably stretches the definition of a book, but as it was 160 pages long, I'm counting it.  I'm not really within easy striking distance of finishing another one soon.  Took a week or so to read.
22. The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread, by Kate DiCamillo.  Library.  I picked this up off the non-renewable Best Sellers rack, and Ethan loved it.  Took about two weeks to read.  (I Monday Morning Mused about it)
23. The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century, by George Friedman.  Library.  I picked this one up after hearing Mr. Friedman on The Dennis Prager Show.  It's much more readable than you'd probably think, being a book written by an intelligence analyst.  I'm not sure he's right about all of it, but it was an interesting eye-opener about geopolitics.  Two and a half weeks to read. (Musings)
24. Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity, by David Bodanis.  Library.  I got this one because I so loved Bodanis' earlier work E=mc^2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation, which still stands as my favorite science book.  This one is more a collection of stories in the history of electricity than the story of it, but it's still well worth a read.  The stories are quite interesting.  This was my nightstand book, so it took basically nine weeks to read.  (Musings)
25. The Hardy Boys: The Secret of the Old Mill, by Franklin W. Dixon.  Library.  Probably our last Hardy Boys for now.  Ethan was still absolutely glued to it, but we need to start in on some of his read-aloud curriculum.  Starting with Dr. Doolittle!  Oh, two weeks to read.
26. AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War, by Tom McNichol.  Library.  I'd been wanting to read about Nikola Tesla since I saw The Prestige, and so I was somewhat disappointed when he played a rather minor role in the actual conflict over Alternating or Direct Current.  Oh, he's in there, but he's just not the front-line character the movie makes him out to be (shocking, I know).  I wrote up a somewhat lengthy (for me) review in an earlier Monday Morning post.  Ten days to read.
27. The Story of Doctor Doolittle, by Hugh Lofting.  From our home library.  This goes under homeschooling since it's a recommended read-aloud, and Ethan, though taking some time to warm to it, ended up really enjoying the story.  Initially I wasn't overly impressed, but my thoughts on it have gotten fonder after hearing Ethan retell parts of the story.  It certainly engaged him, and the stuff with the Pushmi-pullyu and an owl's hearing and a dog's sense of smell were a lot of fun.  Oh, and the swallows pulling a ship along at breakneck speed.  Good stuff.  Ten days to read.   (I wrote a bit about it in Monday Morning Musings.)
28. Basic Christianity, by John R. W. Stott.  Purchased.  Started reading this one a loooong time ago and finally got around to it.  Wonderful, simple presentation of the essentials of Christianity.  I did a full review for Theology Thursday.  Impossible to calculate the time it took me to read.
29. The Hardy Boys: The Missing Chums, by Franklin W. Dixon. Library.  Yes, another one, and Ethan shows no sign of letting up.  Two weeks again.
30. Escape From the Deep: The Epic Story of a Legendary Submarine and Her Courageous Crew, by Alex Kershaw.  Library.  I'd heard about the upcoming feature film, so of course I had to read the book first.  Wow.  Just completely riveting.  Everything I read about WWII makes me respect that generation more.  Five days to read.  Couldn't put it down.  (Full-ish Review)
31. Relentless, by Dean Koontz.  Library.  Perfectly paced to keep me reading it, and just disturbing enough to keep me from reading it right before bed.  Koontz has a way of creating truly evil antagonists and very good (but believable) protagonists.  Four days. (Full Review)
32. NLT Study Bible: New Testament.  Purchased.  This was my chosen translation this year, and I decided to do the NT twice.  First time through went well, and the second should go faster since I won't have to read all the introductions and commentary again.  Six months to read, but only on weekends. (Full Theology Thursday Book Review)
33. Catcher in the Wry, by Bob Uecker.  InterLibrary Loan.  Saw the Uke doing a Milwaukee Brewers broadcast and thought I'd look him up.  Turns out he's funny.  Good stuff.  Ten days to read. (Full Review)
34. Logan's Run, by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson.  Library.  Better than the film, and short enough to keep it interesting. Two days to read. (Full Review)
35. The Hardy Boys: Hunting for Hidden Gold,by Franklin W. Dixon.  Library.  This will be our last Hardy Boys for a while as there's a long list of books I want to read Ethan.  Still fun, though, and Ethan's still glued to them.  Maybe once he's up to reading his own novels, he'll work his way through the whole collection.
36. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!, by Jonathan Goldstein.  Library RSS.  It's hard to imagine enjoying a book less, and I only kept reading it so I could warn others off (for the full warning, read my Full Review).  Four weeks to read, because there were several others I preferred to focus on.
37. Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English, by John McWhorter.  Purchased.  This is one I got due to my continuing interest in English and linguistics.  Well-written and witty, it nevertheless assumes some knowledge of the traditional Story of English, which makes it more of a niche subject.  Still worth reading, though, if only for the terrific title.  Not completely gripping, I finished seven other titles after I started this one.  So it ended up taking two months or so to read.  (Full Review)
38. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum.  Library.  This one was on Ethan's Read-Aloud list, and I'd never read it.  We both loved it.  I detail some of the differences between the book and the movie in my Full Review.
39. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus, by Orson Scott Card. Purchased.  I got a very nice hardcover edition of this book at the Library Book Sale in May.  And I'm glad I did, because it was a fascinating and entertaining book.  About a week to read.  (Full Review)
40. Blindness, by Jose Saramago.  Library.  My first Nobel Prize winner (the author, not specifically the book), and it's a good one.  I was familiar with the film, but when I discovered the whole Nobel thing, I just had to read it.  Definitely worth it, but there are some very brutal passages.  Check my full review for more detail.  Two weeks to read.  (Ended up my Favorite Book of the Year)
41. Heaven, by Randy Alcorn.  Purchased.  Well worth the read, as it clears up a lot of misconceptions about Heaven.  I did a Theology Thursday Book Review in August.  Seven months to read, little by little.
42. Anguished English, by Richard Lederer.  Library.  Another “what’s wrong with English” book, except it’s really about English’s speakers and writers, not so much the language itself.  Fun stuff.  Three days to read. (Downsized Review)
43. Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk.  Library.  Randomly read when I realized the author is a local guy.  Cool.  Interesting, short read, not all that different from the film.  Two days to read.  (Full Review)
44. Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White.  Library. Grabbed this one off the Recommended Reads to Ethan list, and we both enjoyed it.  Two weeks to read.  (Full Review)
45. Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life, by Len Fisher.  Library.  I’d heard of Game Theory, so I found a book about it and read it.  And it was enjoyable, but I still don’t feel like I could talk intelligently about it.  Ten days to read.  (Full Review)
46. Holes, by Louis Sachar.  Purchased.  I picked this up a the Library Book Sale earlier this year and finally got to it.  And it’s exactly like the movie.  See my Full Review for more.  A week or so to read (had to put it on hold while I finished my Library backlog).
47. Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein, Book 3: Dead and Alive, by Dean Koontz.  Library.  I’d taken in the other two books on audio, but figured I’d do this one in print.  Good series, excellent story.  More in my Full Review.  Four days to read.
48. I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay, by Harlan Ellison.  Library.  This is not the I, Robot you’re thinking of.  This one was never filmed, which is a crime.  No, instead we got something with robots but very little Asimov in it.  Maybe someday they’ll get around to filming this one.  A week to read.  (Full Review)
49. A Treasury of Children’s Literature, by Armand Eisen.  Home.  This was on the Read to Ethan list, and we very much enjoyed it.  The one sour note was the “excerpts from larger works” section, which didn’t make any sense to me.  About a month to read.  Ethan’s favorite story: Br’er Rabbit and the Tar Baby.(Full Review)
50. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.  Library.  I picked this one up after seeing it recommended in a number of places.  Good read, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.  Three days to read.  (Full Review)
51. The Boys’ Book of Survival: How to Survive Anything, Anywhere, by Guy Campbell.  Library RSS.  Just fun, but with actually some useful stuff in it.  Three hours to read.  (Full Review)
52. Colossus, by D.F. Jones.  Library.  I highly enjoyed this cautionary, if dated, tale of man’s attempt to create machine intelligence.  Good stuff.  Four days to read.  (Full Review)
53. Fermat’s Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem, by Amir D. Aczel.  Library.  I can’t even remember what possessed me to pick this title up, but pick it up I did, and I learned something.   And it was short.  For more, see my Full Review.  Three weeks to read, scattered across several other titles.
54. Slan, by A.E. Van Vogt.  I read this one because of the strenuous protestations of Harlan Ellison, and it left me a bit cold.  I liked the story and the characters, but it just dropped off at the end in a very unsatisfying way. Ten days to read. (Full Review)
55. The Indian in the Cupboard, by Lynne Reid Banks.  Library.  Ethan’s been learning about American Indians in his lessons, so I thought I’d bring in this classic title (classic to me, anyway, since it was read aloud to my fourth grade class).  Ethan ate it up, as he does almost everything I read.  Two weeks to read.  (Full Review, mostly by Ethan)
56. Vanished, by Joseph Finder.  Library RSS.  I like a good mystery/thriller, and this one worked just fine.  I’d actually like to see Nick Heller recur as a main character.  A week to read. (Full Review)
57. Naya Nuki: Shoshoni Girl Who Ran, by Kenneth Thomasma.  Library.  Read this one to Ethan for his studies in American Natives.  It’s a fascinating and inspiring story, and one wonders why her friend, Sacajawea, got more press than she did.  For more, see my Full Review.  A week to read.
58. The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment, by A.J. Jacobs.  Library.  Not, perhaps, as good as his previous work, but still highly enjoyable.  Three days to read.  (Full Review)
59. Button, Button: Uncanny Stories, by Richard Matheson.  Library.  I picked this one up because of the new movie The Box I kept seeing advertised.  And Button, Button is one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes ever.  It’s a decent little collection of short stories.  Took about a day to read.  (Full Review)
60. Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What it Says About Us), by Tom Vanderbilt.  Library.  This is one I knew about last year but couldn’t fit in.  So when I saw it on the Bestsellers rack at the Library, I had to grab it.  Then I got a bunch of others and didn’t finish it.  After re-requesting it, I finally read it through and enjoyed it.  For more, see my Full Review.  Five weeks to read.
61. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, by Donald Miller.  Library.  I looked forward to this one after hearing Don speak at Men’s Retreat this year, and it didn’t disappoint.  Very engaging and inspirational.  More in my Full Review.  Two days to read.
62. The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen’s Guide, by Sally Pipes.  InterLibrary Loan.  I heard the author on Michael Medved and had to give the book a look.  Very much worth the time, although it does tend to push one toward depression at the distortions and stupidity of much of the Reform Health Care crowd.  Two weeks to read.  (Full Review)
63. Letter to a Christian Nation, by Sam Harris.  Purchased.  I picked it up at the Library Book Sale, hoping to get an idea about how the New Atheists think.  Unfortunately, more data is needed, as this book didn’t contain much thought.   But it was short, so that’s something.  You can read my Full Review if you like, but you probably know it’s a negative one.  Two days to read, followed by a day or so of indigestion.
64. Brighty of the Grand Canyon, by Marguerite Henry.  A gift for The Breakfast Eater from my Mom.  Ethan enjoyed this tale of a legendary burro of the pre-National Park days of the Canyon very much.  I found it a little difficult to get into, but if the boy likes it, it’s okay by me.  About a month to read.  (Full Review)
65. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke.  Purchased at the Library Book Sale.  I figured I should pick this one up so I could properly appreciate 2010, which I’m planning to read this year, for fairly obvious reasons.  Time will tell if I’ll read the next title in the series for the same reason (doubt it).  Check out my Full Review if you’re interested.  Summary: better than the film.  Two weeks to read.
66. Pirate Latitudes, by Michael Crichton.  Library Best-Sellers rack.  I liked this break from Crichton’s more recent geeky sci-fi stuff.  It’s got piratey stuff in it, so what’s not to love?  My Full Review found something, but overall I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Just under a week to read.
67. Because of Winn Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo.  Purchased at Marshall’s.  As with Despereaux, The One Who Devours Breakfast begged for me to read more of this one.  I managed to space the reading out into just over a week, and we both enjoyed it rather a lot.  We’re suckers for a story about a dog.  A week to read.  (Full Review)
68. Breathless, by Dean Koontz.  Library.  Some hit, some miss.  This one was somewhere in between.  A bit uneven in terms of plotting, but I still liked the main core characters and didn’t stop reading it or anything.  Five days to read.  (Full Review)
69. NLT Study Bible.  Purchased with gift money from last year.  I thoroughly enjoyed this read, though I still prefer a couple of other translations.  The really great part was the balance of the study notes, not standing too firmly in any one theological camp, but presenting options for interpretation.  Looks like it took about a year to read it.  No additional review since I already reviewed the NT.
70. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins.  Library.  I delayed and delayed picking this one up because the third book in the series won’t be out until next August!  But read it I did, and it was fantastic (read my concise Full Review if you like), and now I’m waiting for the new one.  And I’ll wait patiently unless I can figure out how to time travel.  A leisurely five days to read it.
71. James and the Giant Peach, by Roald Dahl.  Purchased.  I picked this one up at the good old Library Book Sale, paying a dollar for it, even though the non-Library Book Sale sticker on it said fifty cents.  But the official one doubled the price.  Ethan and I enjoyed it, and you can read more about what I thought of it, in between my ramblings about how awesome peaches are, in my Full Review.  Coupla weeks to read.
72. Halley’s Bible Handbook, by H.H. Halley.  Purchased.  I picked this one up at the Library Book Sale in ‘08 and decided to read it along with my Bible read-through.  That didn’t really work out, but I still managed to finish it in the same year, thanks mostly to a good deal of cramming at the end.  I’ll review it next week for my first Theology Thursday of the year.

I don’t have anything like a plan to exceed my 2009 total this year.  I’ll still shoot for a book-a-week, rather than six-books-a-month.  And now, in the somewhat altered words of Alton Brown, I bid you good reading.