I'm glad Aaron revivified this thread, as I missed it the first time around.

1) What were your three favorite FICTION book this year? Storm Front, Glass Houses and Bride and Groom.

2) What were your three favorite NONFICTION books this year? The Perfect Scent A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York, The Lemon Tree An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East and Aristocrats Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832.

3) What book can you not BEAR to leave off, even though it puts you over the three book limit?
Betsy-Tacy and Mandy because both of them were wonderful trips down memory lane, and both books actually were as good re-reading them as an adult as they were when I read them as a child.

I guess I would have a hard time picking a greatest author, as there are so many styles, and it can all be predicated on what is going on in your life at the time, but I am glad that you have discovered literature that you enjoy.

Jim wrote: "Welcome Aaron, That's quite the list, I wish I could read half that many in a year.

"

Your welcome, Jim. Good thing I chose a "Best of 2008" list, as 2008 is the very year I first discovered how good literature can be. In fact, if I never discovered about great books, I would've always thought that Louis Sachar was the greatest writer in history...

Welcome Aaron, That's quite the list, I wish I could read half that many in a year.

Welcome, Aaron -- it's not to late if the post isn't closed :) This wouldn't be a bad thread to reopen now that the year is in gear!

That's quite a first post, Aaron. Welcome!

Well, perhaps I'm a bit too late on queue, but here goes:

Best books I read this year (but not from this year):
10. Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929, Doblin)
9. Billy Budd (1924, Melville)
8. To the Lighthouse (1927, Woolf)
7. Lanark: A Life in Four Books (1981, Gray)
6. Labyrinths (1964, Borges)
5. Ada or Ardor (1969, Nabokov)
4. The Waves (1931, Woolf)
3. Pale Fire (1962, Nabokov)
2. Ulysses (1922, Joyce)
1. Gravity's Rainbow (1973, Pynchon)

Best fiction I read from this year (Okay, so I am exceeding the boundries, and I'm doing a top 5. I tend to break rules, anyhow.):
5. The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation (among the more bold and audacious graphic novels within the last 10-or-so years.)
4. A Mercy (Morrison going back to her Beloved and Solomon basics. Who wouldn't want to read that?)
3. The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer (Spicer can now be safely called a genius.)
2. What Can I Do When Everything's On Fire? (Fellini plus Almodovar in literary form. Truly stunning.)
1. 2666 /and/ Nazi Literature in the Americas (both written by the same author. Imagine a bleaker, non-comical Pynchon and you get these wonderful novels.)

Best non-fiction
5. A Fair Country
4. The Sun Climbs Slow
3. Champlain's Dream
2. Angel of Vengeance
1. State by State

Personal Days was difficult to leave off, and countless other books were difficult to leave off my "novels I've read in '08 but aren't from '08" list.

couldn't bring myself to use the word "favorite", since that implies something more positive than I could put on it

That's how I feel about
The End Of Alice. It's hard to gush over it b/c it's about pedophilia and child murder and so it's just weird to say, "My favorite is the pedophilia/child murder book!"

I definately separate the two.
I put The Road in a separate category above, since I thought qualitatively it was awesome, and one of the best books I read all year, but I couldn't bring myself to use the word "favorite", since that implies something more positive than I could put on it.

Similarly, I recognized the merits of Oscar Wao, and enjoyed reading it, but it didn't personally speak to me the way it did some of you.

Kathrynn: Just being a 5 star doesn't necessarily make my favorites shelf... ;-)

That's interesting. It's true, though, it takes more than just quality writing to be a favorite. A book has to resonate with me personally in some way.

What do the rest of you feel about that? Do you take personal preference into account when listing "Best books", or do you try to be objective?

Jackie "the Librarian" wrote: "Very clever, Kathrynn. Sure, create all the categories you need so you can fit in all your favorites, what the heck..."

Those are just a few of my 5 star/Favorites from 2008. I have...quite a few 5 star (not favorites). So, I did restrain.

Just being a 5 star doesn't necessarily make my favorites shelf... ;-)

Very clever, Kathrynn. Sure, create all the categories you need so you can fit in all your favorites, what the heck...

Three. I'll try.

Historical Romance:
1. Comanche Moon by Catherine Anderson
2. Ride the Fire by Pamela Clare
3. Surrender by Pamela Clare

Romantic Suspense:
1. Hard Evidence by Pamela Clare
2. Dangerous Secrets by Lisa Marie Rice
3. Trial by Fire by Jo Davis
Ack! Several by Cherry Adair.

Paranormal Romance:
1. Murder Game by Christine Feehan
2. The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter

Fiction/thriller:
*A Thousand Bones by P.J. Parrish

Romance Modern:
1. Flat-Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy (oh, yes it was ;-))
2. Tall, Dark, and Cajun by Sandra Hill

Non-fiction (General):
1. Metaphors Dictionary by Weiss Dorrie
2. An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It by Al Gore
3. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

Non-fiction (Metaphysical):
1. The Sense of Being Stared At: And Other Unexplained Powers of the Human Mind by Rupert Sheldrake
2. The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for Living Your Best Life by Marianne Williamson

Non-Fiction (parenting):
* Boys Will Put You on a Pedestal (So They Can Look Up Your Skirt): A Dad's Advice for Daughters by Philip Munching

Non-Fiction (Business):
1. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams
2. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

:-)

Aha - so you're the alien with vacant eyes in their perception!

Good description Jackie, me too. I'm not there I'm in the book - which has been known to annoy people who were under the impression I was in the room with them when I wasn't really.

If I'm reading, everything else falls away. The TV can be on, music playing, people trying to TALK to me (sheesh!), but I'm not there. I'm in the book.

That's kind of interesting. It's not the music that distracts me, but then again I'm not a musician. I am a word person, though, so it's the words that distract me.

I can read at the same time as just about anything.
Music takes up way too much of my brain to listen to at the same time as most things, I guess because I'm a musician. I can't write or read with music on. I save it for when I'm cooking or driving or working out, mostly.

Omg, Sarah, there's no way I could read and watch TV at the same time. I can't even have music with words on while I'm reading. (Instrumental is OK.) I'm too easily distracted.

Jim - I agree that there's an aspect that has to do with how you were raised. My family had library stacks in every room of our house. My sisters and I grew up voracious readers.
My partner's family had no books in their house, and pretty much the only books she's read in the last ten years are the Harry Potters...it drives her crazy that I read while watching TV too, though I happily do both at once. There are only so many hours in the day.

I guess now that you bring it up it did seem to be an either/or, but that is not how I originally took it. I took it that it was saying that in a case like yours individuals are working out, going out with friends, watching television, and then they have replaced reading with video games or something else. Like Mindy said some people are readers and will make the effort, others are not.

IMHO It also may have something to do with the way one is brought up. If they see reading as an enjoyment hobby at home there is a better chance that they will also read because they have had the exposure of enjoyment reading (or being read to) as opposed to only reading to complete their homework.

I really don't think it's a timing thing, either. I think some of us are just readers. MOST of us are not, apparently. (Which is why I became so enamoured with GR. My people!!!!)

Those studies like the one Kristen posted always annoy me. I don't know if it's how they're worded, but they never seem to acknowledge balances between reading and other activities. I go to the gym and go out with friends and watch too much television, but I still managed to read over 100 books this year. When it comes to TV and books, it's not an either/or thing, and I'm not sure why it's always presented that way. And it's not like watching TV takes away from my reading time - there's only so much I can do of every hobby before I need a break.

Worked great Kristen. I guess the statistic isn't that surprising to me, as I look around the people that I know, I never see many if any books about.

Fiction
1. Gone with the Wind. I read it for the first time this year and absolutely loved it.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird. Re-read for my book club. I hadn't read it in at least 10 years, and it was wonderful to read again.
3. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Non-fiction:
1. Persepolis (both 1 and 2) - Marjane Satrapi
2. In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan
3. When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris

Thinking about this made me think about a statistic I've read somewhere, that the average American only reads one book a year. I found a slightly dated article that shows it's a little more complicated than that, but I thought it was interesting (and still sad). Check it out (I hope the link works, this is my first time trying links on Goodreads.)

I didn't...

Donald, I knew you were going to say that.

This is my favorite I've read this year:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/352...

Yeah, I've read so many, I can't even remember most of them, but I tell you what will definitely be on the list:

GUS OPENSHAW'S WHALE-KILLING JOURNAL: A Novel

I just started it, and from the first page I've just been laughing and smiling. It's so smart. I've never read a book where from the beginning I thought, "This needs to be a movie," but this one definitely needs to be a movie. It would ROCK on film! (Any Hollywood screenwriter types lurking around here? Get this book!)

By the end of the year, I will have read 110 or more books. How can I narrow it down to six? (I don't even know if I read three non-fiction books.)

I need to make a late addition to my list. I just read Little Brother, and I thought it was fabulous. I wish I knew more teenagers, so I could make them read it.

Fiction
1. Bleak House
2. Pale Fire
3. The Burnt Orange Heresy

Non-Fiction
1. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail
2. The Affluent Society
3. Full House

Well I have been warned. At least it should be thought provoking, because the brain could use some stimulation after looking at numbers day after day.

Jim, Good luck with not being haunted. It's one of the grimmest books I've ever read and I've read many.

Gee wiz, I just picked up the Road to read, but I don't haunt very easily, so hopefully I will just have the good experiences.

Wow, I read a ton of good books this year. I'm inventing my own categories.

Favorite novels I read this year:
1. Water for Elephants -Sara Gruen
2. White Teeth - Zadie Smith
3. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy

Best book I read in 2008 that actually came out in 2008 (and best short story collection I read this year):
1. Say You're One of Them - Uwem Akpan. Devastating short fiction set in various countries in Africa.

Favorite non-fiction I read this year:
1. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson
2. Farewell My Subaru - Doug Fine (actual 2008 book)
3. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris (I read When You Are Engulfed in Flames too, but Me Talk Pretty is better)

Favorite graphic novels/comics:
1. Fables vol. 10 (2008)
2. Y: The Last Man vol. 10 (2008) - Last volume of a great series.
3. La Perdida - Jessica Abel - a true graphic novel.
4. Shooting War - Anthony Lappe - a multimedia web comic, frighteningly prescient.

Honorable mention for a book I read this year that doesn't make any of these lists because, like Akpan's short stories, it messed me up, possibly permanently, and thus doesn't deserve the term "favorite" even though it was haunting and thought provoking and qualitatively excellent:

The Road - Cormac McCarthy.

Hm. I'm going to break Jackie's rules and just list five books I loved over the last year, total. Just try and stop me, Jackie!:)

1. Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao-This book reminded me of why I love to read...
2. Jane Eyre-I read it for the first time last winter...brilliant, not just a "chick book" at all...if only Jane were hotter...:)
3. Kitchen Confidential-Anthony Bourdain: People seem to love or hate him. I fall into the former camp.
4. All the Murakami I read early in the year: I went from a huge fan to a completist, and his work rarely, very rarely, disappoints. I think he might be the best writer alive.
5. Housekeeping-Despite the fact it f--ked with my head.

:)

2008 is almost over, which means it's time to make some of those end of the year "Best Of" lists!

Look back over your GoodReads books on your shelves that you've read in the past eleven and a half months, Go ahead, we'll wait!

Which of the books listed were your most satisfying reads? Can you narrow it down to three? Well, TRY, okay?
Okay, okay, I know it's hard. How about this...

1) What were your three favorite FICTION book this year?

2) What were your three favorite NONFICTION books this year?

3) What book can you not BEAR to leave off, even though it puts you over the three book limit?