Shooflypie

I started 2012 with a goal to read 52 books in the year and I managed to meet that goal. I was probably a teenager the last time I read that much in a year, to be honest. It felt good to reach my goal and I really enjoyed the reading year. I read 35 books that came out this year, which is a pretty good total. I even read 9 books that weren't fiction, which is more than I've read in a year ever. Regardless of genre or publication date, here are the books I liked the most... 1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - A dark page-turner built on twist after twist that's wired into how the book is structured and the alternating viewpoints of a couple with a strained marriage. Disturbing and brilliant. 2. The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson - A virtuoso novel set in North Korea about living under the rule of Kim Jong Il and the lengths people will go to in order to stay alive. Complex and crackling with creative energy. 3. Billy Lynn's Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain - ...

I've managed to read 2 books so far this year, The Ecstasy of Influence by Jonathan Lethem and The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson. Before I talk about the books, I thought I'd talk about my book goals for 2012. I've joined the Books on the Nightstand 12 in '12 Challenge for the year; my 12 for the year will be books from 2011 that I didn't get around to reading last year. In addition, I've also set a goal of 52 books on the year, which works out to one a week. Obviously, I'm already behind that pace...but it's also early in the game. Lethem's The Ecstasy of Influence collects a wide variety of his work, mainly non-fiction in nature, though there are some scattered pieces of fiction throughout. He talks about his brief days at Bennington and short friendships with Donna Tartt and Bret Easton Ellis, an interview he did with Bob Dylan, his thoughts on the book critic James Wood, Philip K. Dick, book reviews, super-heroes, movies, and so m...