2009 in Books

I went on a pretty good tear this year and knocked a few off the "You should have already read these" list.  I've harbored a pretty serious bias for dead writers my entire reading career.  I guess it's because you only get so many books to read, and  I want to get in all the classics I can, but that's dumb.  I want to appreciate contemporary literature and I pledge that in 2010 I will patronize writers above ground.  I'm going to try and read the Giller nominees and lots of small press numbers, when I do, you'll know about it.

Jeremy's 2009 Reading List

The Canada Reads 5
CBC darlings pitch their pet books and through a ridiculous "kick off the island" round table, systematically erase my favourites in order of preference two years running.  It's fun to follow what CBC radio is talking about and I love getting these for Christmas every year (Thanks Hunny!) but I always feel a little snotty afterwards.

The Fat Lady Next door is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay
Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards
The Outlander by Gil Adamson
Fruit by Brian Francis
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

Birthday Books
I got a few Chapters Giftcards for me birthday, much obliged Mom and Dad!

Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell
Harlot's Ghost by Norman Mailer
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Call Me Ted by Ted Turner

The Paper Backs

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Les Enfant Terribles by Jean Cocteau
After Many Summer by Aldous Huxley
Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
The Gospel According to the Son by Norman Mailer
Faust 2 by Gothe
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Centaur by John Updike
The Shack by William P. Young