YOUR TOP READS OF 2010-

[Beth]

A little over half of what I read is crime fiction. My top 5 reads in 2010 were:

To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis
Still Life, Louise Penny
Blood Hollow, William Kent Krueger
The Help, Kathryn Stockett
The Scent of Rain and Lightning, Nancy Pickard

What about you? What were your favorite reads of the year?

[[deleted user]]

I would say
Fang(the Maximum Ride books) by James Patterson
Mockingjay By Suzanne Collins
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Percy Jackson books by rick Riordan

[Ben]

My top five reads were:

(1)The Road/Cormac McCarthy
(2)Hush Up and Listen Stinky Pooh Butt/Ken Sparling
(3)Stories II/Scott McClanahan
(4)Beautiful Piece/Joseph G. Peterson
(5)Grease Stains, Kismet, and Maternal Wisdom/Mel Bosworth

And my full list is on my blog at the following link - http://bentanzer.blogspot.com/2010/12...

[Ivan]

My top 5 reads of 2010 featured nothing published in 2010 (I rarely read anyhting recent until it's old):

1) A Search for the King by Gore Vidal
2) Don't Look Now: Selected Stories of Daphne Du Maurier
3) The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
4) Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
5) Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym

[Jim]

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbarand
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
The First Tycoon by TJ Stiles
Matterhorn by Karl Malantes
Edge by Jeffrey Deaver

[Sarah]

1.)Spirit Bound by: Richelle Mead
2.)Harry Potter Series
3.)Percy Jackson Series
4.)Hunger Games (book 1-3)
5.) Last Sacrifice by: Richelle Mead

[[deleted user]]

Sarah Jo. wrote: "1.)Spirit Bound by: Richelle Mead
2.)Harry Potter Series
3.)Percy Jackson Series
4.)Hunger Games (book 1-3)
5.) Last Sacrifice by: Richelle Mead"
Percy Jackson is great! So is The Hunger Games and Harry Potter

[Lindsay]

My favorite books read in 2010 were:

1. Cutting for Stone
2. The Poisonwood Bible
3. The Joy Luck Club
4. Jane Eyre
5. The Historian

[Gini]

My number one book for the year was definitely Water for Elephants - a wonderful read. The rest:

2. Tooth and Claw
3. The Uglies series
4. The Lace Reader
5. The Hunger Games series

[Werner]

My top five reads for 2010 were:
The Host by Stephenie Meyer (okay, I finished the bonus chapter on Jan. 1, but it was mostly read in 2010!)
The Twilight series, also by Meyer (I read the last two books in 2010)
The King Raven series by Stephen Lawhead
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

[Phoenixfalls]

I did a LiveJournal post of my favorite reads of 2010: http://phoenixfalls.livejournal.com/1...

The titles are as follows, but the post details why and links to any reviews I've written.

[[deleted user]]

Werner wrote: "My top five reads for 2010 were:
The Host by Stephenie Meyer (okay, I finished the bonus chapter on Jan. 1, but it was mostly read in 2010!)
The Twilight series, also by Meyer (I read the last tw..."I
I'm reading the first book of Uglies very good!

[Gini]

Phoenixfalls wrote: "I did a LiveJournal post of my favorite reads of 2010: http://phoenixfalls.livejournal.com/1...

The titles are as follows, but the post details why and links to any reviews I've written.
[bo..."

Aren't [book:In the Night Garden|202769] and In the Cities of Coin and Spice gorgeous and wonderful books? Catherynne Valente's new series about Prester John is also off to an amazing start (how could I have overlooked The Habitation of the Blessed in my list of best books?!) The author is a Nebula winner and a Hugo nominee and really doing a lot to bring fantasy to a new level.

A also loved Fudoki when I read it last year.

[Gini]

Horsefan101 (I love Taylor Swift!!!) wrote: "I'm reading the first book of Uglies very good! "

I look forward to your review - I thought they were terrific.

[[deleted user]]

Definalty! I also loved The Goose Girl books by Shannon Hale

[Phoenixfalls]

Gini wrote: "Aren't In the Night Garden and In the Cities of Coin and Spice gorgeous and wonderful books? Catherynne Valente's new series about Prester John is also off to an amazing start (how could I have overlooked The Habitation of the Blessed in my list of best books?!) The author is a Nebula winner and a Hugo nominee and really doing a lot to bring fantasy to a new level."

I should be getting The Habitation of the Blessed in the mail any day now -- I'm really looking forward to it!

But definitely, Valente's in a class of her own. She's gone on my "buy immediately, and in hardcover (if available) list!"

[Gini]

Phoenixfalls wrote: "But definitely, Valente's in a class of her own. She's gone on my "buy immediately, and in hardcover (if available) list!"

She has published all in paperback at this point. She has two or three books coming out this year, including The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Boat of Her Own Making in a beautiful illustrated edition.

[Sharon]

[Werner]

Horsefan, I haven't read Uglies myself. But several of my Goodreads friends liked it!

[Kristina]

My top 10 ( I could not decide, sorry) favorite reads of 2010 in no particular order
1. Cutting for Stone
2. The Shadow of the Wind
3. The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset
4. The Gargoyle
5. The Help
6. Rebecca
7. East of Eden
8. The Book Thief
9. Room
10 Looking for Alaska

[Bill]

My top 10 books of 2010, and they didn't necessarily come out in 2010, are -

1. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
2. City of Thieves by David Benioff
3. Matter by Iain M. Banks
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
5. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
6. Pied Piper by Nevil Shute
7. Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom
8. The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman
9. Stalin's Ghost by Martin Cruz Smith
10. Uniform Justice by Donna Leon

[Robin]

I have too numerous to mention:
1. Bleak House
2. Sense and Sensibility
3. Northanger Abbey
4. Laura Childs mysteries, Fiber and Brimstone
5. Agatha Christie,The Mysterious Affair at Styles
6.Mark Twain Roughing It

[Gini]

Brodie wrote: "I don't know that I could actually pick 5 top books for 2010. I probably read at least 500 or more books this year. Sometime I like books for different reasons - good story, hot steamy love scene..."

Oh my gosh, I can't imagine that; that's two books a day! How do you manage to work, eat and sleep?

[Robin]

He's like my daughter, she reads in every part of the house, if she could subsist on reading she would do it gladly.

[Betelgeuze]

Top 10 books i read in 2010 (random order):

[Jenny]

My top picks that I read in 2010 (in no particular order):

Mr. Peanut
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
The Affinity Bridge
You Are Here
Murder on the Orient Express
Prophecy of the Sisters
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer
The Mortal Instruments Boxed Set: City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows


(More than 5, I know, but I enjoyed these the most)

[Ottilie]

[Robin]

I don't keep lists of books that I have read but here goes:
1. Bleak House
2. The Mysterious Affair at Styles
3. Fiber and Brimstone
4.must keep thinking. . .

[Garlan ✌]

A few favorites from 2010:

[Manday]

I rated 12 books 5 stars this year. Four of them were re-reads (Eclipse, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Pride and PrejudiceThe Book Thief)

Two of them I am not sure why I gave 5 stars in retrospect and am switching to four stars.

That leaves the following 6
(6)The Remains of the Day
(5)Catching Fire
(4)Island
(3)The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University
(2)Mockingjay

And my #1 book of 2010 -
(1) Middlemarch

[Robin]

How was Middlemarch, Manday,is it worth reading. It is quite a big book.

[Gini]

Robin wrote: "How was Middlemarch, Manday,is it worth reading. It is quite a big book."

It's a very good book, definitely worth reading.

[Robin]

Glad I have it then, thanks.

[Beth]

My favorites for 2010:

1. Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
2. The Wallflowers series by Lisa Kleypas
3. Travels with Zenobia by Rose Wilder Lane and Helen
Dore Boylston
4. An Accidental Woman by Barbar Delinsky
5. Tell No One by Harlan Coben

[Robin]

I've read so many. Haven't kept a list.
1.Persuasion
2.Northanger Abbey
3.Bleak House
4.Russian Winter
5.Swan Thieves
to name a few, may be updated later.

[Richard]

in 2010 i read some great stuff - in no real order

Wuthering Heights
Freedom - Franzen
White Tiger (the booker winnner thingamie)
Cannary Row by Steinbeck - damn he is fantastic, East of Eden is easily one of the greatest books written but Cannary was so charming, so disarming, so so so so GOOD
Redemption Falls - the sequel to the frankly peerless Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor
Musashi - absolutely FANTASTIC - a life changer of a book. i miss it despite finishing it 11 months ago

there were a lot more but i can't remember them now.

on an aside, i don't get why people are setting themselves targets for what to read in 2011. reading is reading, do it and enjoy it, don't make it feel like work. i love having no idea what i will be reading next

[Robin]

I am not too bold in planning my reading materials. I just read for the enjoyment and pleasure of reading. Little Dorrit is taking up so much of my reading at this point, I am ready for some light reading after this. Dickens always does this to me.

[Richard]

i made it 500 pages through Bleak House this year and Dickens killed me

i love him but he is a man of beginings and middles, his endings go on forever

[Phoenixfalls]

Sandyboy wrote: "on an aside, i don't get why people are setting themselves targets for what to read in 2011. reading is reading, do it and enjoy it, don't make it feel like work. i love having no idea what i will be reading next"

Because some people enjoy setting targets. Simple as that. Just because you don't enjoy that strategy doesn't mean other people shouldn't. :)

[Richard]

Phoenixfalls wrote: "Sandyboy wrote: "on an aside, i don't get why people are setting themselves targets for what to read in 2011. reading is reading, do it and enjoy it, don't make it feel like work. i love having no ..."

true enough. i just don't get strategising with books. actually i don't get strategising, that's why i am shite at chess. love the game, love the look of it, but my 5 year old can beat me already.

anyone can do anything, long as it doesn't get in the way of me cask wine and me bus reading time

[Robin]

Not everything has to be a game, and reading should be just an enjoyment factor, just for pure pleasure. Some people are more geared to setting target dates, etc.

[Beth]

I enjoy the challenges and goals, but it's not for everyone. I like the fact that I don't have to get stuck on which book to read next, because the challenges help me to decide.

[Richard]

i love being stuck on what to read next. i can spend hours (children permitting) in book stores letting my eyes wander over titles. i love the happy accident of a book like Musashi (i'd never heard of it and read it on a whim) or Good Morning Midnight.

back in London i dated a chick who worked for Virgin at Picadilly. i'd meet her for lunch on saturdays and arrive a few hours early so i could get lost in Waterstones wandering the shelves before grabbing noodle soup. several times I was late for lunch as i'd wandered into Gay & Lesbian lit or got stuck looking at books by authors whose surname started with F. she'd nearly always have to buy lunch as i had just spent me last twenty on a few new penguin classics or some random thing i'd never heard of

i love the tactile immersion of a book store - you go in with no plans and you come out with someone elses world under your arm.

[Gini]

Sandyboy wrote: "i love the tactile immersion of a book store - you go in with no plans and you come out with someone elses world under your arm."

That's an awesome way of putting it!

[Beth]

I love spending hours in a bookstore, too, Sandyboy; that would be a perfect vacation day for me, actually! I'll pretty much run my fingers over every book in there looking for something that jumps out at me. When I'm at home, though, I want to be reading. I could easily take a couple hours looking through my own shelves for something to read!

[Ottilie]

I love running my fingers across the book spines, looking at the different titles! What is the fun of going through what you already have, when you have something new? I'm the same way it's awful...

[Robin]

My idea of going into a bookstore, I head for the classics, and write down the titles that I end up trying to borrow at the library. I love also going into hardware stores but the books tend to fascinate me more.LOL

[Rick-Founder JM CM BOOK CLUB]

super topic!!
too many great books to list- enough to say- my favorites were all written by members of James Mason!

[Helena]

A few of my favourites from 2010... a couple are re-reads that I did for book clubs, but I loved them in 2010 just the same:

In no particular order:
1. The Pearl
2.Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
3.Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
4.Starship Troopers
5.Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
6. East of Eden
7. Shantaram
8. A Book About a Thousand Things

I don’t get to book stores often, the child won’t let me browse long enough... but I love it. There’s a small privately owned shop not too far from me that sells all sorts of interesting books (new & used). I just wish they’d get a chair or two.

[R.D.]

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, although completely silly is a wonderful and truly original book. I reread it again during 2010 and enjoyed it just as much as the first time when it came out in 2005.