A couple of blogging writers/artists/creatives I admire post their what-I-read list the end of the year. I’ve been inspired to do the same (and finally did it — see below). I’d hoped to read 20 books of poetry this year, and thought I hadn’t, but doing the math, I have! The list doesn’t include the journals I also read, in print and online. I also read a fair amount of non-fiction, short story collections, and young adult (“fair amount” meaning more that I usually do in the YA category).

I’ve poached the idea of bolding my favorite books, but set myself no minimum or maximum. I loved many books, but have highlighted only those that blew me away, kept me thinking about them long after I had finished the book. I’ve set the poetry books in italics.

My list is eclectic and random. I pick books because I know the authors (many of my friends are invisible, but not all) or I’ve heard a talk from the author, or the books were recommended. Some are light, some are chapbooks, some rather technical, some a lark, and others (many!) were selected based on book cover art.

I am a reading whore. Set it in front of me, and I will pick it up. Or will hunt it up like a feast.

And sometimes I will put it down, or take over a year to read it. I am not a monogamous reader and usually have several books going at once. Dedicated to reading, yet fickle as a spoiled cat.

What I didn’t do this year was post reviews and/or responses, both here and/ or at a poetry discussion group on Goodreads. My goal next year is to do so.

1. Here by Wislawa Szymborska
2. Watermark by Clayton T. Michaels 
3. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
5. 70 Faces: Torah Poems by Rachel Barenblat
6. Flap: The Chook Book 2 by Victoria Broome, Catherine Fitchett, Barbara McCartney & Christina Stachurski
7. Blameless Mouth by Jessica Fox-Wilson 
8. Letters From the Emily Dickinson Room by Kelli Russell Agodon
9. OK, Goodnight by Emily Kendal Frey & Zachary Schomburg
10. The Suitable Girl by Michelle McGrane
11. Brute Neighbors edited by Chris Green
12. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
13. The Mystery of the Hidden Driveway by Jennifer L. Knox
14. Mercy Island: New and Selected Poems by Ren Powell
15. Mink River by Brian Doyle
16. Unthinkable Skies by Juliet Wilson
17. Garlic and Sapphires  by Ruth Reichl
18. Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
19. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
20. Threshold by Jennifer Richter
21. Crow Mercies by Penelope Schott
22. Weaving a New Eden by Sherry Chandler
23. The Eddy Fence by Donna Henderson
24. The Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany by Graeme Gibson
25. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010 edited by Dave Eggers
26. The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch
27. Open City by Teju Cole
28. Pepek the Assassin by Joyce Ellen Davis
29. Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne
30. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
31. The Constants of Nature by John D. Barrow
32. Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie
33. The Architect of Flowers by William Lychack
34. Excuse me while I wring this long swim out of my hair by S. Jane Sloat
35. You Must Revise Your Life by William Stafford
36. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
37. Irish Girl by Tim Johnston
38. I Am A Very Productive Entrepreneur by Mathias Svalina
39. Finding Compass by Carolyn Martin
40. Sex on Six Legs by Marlene Zuk
41. Drift & Pulse by Kathleen Halme
42. Cream of Kohlrabi by Floyd Skloot
43. The Hunger Games(The Hunger Games, #1) by Suzanne Collins
44. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
45. Water: Portland’s Precious Heritage by Casey Short
46. Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2) by Suzanne Collins
47. Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3) by Suzanne Collins
48. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
49. Just Kids by Patti Smith
50. The Names of Birds: Poems by Tom Crawford

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