I’m a big reader, always have been. When I was younger and an avid fan of the Sweet Valley High series, I would eagerly anticipate my monthly trip to the bookstore to buy the latest installment. I’d have half the book read by the time my parents pulled the car into our driveway. I can still tell you – in depth, with accuracy – how the twins were described. I just did so this winter.

I now commute utilizing mass transportation. I could say that it’s all part of my effort to reduce my carbon footprint, but let’s face it: it’s also that I really like having time each day that I can devote to my books and my coffee. As such, I began endeavoring to read 50 books in 52 weeks in 2008.

2009 Edition

The 50 in 52 2009 list is being guarded by the good people behind GoodReads. See my list here, sign up and friend me!

2008 Edition

  1. The Man in the Iron Mask – Alexandre Dumas
  2. Nineteen Minutes – Jodi Picoult
  3. Feeding the Monster: How Money, Sports, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top – Seth Mnookin
  4. The Book of Other People – Zadie Smith
  5. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness and the Fair that Changed America – Erik Larson
  6. Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
  7. Back Then: Two Literary Lives in 1950s New York – Anne Bernays
  8. Rock On: An Office Power Ballad – Dan Kennedy
  9. Loser Goes First – Dan Kennedy
  10. Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series – Elit Asinof
  11. Crazy ‘08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball HIstory – Cait Murphy
  12. The Red Sox Fan Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to be a Red Sox Fan or to Marry One – Leigh Grossman
  13. The Long Ball: The Summer of ‘75 – Spaceman, Catfish, Charlie Hustle and the Greatest World Series Ever Played – Tom Adelman
  14. Prep – Curtis Sittenfeld
  15. Norwegian Wood – Haruki Murakami
  16. The Other Boleyn Girl – Philippa Gregory
  17. The Counterlife – Philip Roth
  18. The Plot Against America – Philip Roth
  19. Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season – Stewart O’Nan and Stephen King
  20. Ball Four – Jim Bouton
  21. Seeing Stars: Memoirs of a Professional Autograph Seeker – Edwin Howard
  22. A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
  23. The World According to Garp – John Irving
  24. The Hotel New Hampshire – John Irving
  25. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal – Christopher Moore
  26. The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg – Geoff Herbach
  27. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men – David Foster Wallace
  28. Twilight – Stephenie Meyer
  29. New Moon – Stephenie Meyer
  30. Eclipse – Stephenie Meyer
  31. Breaking Dawn – Stephenie Meyer
  32. The Natural – Bernard Malamud
  33. Nine Stories – J.D. Salinger
  34. The Best American Nonrequired Reading, 2007 – Edited by Dave Eggers
  35. Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood
  36. Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life – Steve Martin
  37. Kate – William J. Mann
  38. Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez
  39. Peanuts and Schulz: A Biography
  40. Beloved – Toni Morrison
  41. Assassination Vacation – Sarah Vowell
  42. Money – Martin Amis
  43. Housekeeping vs. the Dirt – Nick Hornby
  44. Frenemies – Megan Crane
  45. A Widow for One Year – John Irving
  46. Take the Cannoli – Sarah Vowell
  47. Dreams From My Father – Barack Obama
  48. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius – Dave Eggers
  49. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz
  50. Dirty Water - Mary-Ann Tirone Smith and Jere Smith

Italics: Planned reading not yet completed