My 2008 Book Quest

In the past few years I have fallen back in love with reading so long as I can find material that interests me. Yes, some of it may revolve around philosophy or death other topics that don't easily come up in everyday conversation. But I decided that 2008 would by my year of explosive reading, aiming to finish a book every week, or have 52 total by year's end. Though this didn't happen - I made it to 39, finishing the last just before midnight on New Year's Eve - I still did more reading in one year than most people will ever do in their entire lives. Really... 39 out of 52. It's like I got thru September and just started slacking. Beach Week sure derailed me a bit among other things. But what follows is a full listing of those 39 books that I did manage to finish. I'll wait until my next post to nod at my recommendations and ones to avoid. So here's what I tackled in '08:

Ciao, America! (Beppe Severgnini)
How Starbucks Saved My Life (Michael Gates Gill)
You Suck (Christopher Moore)
Bad vs. Worse (Joshua Piven)
Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be: A Rock & Roll Fairy Tale (Jen Trynin)
Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury (Stephan Pastis)
Bloodsucking Fiends (Christopher Moore)
Bang Your Head (David Konow)
My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student (Rebekah Nathan)
Xenocide (Orson Scott Card)
Children of the Mind (Orson Scott Card)
Rock On: An Office Power Ballad (Dan Kennedy)
The Man with the Iron Tattoo... (John Castaldo, Lawrence Levitt)
How Doctors Think (Jerome Groopman)
Wisdom for a Young Musician (Bruce Warren)
Lio: Happiness is a Squishy Cephalopod (Mark Tatulli)
I'm Ready for My Movie Contract: A Get Fuzzy Collection (Darby Conley)
The Crass Menagerie: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury (Stephan Pastis)
Then We Came to the End (Joshua Ferris)
Come On Down!: Behind the Big Doors at "The Price is Right" (Stan Blits)
Made in America (Matt Hughes)
The Office and Philosophy: Scenes from the Unexamined Life (J. Jeremy Wisnewski)
Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices and Priorities of a Winning Life (Tony Dungy)
Island of the Sequined Love Nun (Christopher Moore)
F Minus (Tony Carillo)
My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith (Kevin Smith)
Kill as Few Patients as Possible: And Fifty-Six Other Essays on How to be the World's Best Doctor (Oscar London)
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove (Christopher Moore)
God Save the Fan... (Will Leitch)
This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession (Daniel J. Levitin)
Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die (Michael Largo)
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance (Atul Gawande)
Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon's Firefly Universe (Jane Espenson)
Rule Number Two: Lessons I Learned in a Combat Hospital (Heidi Squier Kraft)
Fluke (Christopher Moore)
Coyote Blue (Christopher Moore)
Practical Demonkeeping (Christopher Moore)
Falling Up (Shel Silverstein)
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (Anne Rice)

Damn... I really read a LOT! Some of those titles were abbreviated, but you've got enough info to look them up on Amazon or wherever for your own pleasure. As I said a follow-up post will... umm... follow shortly. Rock/read on.