Books Read in 2009

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This is the first year I’ve ever kept track of exactly what I’ve read and when, though I should note that this list represent the books finished in the month noted, they may have been started months before as I tend to read several books simultaneously.

Where I can I’ve included links to Amazon.com (among other sites) for those interested in checking out a title and following along, though of course your first stop should always be your local independent bookstore. Footnoted links identify where reviews or essays of the books I’ve read appear.

Left out: the varied literary magazines I read, though some, like the delightful Descant and Brick, might be novella-length. Graphic novels are appended as “bonuses”, for the interested, but not included in the count.

January

1. I, Lucifer: Finally, the Other Side of the Story, by Glen Duncan

2. Four Ways to Forgiveness, by Ursula K. Le Guin

3. Falling, by Christopher Pike

4. Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon, by Spider Robinson

5. Lucifer’s Court: A Heretic’s Journey in Search of the Light Bringers, by Otto Rahn⁽¹⁾

6. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, by Christopher Hitchens

7. A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin

8. The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. Le Guin

9. The Farthest Shore, by Ursula K. Le Guin

- Death: The High Cost of Living, by Neil Gaiman

- Serenity, Vol. 1: Those Left Behind, by Joss Whedon

- Serenity, Vol. 2: Better Days, by Joss Whedon

February

10. Tehanu, by Ursula K. Le Guin

11. Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, by Douglas Coupland

12. Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies

13. The Manticore, by Robertson Davies

14. World of Wonders, by Robertson Davies

15. Carry On, Jeeves, by P. G. Wodehouse

16. Deadeye Dick, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

17. The Self in Transformation, by Hester McFarland Solomon

- The Sandman, Vol. 8: Worlds’ End, by Neil Gaiman,

- Y: The Last Man, Vol. 2: Cycles, by Brian K. Vaughan

March

18. How to Travel with a Salmon & Other Essays, by Umberto Eco⁽²⁾

19. Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf

20. Bloodsucking Fiends, by Christopher Moore

21. More Than Human, by Theodore Sturgeon

22. The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, by H. P. Lovecraft

23. The Weiser Concise Guide to Aleister Crowley, by Richard Kaczynski⁽³⁾

24. Some of Your Blood, by Theodore Sturgeon

25. The Writings of Austin Osman Spare, by Austin Osman Spare

- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 2, by Alan Moore

- A Softer World: Truth and Beauty Bombs, by Emily Horne and Joey Comeau

April⁽⁴⁾

26. To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf

27. The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, by Sam Harris⁽⁵⁾

28. The Inimitable Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse

29. Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett

30. Mister B. Gone, by Clive Barker

31. Cat’s Eye, by Margaret Atwood

32. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

33. Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson

34. Changing Planes, by Ursula K. Le Guin

35. The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, by Twyla Tharp with Mark Reiter

36. Timequake, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

37. So Cool, by Dennis Lee

38. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith⁽⁶⁾

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 3: Wolves at the Gate, by Joss Whedon

- Y: The Last Man, Vol. 3: One Small Step, by Brian K. Vaughan

May⁽⁷⁾

39. The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins

40. Strange Candy, by Laurell K. Hamilton

41. The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

42. Consciousness Explained, by Daniel C. Dennett

43. Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, by Margaret Atwood

44. Blinking with Fists: Poems, by Billy Corgan

45. Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift

46. Philosophical Essays, by Bertrand Russell⁽⁸⁾

47. Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy

48. Sex Pistols: 90 Days at EMI, by Brian Southall

49. Beat Generation, by Jack Kerouac

50. The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin

- Promethea, Vol. 1, by Alan Moore

- Promethea, Vol. 2, by Alan Moore

- Promethea, Vol. 3, by Alan Moore

- Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, by Bryan Lee O’Malley (reread)⁽⁹⁾

- Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 2: Scott Pilgrim versus the World, by Bryan Lee O’Malley

- Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness, by Bryan Lee O’Malley

- Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, by Bryan Lee O’Malley

- Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 5: Scott Pilgrim verses the Universe, by Bryan Lee O’Malley

June

51. Basic Concepts, by Martin Heidegger

52. Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris

53. The Outsiders, by S. E. Hinton

54. The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber, by Mel Gordon

55. The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling

56. The Second Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling

57. Gothic Toronto: Writing the City Macabre, edited by Helen Walsh

58. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, by David Sedaris

59. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson

60. Real Alchemy, by Robert Allen Bartlett

- Fray, by Joss Whedon

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 4: Time of Your Life, by Joss Whedon

- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 3: 1910, by Alan Moore

- Lost At Sea, by Bryan Lee O’Malley

July

61. If It Was Easy, Everyone Would Be Doing It!, by Francis H Breakspear

62. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte

63. The Little Friend, by Donna Tartt

64. Symposium and Phaedrus, by Plato

65. Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill

66. The Flying Troutmans, by Miriam Toews

67. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, by Daniel C. Dennett

68. Let Us Compare Mythologies, by Leonard Cohen

August

69. Who Killed Amanda Palmer, featuring lyrics by Amanda Palmer, stories by Neil Gaiman and photography by Kyle Cassidey, amongst others⁽¹⁰⁾

70. Hands-On Chaos Magic, by Andrieh Vitimus

71. The Subterraneans, by Jack Kerouac

72. The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje

73. Initiation in the Aeon of the Child: The Inward Journey, by J. Daniel Gunther

September

74. The Lizard Cage, by Karen Connelly

75. Bluebeard’s Egg, by Margaret Atwood

76. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

77. The Chaos Songbook, 2nd Edition

78. The Youth and the Sage, by Warren Retlaw, decorated by Austin Osman Spare

79. A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, by Karen Armstrong

80. Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl

81. The Rebel Angels, by Robertson Davies

82. What’s Bred in the Bone, by Robertson Davies

October

83. The Lyre of Orpheus, by Robertson Davies

84. A Spot of Bother , by Mark Haddon

85. The Return of the Dead, by Claude Lecouteux

86. The Information, by Martin Amis

87. Gargoyles: Stories, by Bill Gaston

88. Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger

89. Kissing the Limitless, by T. Thorn Coyle

November

90. Rene Levesque, by Daniel Poliquin

91. When I Forgot, by Elina Hirvonen

92. Sounding Line, by Anne DeGrace

93. The Summer Tree, by Guy Gavriel Kay

94. The Wandering Fire, by Guy Gavriel Kay

95. The Darkest Road, by Guy Gavriel Kay

96. The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

December

97. The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery

98. Lies, Inc., by Philip K. Dick

99. A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

100. Demian, by Hermann Hesse

101. Naked, by David Sedaris

102. Crash, J. G. Ballard

Popularity: unranked [?]

Footnotes:

1. Read the review of Lucifer’s Court. [↩]
2. Read the review of How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays. [↩]
3. Read the review of The Weiser Concise Guide to Aleister Crowley. [↩]
4. Entered a nonsense contest with my sister to see who could read the most books in April. Of course I won. By a lot. [↩]
5. Read the review of The End of Faith. [↩]
6. Read the review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. [↩]
7. Sister demanded a rematch in May, and to incorporate our cousin into the contest. I won. Again. [↩]
8. An excerpt by Bertrand Russell on beauty, with photographs. [↩]
9. My thoughts on the Scott Pilgrim series (1-5) here. [↩]
10. It seems fitting, somehow, that this should be – entirely by chance – the sixty-ninth book I finished this year. [↩]