Hi! I'm new and started at GoodReads so I could track my 2009 books. Never done it before but I'm always curious exactly how much I read every year -- this group seems like a great way to keep up.

So far, I've read:

1. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
2. The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho
3. Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point by Elizabeth D. Samet
4. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
5. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
6. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
7. Dear Fatty by Dawn French
8. How Do You Want Me? by Ruby Wax
9. Welcome to Hell: One Man's Fight for Life Inside the Bangkok Hilton by Colin Martin
10. Beloved by Toni Morrison
11. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
12. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
13. Watership Down by Richard Adams
14. Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
15. Veronika Decides to Die: A Novel of Redemption by Paulo Coelho
16. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
17. A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe
18. Aloft by Chang Rae-Lee
19. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
20. Brick Lane: A Novel by Monica Ali
21. The Rebels of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd
22. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig
23. Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood
24. Suite Française by Irene Némirovsky
25. A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
26. Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
27. The Drifters by James A. Michener
28. The Tender Bar: A Memoir by J.R. Moehringer
29. Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana by Anne Rice
30. The Hour I First Believed: A Novel by Wally Lamb
31. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Nicely done Erin. Some of these were really long books. The Pillars of the Earth & The Hour I First Believed were both long. How did you like Purple Hibiscus and Beloved? I've got Beloved to read. I'm currently reading A Mercy (hopefully will finish today).

I didn't like Beloved as much as expected -- the writing style is beautiful but took me a while to get through.

Purple Hibiscus is fantastic though. You really become emotionally attached to the characters and affected by their struggles.

Great. Purple Hibiscus and she has another book out Half of a Yellow Sun which I would like to read as well. thanks for the recommendation.

32. The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory

What about: Veronika Decides to Die by Coelho? That's an intriguing title... What did you think about it?

While not as good as some of Coelho's other books, specifically The Alchemist and The Witch of Portobello, there's a great message about living each day in the moment and seizing life. The moral is really: "carpe diem."

If you haven't read The Alchemist, you must, it's absolutely life-changing. I carry a copy with me everywhere I travel.

33. Lisey's Story by Stephen King
34. Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to Foie Gras by Jeff Henderson

35. Nine Hills to Nambonkaha: Two Years in the Heart of an African Village by Sarah Erdman

Wow! It took me a while to plow through all 1074 pages of this. Reading a lighter book next, I think.

36. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

I adore Bill Bryson and this is one of his best.

37. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

38. Certain Women by Madeleine L'Engle

*Really* dry -- not nearly as good as his other books -- I only skimmed the entire second half

39. The Forest by Edward Rutherfurd

40. Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City by Anna Quindlen

41. Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer by Rolf Potts

42. The Innocent by Ian McEwan
43. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
44. Eleven Minutes: A Novel by Paulo Coelho

45. The Godfather by Mario Puzo

46. Earthly Joys: A Novel by Philippa Gregory

47. The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Fiction by Henry James

48. After the Funeral by Agatha Christie

49. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson
50. Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson

On a total Bill Bryson kick lately -- he never disappoints!

51. Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson

52. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

53. The Tale of Murasaki: A Novel by Liza Crihfield Dalby

54. The White Rock: An Exploration of the Inca Heartland by Hugo Thomson

55. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
56. The Chimney Sweeper's Boy by Barbara Vine

57. World Without End by Ken Follett

58. True History of the Kelly Gang: A Novel by Peter Carey

59. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

60. Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide by Jeffrey Goldberg

61. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

How did you like The Historian? (I found the ending disappointing--but that's JMO)

Most of the book was really fun and enjoyable, but I thought it started to drag near the end. And yes, the ending seemed like she ran out of ideas and was like, "Hmmm... how can I tie this up?"

Reading Michener's The Source right now and it's taking FOREVER to plow through these 1100+ pages -- but so good!

62. The Source: A Novel by James A. Michener

63. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

64. Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty by Bradley K. Martin

65. In the Name of Honour: A Memoir by Mukhtar Mai

66. Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice

67. The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
68. Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee
69. The Madonnas of Leningrad: A Novel by Debra Dean
70. Boy in the World by Niall Williams

71. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

72. Accordion Crimes by Annie Proulx

73. My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk

74. Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe

HALFWAY! :)

75. The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud

76. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
77. The Shack by William P. Young

78. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

79. Waterland by Graham Swift

80. Louis: A Normal Novel by Kathleen Stewart

81. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
82. Rabbit Redux by John Updike

83. The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
84. Making History by Stephen Fry

85. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
86. American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work by Susan Cheever

87. Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike
88. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield