A Year of Reading: 2012

1. Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
2. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
3. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
4. The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee
5. At Home by Bill Bryson
6. Health Care Reform by Jonathan Gruber
7. Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
8. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
9. Darkhouse by Karina Halle
10. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
11. Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
12. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle
13. Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker
14. The Descendants by Kari Hart Hemmings
15. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
16. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
17. I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan
18. Where She Went by Gayle Forman
19. Weighed in the Balance by Anne Perry
20. The Future of Us by Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
21. Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
22. The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan
23. Locke and Key Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill
24. Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
25. Delirium by Lauren Oliver
26. The Odds by Stewart O'Nan
27. Golden Boy by Martin Booth
28. The Wishbones by Tom Perrotta
29. A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
30. Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden
31.Wonder by R.J. Palacio
32. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
33. On Writing by Stephen King
34. Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
35. The Half-Life of Planets by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin
36. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
37. I2 by James Bannon
38. In One Person by John Irving
39. 11/22/63 by Stephen King
40. The Elements of Style Illustrated by William Strunk and Maira Kalman
41. The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett
42. Going Bovine by Libba Bray
43. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
44. Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman
45. How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway
46. Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue
47. Looking for Alaska by John Green
48. Baby Proof by Emily Giffin
49. The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
50. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
51. Railsea by China Mieville
52. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
53. The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith
54. Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn
55. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
56. The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner
57. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
58. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
59. The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
60. A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant
61. Big Ray by Michael Kimball
62. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
63. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
64. The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges
65. Bad Little Falls by Paul Doiron
66. Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood
67. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
68. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
69. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
70. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Stephen Galloway
71. Tessa Masterson Will Go To Prom by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin
72. Stolen by Lucy Christopher
73. A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins
74. Losers in Space by John Barnes
75. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green (2nd time!)
76. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
77. A Study in Seduction by Nina Rowan
78. The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling
79. Dreamland Social Club by Tara Altebrando
80. History of a Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason
81. More Baths, Less Talking by Nick Hornby
82. Arcadia by Lauren Groff
83. The Twelve by Justin Cronin
84. Unwind by Neal Shusterman
85. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
86. A Slender Thread by Katharine Davis
87. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
88. The Long Walk by Stephen King
89. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
90. Where We Belong by Emily Giffin
91. Above All Things by Tanis Rideout
92. Ask the Passengers by A.S. King
93. Divergent by Veronica Roth
94. Horns by Joe Hill
95. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
96. Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
97. My Life in France by Julia Child
98. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
99. The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey
100. Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin

There are really only 99 books on that list because I read The Fault In Our Stars twice, but since I read it twice, it's on there twice. This is the most books I've read in a year - every year the list gets longer and longer. I don't know why, and I seem unable to stop it.

As mentioned in a previous post, I wrote about my top 12 favorite books that were published in 2012, though I also want to mention The Twelve and The Casual Vacancy which stood out among this year's books. I also read a lot of great books published in previous years: Caleb's Crossing, Ready Player One, The Piano Teacher, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle were probably my top picks, though as I look through my list I keep finding more and more books I want to give special mention to.

My "to read" list on Goodreads has also exploded this year, so I'm faced with the competing goals of wanting to slow down on book consumption in favor of possibly doing other things with my time, but wanting to put a dent in that list before it gets completely out of control. I've made another list on Goodreads called "to read priority" as some sort of emergency book triage. I don't know why I think making another list will help me get through more books more quickly.

However, what might help is subscribing to Audible.com which I plan to do today. Relying on audiobooks from the library means that frequently I make choices based on what's available in the format I need, not based on what I want to read. I need something portable, either a Playaway or downloadable mp3, but most available audiobooks are either on CD or in a file format that's not compatible with my devices. Given how rarely I spend money on books, I think this will be a worthwhile investment.

Happy New Year to you all! I hope that 2013 brings you many fantastic books!