Books I Read in 2009

I started keeping a list of books I've read several years ago after reading Louis Lamour's memoir, "Yondering", which included excerpts from his reading lists over a long life.

One advantage of keeping a list is, I can check to see if I've already a book before I read it again. An unintended consequence of keeping a list is, I find it easier to let books go, to give them away or donate them to library sales.

Before I retired, I read about 75 books a year almost every year. When I was laid up recovering from shoulder surgery in 2004, I read 116. The first year I was off work or retired the entire year--2008--I read only 47. This year, it's 48.

Louis Lamour's lists include lots of history, biography, and classics. Mine run heavily to fiction, though not so much recently as in past years.

I include two quarterly magazines in my lists. "Granta" and "Glimmer Train" are book length.

I seldom re-read a book. Every book read twice is one less book I'll have time to read before I die. An asterisk following the author's name means I've read that book at least once before.

I'm working my way through a selection from my late father's shelves, mostly history, and mostly history of the development of the atom bomb during World War II and the political struggle to put atomic energy under civilian control afterward, both projects my father had a hand in.

But I'm always on the lookout for a new Robert B Parker or Michael Connelly or Loren Estleman.

This is what I read in 2009:

1. Kim -- Rudyard Kipling

2. Thinner -- Stephen King

3. Rage -- Stephen King

4. The Long Walk -- Stephen King

5. “Granta” 104

6. Roadwork -- Stephen King

7. Wagons West-- Elizabeth Page

8. The Autobiographer’s Handbook -- Jennifer Traig, ed.

9. Noon Wine -- Katherine Anne Porter

10. Pale Horse, Pale Rider -- Katherine Anne Porter

11. The Return of No. 44 -- Bob Rogers

12. “Glimmer Train” 70

13. Old Friend From Far Away -- Natalie Goldberg

14. Wild Horses and Gold -- Elizabeth Page

15. Acrylic Painting -- Wendon Blake *

16. The Fair Tax Book -- Neil Boortz and John Linder

17. Hot, Flat, and Crowded -- Thomas L Friedman

18. The Grand Alliance -- Winston Churchill

19. Notes for the Aurora Society -- Jim O’Donnell

20. Day of Deceit -- Robert B Stinnett

21. Sergeant York: An American Hero -- David D Lee

22. Scarecrow -- Michael Connelly

23. “Granta” 105

24. “Glimmer Train” 71

25. “Granta” 106

26. Bombshell -- Joseph Albright & Marcia Kunstel

27. A Peril and a Hope -- Alice Kimball Smith

28. Rain Gods -- James Lee Burke

29. A Reporter’s Life -- Walter Cronkite

30. The Last Detective -- Robert Crais

31. Journal of a Mountain Man -- James Clyman

32. “Granta” 107

33. Oh Shoot! Confessions of an Agitated Sportsman -- Rex Beach

34. Last Best Place: Montana Anthology -- William Kittredge & Annick Smitth, eds

35. The Witchfinder -- Loren D Estleman

36. The Lobster Chronicles -- Linda Greenlaw

37. “Glimmer Train” 72

38. “Granta” 108

39. Mosquitoes -- William Faulkner

40. 22 Stories -- Somerset Maugham

41. Great Short Stories of the West Vol 2 -- J Golden Taylor, ed

42. The Sea Wolf -- Jack London

43. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns -- Robert Jungk

44. Limitations -- Scott Turow

45. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -- Stieg Larsson

46. Boulder: Evolution of a City -- Sylvia Pettem

47. NRA: An American Legend -- Jeffrey L Rodengen

48. Winter’s Tales -- Isak Dinesen