I think I’m missing a few here but the general gist of my reading this year breaks into two categories…

Stuff I read on vacation / the plane:

Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
American Buffalo in Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella
The Art of Travel Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries by Sir Francis Galton
Cherry by Sara Wheeler
Dogs and Demons: The Fall of Modern Japan by Alex Kerr
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
In the Land of White Death by Valerian Albanov
McMafia by Mish Glenny
The Mystery of Capital by Hernando deSoto
The Quantity Theory of Insanity by Will Self
Targets Hit and Targets Missed by W. Leslie Yaw
+ maybe another book on Cpt. Cook and some Irish book

Things I read during the rest of the year:

The Broken Dice by Ivar Ekeland
Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka
To Win or to Die, by George Manville Fenn
Where to Invade Next, Stephen Elliot Editor

The tally is 14 to 4 and I think there are some books I’m forgetting that make the ratio even more lopsided. Also read but not really making the cut are some Harvard Business books on uncertainty, decision making and change. The general theme for this year (like most years) is nonfiction related finance/economics with a light dose of occasional polar adventure biography and absurd fiction. I sat down tonight (while looking for the buffalo money I misplaced on one of the book shelves) to see what I’d read last year. 2009 and 2008 at first were kind of blended together (Christmas 2008 and vacation 2009 are easily glommed together). Other ways to break this list:

Temporally –
January: 8
Spring (April – June): 2
Summer/Fall (July – October): 4
December: 4
Book Source –
Gift: 2
Project Gutenberg: 3
Jessie’ Library: 6
Purchased: 5
Other: 2
Crtical Categories
Eye Rollers: 2
Interesting nonfiction: 4
Neutral: 4
Boring / hardish to finish: 5
Enjoyed fiction: 3

We’re trying to reduce our book buying so it’s good to see that reflected on this list (since this has recently commenced) although my bought but unread list is quite a bit higher. Maybe for 2010 I will work on a few more categories. Christmas and Sunny vacation are definitely where the books get read though. So, sad that current time off is coming to a close. I made a point to leave the house as little as possible this December break so that worked out to a strong finish. I picked a few of Jessie’s list to explore something different but I didn’t end up liking them that much so now she doesn’t want to be in a book club with me. So, I guess stand by for more weird book choices next year…