2008 has been an amazing year of reading for me. Thanks to the Internet I have read many more great books than in other years. In fact about five of my all time top ten will come from books read (but not necessarily published) in 2008. In previous years, I picked books from the shelves of a bookshop, or library, based on the cover, and blurb on the back. I found some good books this way, but most were disappointing.
This year, thanks to sites like Story code, and through reading the recommendations of bloggers, with similar book tastes to me I have found a much higher quality of reading material.
My top ten for the year are:
1. A Fine Balance– Rohinton Mistry
2. Fingersmith – Sarah Waters
3. Random Acts of Heroic Love– Danny Scheinmann
4. Water for Elephants– Sara Gruen
5. Paperchase– Marcel Theroux
6. A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
7. A Kestral for a Knave – Barry Hines
8. The Invention of Hugo Cabret – Brian Selznick
9. Middlesex– Jeffrey Eugenides
10. The End of Mr Y – Scarlett Thomas
Thank you for visiting my site in 2008! Have a happy, wonderful year of reading in 2009!
7 replies on “Top ten reads in 2008”
I don’t do a top reads list, but I also read Middlesex last spring (pre-blogging). And loved it. It was definitely one of the best of the year.
I haven’t read any of the books on your list, however I have been aching to read The Invention of Hugo Cabret! Water for Elephants seems to be gaining in popularity also which is making me curious.
I bought Water for Elephants, but haven’t read it yet. I’ll have to now that I see it made your top 10 list!
My two oldest kids and I all loved The Invention of Hugo Cabret – it was wonderful.
Hi Jackie! From your list – I loved a few, want to read a few, and never heard of a few. I will have to further browse around your blog some more sometime soon. I’ve gotta go for now. Happy Reading! 🙂
Water for Elephants is the only one that I’ve read but it was really good. I really want to read Hugo Cabret soon. Great list.
Great list, Jackie. I’ve read most of them and enjoyed them too, but will now hunt out the ones I haven’t read based on your recommendation.