Bookshelf 2009

Since 2005, I’ve been keeping a list of every book and film I consume in entirety. Because how scary is it to not remember the last book you read? It’s also hard to recommend that Spanish film where the dead mother comes back and everyone mistakenly assumes she’s a ghost and Penelope Cruz is all “Yowza!”, when you don’t know the name of it.

I resolved to read at least 52 books a year starting in 2006 and have been doing so ever since. Why? Because I ride the subway a lot and can only stare at other passengers or listen to music for so long.

My yearly reading goal keeps my brain agile, open, inspired, confused… It’s a daily investment in myself that I can carry inside and share as I see fit.

Here’s my bookshelf for 2009 - I add books and films as I finish them. Why yes, you can email me to share a recommendation or make fun of my taste.

See the latest bookshelf.

Books:

1. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
2. Black and White by Paul Volponi
3. Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
4. Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper by Diablo Cody
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney
7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney
8. Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters by Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa
9. Cruddy by Lynda Barry
10. What It Is by Lynda Barry
11. Monster by Walter Dean Myers
12. Rockabye by Rebecca Woolf
13. Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington
14. Colors Insulting to Nature by Cintra Wilson
15. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
16. Girlbomb by Janice Erlbaum
17. The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan
18. The Good Body by Eve Ensler
19. It Sucked and Then I Cried by Heather Armstrong
20. Diane Arbus Revelations by Diane Arbus
21. The Bright Side of Disaster by Katherine Center
22. This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor by Susan Wicklund and Alan Kesselheim
23. The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel
24. A Boy Named Shel by Lisa Rogak
25. A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Re-examined as a Grotesque, Crippling Disease and Other Cultural Revelations by Cintra Wilson
26. Mendel’s Daughter by Martin Lemelman
27. Have You Found Her by Janice Erlbaum
28. To-Do List: From Buying Milk to Finding a Soul Mate, What Our Lists Reveal About Us by Sasha Cagen
29. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
30. One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Househusbandry, Single Motherhood, and Other Realities of Truly Modern Love edited by Rebecca Walker
31. Shiksa Goddess: Or, How I Spent My Forties by Wendy Wasserstein
32. Trappings: Stories of Women, Power and Clothing by Tiffany Ludwig and Renee Piechocki
33. Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume edited by Jennifer O’Connell
34. The Heidi Chronicles by Wendy Wasserstein
35. Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine
36. No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog by Margaret Mason
37. Sugar’s Life In The Hood by Sugar Turner and Tracy Bachrach Ehlers
38. I Saw You…: Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections edited by Julia Wertz
39. Free-Range Chickens by Simon Rich
40. Everyone Is Beautiful by Katherine Center
41. My Little Red Book edited by Rachel Kauder Nalebuff
42. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
43. Labor of Love: A Midwife’s Memoir by Cara Muhlhahn
44. Five Flights Up and Other New York Apartment Stories by Toni Schlesinger
45. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
46. Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine
47. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
48. You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett
49. Larry’s Kidney: Being the True Story of How I Found Myself in China with My Black Sheep Cousin and His Mail-Order Bride, Skirting the Law to Get Him a Transplant — and Save His Life by Daniel Asa Rose
50. Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
51. I’m Down by Mishna Wolff
52. Betrayal by Harold Pinter
53. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
54. [Secret Book] by [Secret Author]
55. Stitches: A Memoir by David Shaw
56. Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
57. Reasons to Be Pretty by Neil LaBute
58. Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher
59. [Secret Book] by [Secret Author]
60. Push by Sapphire
61. Danny and the Deep Blue Sea: An Apache Dance by John Patrick Shanley
62. The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress by Michelle Richmond
63. The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
64. [Secret Book] by [Secret Author]

Films:

1. Revolutionary Road
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. What’s Your Point, Honey?
4. Notorious
5. Sex and the City
6. Coraline
7. Eleven Minutes
8. Sita Sings the Blues
9. The Brave One
10. John Legend Live at the House of Blues
11. 24 Hours on Craigslist
12. BBC The Office Seasons 1 & 2
13. Lars and the Real Girl
14. Girl 27
15. Where God Left His Shoes
16. Shortbus
17. Obsessed
18. Talk to Her
19. Tarnation
20. Thirteen
21. Volver
22. The Flower of My Secret
23. Night at the Museum II
24. La Notte
25. Anchorman
26. Up
27. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
28. Grey Gardens
29. Away We Go
30. L’Avventura
31. King Corn
32. Taxi Driver
33. Last Tango in Paris
34. Brüno
35. All About Eve
36. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
37. 500 Days of Summer
38. American Teen
39. Whoopi Goldberg: Direct from Broadway
40. Love and Basketball
41. Saturday Night Fever
42. You Can Heal Your Life
43. Vicky Cristina Barcelona
44. High Fidelity
45. Paris, Je T’Aime
46. Persepolis
47. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
48. Secretary
49. Capitalism: A Love Story
50. Splendor in the Grass
51. Moonstruck
52. Precious
53. The Ice Storm
54. Rachel Getting Married
55. Comedian
56. Hamlet 2
57. Slumdog Millionaire
58. Grizzly Man
59. The Last Days of Disco
60. It’s Complicated
61. 2 Days in Paris
62. A Woman Under the Influence