Archiving - 2011 Books

A good year of reading.

In terms of overall standouts, Small Furry Prayer and Within the Frame are the tops, followed closely by American Gods.

Clearly it was a year of photography, and true as well with the reading. Within the Frame, and David duChemin's philosophy in general speak to the kind of photographer I yearn to be, and in terms of sitting down with a beautiful book full of amazing pictures, beautiful thoughts, and great advice to think about (I have never so savored instructions on exactly how to get lost in a new city), it brought everything together, including the language and the photographs to

Books 2010

• American Gods, Neil Gaiman
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (again, do re-reads count?)
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (do re-reads count?)
• Good Omens, Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
• Catfish & Mandala, Andrew Pham
• SuperFreakonomics, Stephen Leavitt
• Over the Edge, Michael Bane
• The Piano Teacher, Janice Y. K. Lee
• The Book of Eleanor: A Novel of Eleanor of Acquitaine, Pamela Kaufman
• Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
• Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman
• Born To Run, Christopher McDougall
• Freakonomics, Stephen Leavitt
• Passage to Juneau, Jonathan Raban

By far, the best fiction books were Jane Eyre, Anansi Boys, Catfish and Mandala and American Gods. Anansi Boys renewed my love of reading, Jane Eyre had me waking up expecting to be in a field of heather, disoriented to find myself in my own bed. Catfish and Mandala made me see the world differently, through slanty eyes, from a bicycle, where one race more racist toward themselves than those of other colors...and yet find a beauty one can only find through introspection and being utterly alone to reflect on everything a person could live through.

I have to give a huge credit also to Born to Run, which brought my running together and helped me figure out how to DO all the things I knew I should be doing, and finally, how to find the love in running that I have been chasing all these years I dreamed of running.

I shouldn’t be shocked at the magic of books, but listing them out that way...books change lives.