I'm back to posting reading lists. Here's 2010, which has been a whole lot of mediocrity. Looking at this list, I remember very few books that were exceptionally good. The Art of Racing in the Rain, The Soul of Baseball, Cardboard Gods, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, and The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven are probably the top five for me. Not coincidentally, four of the five (not The Art of Racing in the Rain), I think I finished in no more than three or four days (or, in the case of The Soul of Baseball, about 14 hours). Born to Run is also an exceptional book, but since it also contributed to my returning to the Vibram FiveFingers (which immediately preceded my stress fracture -- though I'm reluctant to declare a causal link), I'm definitely docking it some points).
January (10)
9 Stories by J.D. Salinger
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains by Jon Krakauer
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Hammerin' Hank, George Almighty and the Say Hey Kid: the Year that Changed Baseball Forever by John Rosengren
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Raise the Roofbeam High, Carpenters and Seymour, an Introduction by J.D. Salinger
You Shall Know Our Velocity! by Dave Eggers
American Lightning by Howard Blum
February (2)
The Book of Vice: Naughty Things (and How to Do Them) by Peter Sagal
From Here to Eternity by James Jones
March (2)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
April (7)
Why My Wife Thinks I'm An Idiot by Mike Greenberg
2010 Baseball America Prospect Handbook edited by Jim Callis et al.
The Road to Omaha: Hits, Hopes, and History at the College World Series by Ryan McGee
The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America by Joe Posnanski
The Guinea Pig Diaries by A.J. Jacobs
Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Pop Apocalypse! by Lee Konstantinou
May (8)
The Punch by John Feinstein
You're a Horrible Person, But I Like You: The Believer Book of Advice edited by Eric Spitznagel
Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas by Chuck Klosterman
Cardboard Gods: An All-American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards by Josh Wilker
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Big Hair and Plastic Grass by Dan Epstein
Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
June (3)
Soccernomics by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
For Love of the Game by Michael Shaara
July (2)
You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting
Wrigleyworld by Kevin Kaduk
August (4)
U2 by U2 by U2
Catcher in the Wry by Bob Uecker
Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession by Dave Jamieson
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
September (5)
This Land Is Their Land by Barbara Ehrenreich
The View from the Upper Deck by D.J. Gallo
Long-Range Goals: the Success Story of Major League Soccer by Beau Dure
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper
October (5)
Earth: a Visitor's Guide by Jon Stewart et al.
Odd Man Out by Matt McCarthy
The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven by Aaron Skirboll
Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
Kiss It Good-Bye by John Moody
November (4)
Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Ball Four by Jim Bouton
The Lost Dogs by Jim Gorant
Actual Innocence by Barry Scheck, Jim Neufeld and Jim Dwyer
December (2)
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
How to Lose Friends and Influence People by Toby Young
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