Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Best Loved Books of 2008


My choice for one of the best picture books for the little ones: Bats at the Library by Brian Lies. But then, I don't spend as much time with picture books as I should.

Speaking of um ... the library,

These paintings of best loved librarians or patroness types seem to grace every library. I always try to dress like this when I go to the library, hoping to be mistaken for some rich, possible patroness type.


As a kid library lady portraits always unnerved me a little bit. Thank goodness they were never in the children's room. At least these two are smiling in their portraits.


Some of the books of 2008 :
Library Journal's list.

The Best of 2008 according to The Statesman.

Top ten list of Young Adult books from 2008

A few days ago I read a young adult book (12 & Up) just because I hadn't read one in decades. The formula is still the same, ("I am not having this baby at the prom! get me to the hospital!") but I was lucky to get a well-written one. It did strike me as odd that none of the young adults had cell phones. Next time I'll check the copyright date to be sure I'm reading a book from this era. The author, Sarah Dessen has newer books (the latest published in 2008) but I just grabbed a book at random. I'm going to try and check out some of the sub-categories in teen fiction (vampire novels, vampire drug novels, vampire graphic novels, vampire pregnancy novels and so forth.)

I haven't really been reading much Sci Fi, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Thrillers, Chick Lit, Romance, True Crime, Poetry or Erotica either, so that's one thing I want to do in 2009. So many categories out there.

Resolution: Read books from all genres. Be more open to every category.

I read very few newly published this year, I was all over the place, reading wonderful books published in 1903, 1962, 2003, 1886, every year but 2008 it seemed. So I need to read more current stuff.

Resolution 2 : Read a newly published book once in a while.

2 comments:

tut-tut said...

Now I'm the opposite, and my resolution is too. I seem to read new books, as my library kindly places them at the forefront, and I rarely head into the stacks to discover or rediscover classics.

mouse (aka kimy) said...

hope you also have bats at the beach!


check out mr. maxwell's mouse and mrs. marlowe's mice....by the father and son asche team.....let me know what you think!

My Classic Fiction Book List -Partial List

  • Austen, Jane: (Complete Works)
  • Balzac: Cousin Bette/ Eugenie Grandet / Cousin Pons
  • Best Russian Short Stories
  • Boyle, TC: Short Works
  • Brennan, Maeve : Short Works, 1 Novella
  • Bronte, Emily, Ann, Jane (Complete Works)
  • Brookner, Anita ( Complete Works)
  • Cather, Willa (Complete Works)
  • Chekov: Short Works
  • David Copperfield (Dickens)
  • Dickens:A Tale of Two Cities
  • Dickens:Great Expectations
  • Dickens:Nicholas Nickelby
  • Dickens:Our Mutual Friend
  • Dickens:The Old Curiosity Shop
  • Doyle, Roddy (some novels, memoir)
  • Drabble, Margaret (4 Novels)
  • Drieser, Theodore (Complete Works)
  • Fitzgerald, F.Scott (Most Novels & short works)
  • Hardy, Thomas (Complete Works)
  • Hemingway, Short stories
  • Hemingway: The Old Man in the Sea
  • Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises
  • Hugo: Les Miserables/Hunchback Of ND
  • James, Henry: Daisy Miller
  • James, Henry: In The Cage
  • James, Henry: Portrait of a Lady
  • James, Henry: The Golden Bowl
  • James, Henry: What Maisy Knew
  • James, Henry: Wings of a Dove
  • James, Henry:The Ambassadors
  • James, Henry; The Bostonians
  • Kerouac: Dharma Bums
  • Kerouac: On The Road
  • Kerouac: The Subterraneans
  • Kerouac: Tristessa
  • Lardner,Ring:Short Works
  • Larsen: Quicksand
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Arrowsmith
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Free Air
  • Lewis, Sinclair: Main Street
  • Lewis, Sinclair: The Job
  • MacGill, Patrick (Complete works)
  • Mackin, Walter (novels)
  • Maupassant: Short Works, novels
  • McGahern, John (novels of)
  • McNulty, John (Short Works)
  • Norris, Frank: McTeague
  • O'Brien, Edna (3 Novels)
  • O'Donnell, Paeder : Novels of
  • O. Henry
  • Potok, Chaim (4 novels/1 non fiction)
  • Salinger, JD : Nine Stories
  • Salinger: Franny & Zooey
  • Salinger: Raise High the Roofbeams
  • Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye
  • Sinclair, Lewis: Dodsworth
  • Sinclair, Lewis: Elmer Gantry
  • Sinclair, Upton: King Coal
  • Sinclair, Upton: The Jungle
  • Steinbeck, John: Sweet Thursday
  • Steinbeck: Winter of our Discontent
  • Steinbeck: Cannery Row
  • Steinbeck: East of Eden
  • Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath
  • Theroux, Paul (3 Novels )
  • Toibin, Colm: (Novels of)
  • Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
  • Tolstoy: Short Works
  • Turgenev (2 novels)
  • Twain: T Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi
  • Vonnegut: Early Works (1950s-60s)
  • Wharton, Edith: Novels of/Short Stories
  • Women & Fiction (Edit. Cahill)
  • Zola, Emile ( 10 novels)