read 20 books in 2008 so I can continue acting like the most well-read bitch around

Book No. 18

Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews by Jonathan Cott.

Of course I loved it. How could I not?

Book No. 19

Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change The Way We Think About Our Lives by David Sloan Wilson.

It didn’t exactly change my life, but it did help me waste a couple afternoons on my porch.

Book No. 20

The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things… by Barry Glassner.

What a complete waste of time. Seriously.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Fan-fucking-tastic. I don’t normally go for things in the fantasy vein, but the characters in American Gods are so well written and life-like that when something really out of the norm came up I was able to just go with it.

Love it. Love it. Love it.

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

So funny. I love everything Douglas Adams, and this was definitely in that vein. Awesome.

Please, Mr. Einstein by Jean-Claude Carriere.

This is now one of my favorite books EVER. As soon as I finished it, I started reading it again. Carriere took Einstein’s theories and boiled them down into something even I can understand – and since the book is framed as a conversation between Einstein and a young woman, it’s not like reading something that’s been dumbed down for the masses. You understand it as she does.

Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

I’d read bits and pieces of this before, so it wasn’t completely new, but it was pretty enjoyable. A lot of the stereotypes Gilman was speaking out against just aren’t heard of today (mostly), but if you think about it in relation to the time she was writing Herland, I can see how this book would have been pretty radical.

After Dark by Haruki Murakami.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, it was incredibly well-written and engaging. On the other hand, WHAT THE HELL? The entire book was a build-up to something that didn’t really happen. I understand it was all about one night, but come on, the number of loose ends is a bit ridiculous.

Dumped edited by B. Delores Max.

My god, who can’t relate to stories like this? I could have done without the Jane Austen and the Saul Bellow inclusions (been there, read that). Yet again, the Alice Munro is probably my favorite, but now I know I’ve got to read something else by Haruki Murakami. This one is definitely a keeper. Too bad I’m about to take it back to the library.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.

Damn you, Margaret Atwood! Now you’ve gone and taken up TWO spots on my Top Twenty Favorite Books List. How unfair of you when poor little Tolstoy only got one (and you don’t hear him complaining, do you? Oh yeah…that’s right. Dead men tell no tales, so I guess they keep their bitchin’ quiet as well)! You should be ashamed of yourself. For real.

Anyway…I dig futuristic dystopian lit., and she does it so very, very nicely.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

This book rocked my world, y’all. I’ll probably yammer about it endlessly once I let it sink in for a few days.

The Voice of the Master by Kahlil Gibran.

I’d read this before, so I don’t know if that means this is cheating or not. I just felt like revisiting it.