My Year in Books, 2012

Compared to so many other year-end list makers, I'm a little late to the game. I love to read Year in Review lists, I like to see what other people are reading, why they read it, if my list has anything in common with theirs. I saw one guy's list on tumblr, and he included shots of the cover of every book he read, and a short review of each book. I'm not doing that, not today anyway, but I might get around to it some other time. For now, here's my list of the books I read in 2012.

Never-Ending Birds, Poetry, David Baker

God is not a Christian, Essays, Desmond Tutu

We the Animals, Fiction, Justin Torres

The Art of Losing, Poetry Anthology, ed. Kevin Young

Drifting House, Fiction, Krys Lee

No One, Autofiction, Gwenaelle Aubry

Useless Landscape, Poetry, D.A.Powell

In Search of Small Gods, Poetry, Jim Harrison

The Day my Mother Left, YA, James Prosek

Tender, Cookbook/Memoir, Nigel Slater

Downstream from Troutfishing in America, Memoir, Keith Abbott

The Outsiders, YA, S.E. Hinton

The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine, Fiction, Peter Straub

The Shape of the Journey, Poetry, Jim Harrison

The Drowning Girl, Fiction, Caitlin Keirnan

Reading Lolita in Tehran, Memoir, Azar Nafisi

Stardust, Fiction, Neil Gaiman

Prairie Soul, Nature/Memoir, Jeffrey Lockwood

The Hobbit, Fiction, J.R.R. Tolkien

Batman: Year One, Comics, Frank Miller and David Mazuchelli

Daredevil: Reborn, Comics, Frank Miller and David Mazuchelli

Spera, Comics, Josh Tierney and various artists

Legion Lost, Comics, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and Olivier Copiel

Madman and The Atomics, Comics, Michael Allred and Laura Allred

Beowulf, a New Telling, Fiction, Robert Nye

You should see the list of books I borrowed from the library but didn't read, though. I have a compulsive borrowing habit. There is probably no way for me to read all the books that catch my eye at the library and find their way home with me. Some of them sit in a pile till they're due, others ride shotgun with me and I read them at red lights or in lines at the bank or grocery store but I never finish them. I'm trying to slow down at the library so I can read the stack of books I actually paid money for, which are gathering dust on the nightstand as I type this. I've got comics to read in every room, issues of Poetry magazine and American Poetry Review in my book bag and under my bed, there are boxes of books in the basement I don't have room for on the shelves in the living room, and several more boxes in my parents' storage unit. I should probably stop working on this blog and get started on this year's Year in Books list.