Every Book I Read in 2011

In 2011 I read 68 books, compared to 2010’s 57 books. Some of these are series of comics (i.e. Preacher) and are only listed once.

I did this last year because I was trying to make a best-of list, and I hate ranked lists like that, so instead here’s every book I read in 2011 in reverse order I read them (December to January). Book club picks (I’m in two) are indicated with an asterisk. Thank you Goodreads.

Bleak House, Charles Dickens
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (audiobook), Mindy Kaling
The Third Reich (serialized in The Paris Review), Roberto Bolaño
Preacher, Garth Ennis (took about six months to read all nine)
The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, Elif Batuman
Zone One, Colson Whitehead
La Perdida, Jessica Abel*
The Waves, Virginia Woolf
The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach
Us, Michael Kimball*
Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson*
From Hell, Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell*
In Patagonia, Bruce Chatwin (second read)
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (I had to read this for work)
Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, Donald Antrim
Skippy Dies, Paul Murray
The Apocalypse Reader, edited by Justin Taylor
A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, Josh Neufield* (during the “hurricane,” not because I’m that theme-happy but to prepare for book club)
The Lagoon, Lilli Carre
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson*
Stone Arabia, Dana Spiotta
The Lost Books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, Nathaniel Philbrick
Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work, Jason Brown
Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China, Leslie Chang
Galore, Michael Crummey
Maggie the Mechanic, Jaime Hernandez*
Ragtime, E. L. Doctorow*
Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson
We Don’t Live Here Anymore: Three Novellas, Andre Dubus
Where I’m Calling From: New and Selected Stories, Raymond Carver
2 Sisters, Matt Kindt
Citrus County, John Brandon
The Razor’s Edge, W. Somerset Maugham*
The Complete Essex County, Jeff Lemire*
No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy
The Whale, Philip Hoare
You Think That’s Bad, Jim Shepard
Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays, Joan Didion
Play it as it Lays, Joan Didion
Other People We Married, Emma Straub*
Boys and Girls Like You and Me, Aryn Kyle
Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (third read)*
A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
And the Heart Says Whatever, Emily Gould
The Adults, Alison Espach
Touch, Alexi Zentner (read to review)
Birds of America, Lorrie Moore
The Tiger’s Wife, Téa Obreht
A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway* (second read)
Blankets, Craig Thompson* (second read)
Witz, Joshua Cohen (I started this book over Christmas 2010 and finished it in March 2011)
Scoop, Evelyn Waugh
A Contract with God, Will Eisner*
In Watermelon Sugar, Richard Brautigan (read in a cabin on mountain next to the fireplace, which was perfect)
Ghosts, Cesar Aira
The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruis Zafron
Summer in Algiers, Albert Camus
Revolver, Matt Kindt
Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates* (second read)