The Year of One Hundred (and Twelve) Books.

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In 2009, I didn't work until the end of the year. I was spending hours on my thesis each day, sending out tons of poems, and starting to write short stories. I also made the goal to read one hundred books. I did so, and today, I was looking back at the list and couldn't believe how many books I'd read. Some of them, I don't remember at all, and some are books I know but had forgotten I'd read. I'll probably always look back on that as the wonder year of reading (though I'd like to think I'll do it again someday). So I thought I'd revisit and share the titles of those books, many of the books of poetry I was lucky enough to dig out of libraries.

1. Ghost Girl, poems by Amy Gerstler
2. Catching Light, poems by Kathryn Stripling Byer
3. Steering the Craft, book on writing fiction by Ursula Le Guin
4. In the Ghost House Acquainted, poems by Kevin Goodan
5. Oliver Kitteridge, novel by Elizabeth Strout
6. Unpacking the Boxes, memoir by Donald Hall
7. Best American Poetry 2008
8. Questions about Angels, poems by Billy Collins
9. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
10. Coming to Rest, poems by Kathryn Stripling Byer
11. Looking for Luck, poems by Maxine Kumin
12. Crown of Weeds, poems by Amy Gerstler
13. The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates 1973-1982
14. Nine Horses, poems by Billy Collins
15. The Bell Jar, novel by Sylvia Plath
16. The Voice at 3:00 A.M., poems by Charles Simic
17. Birthday Letters, poems by Ted Hughes
18. Girl Goddess #9, stories by Francesca Lia Block
19. The Wild Girl, novel by Jim Fergus
20. Reborn: Journals and Notebooks 1947-1963 by Susan Sontag
21. Spilling Open, art journal by Sabrina Ward Harrison
22. Sundays at Tiffany's, novel by James Patterson
23. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin
24. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, novel by Carson McCullers
25. Medicine, poems by Amy Gerstler
26. Elephants and Butterflies, poems by Alan Michael Parker
27. Mother Love, poems by Rita Dove
28. Ukulele, poems by Jonathan K. Rice
29. Chalice, young adult novel by Robin McKinley
30. Incredible Good Fortune, poems by Ursula K. Le Guin
31.  Complete Poems: Elizabeth Bishop
32. Writing Down the Bones, book on writing by Natalie Goldberg (second or third reading)
33. Where Is Here?, stories by Joyce Carol Oates
34. The Art of Drowning, poems by Billy Collins
35. Here, Bullet, poems by Brian Turner
36. One Nightstand, poems by ?
37. The Waters and the Wild, young adult novel by Francesca Lia Block
38. Sonnets from the Portuguese and Other Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
39. Adultery and Other Choices, stories by Andre Dubus
40. The Second Blush, poems by Molly Peacock
41. Delights and Shadows, poems by Ted Kooser
42. Halflife, poems by Meghan O'Rourke
43. A Maze Me, poems for girls by Naomi Shihab Nye
44. Antebellum Dream Book, poems by Elizabeth Alexander
45. Once, poems by Alice Walker
46. Complete Poems: Jane Kenyon
47. Best American Short Stories 2006
48. It is Daylight, poems by Arda Collins
49. You Remind Me of You, poems by Eireann Corrigan
50. You Hear Me?, poems by teen boys, ed. Betsy Franco
51. Things I Have to Tell You, poems by teen girls, ed. Betsy Franco
52. Republic of Poetry, poems by Martin Espada
53. Walking the Black Cat, poems by Charles Simic
54. Trinity, poems by Susan Ludvigson
55. In the Mecca, poems by Gwendolyn Brooks
56. Step Carefully in Night Grass, poems by Susan L. Bartels
57. This is All, young adult novel by Aidan Chambers
58. Speak, young adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson
59. Those Who Ride the Night Winds, poems by Nikki Giovanni
60. The Fabulous Beasts, poems by Joyce Carol Oates
61. The Sorrow Dance, poems by Denise Levertov
62. The Writer's Desk, photos and essays of writers' rooms by Jill Krementz
63. Under the Tuscan Sun, memoir by Frances Mayes
64. The Best Day the Worst Day, memoir by Donald Hall
65. Person to Person, poems by ?
66. Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
67. It Was Today, poems by ?
68. Anne of Green Gables, children's novel by L. M. Montgomery (second or third reading)
69. The Wish House, young adult novel by Celia Rees
70. The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat, poems by Anthony Abbott
71. The Door, poems by Margaret Atwood
72. Salt Works, poems by ?
73. Anne of Avonlea, children's novel by L. M. Montgomery (second reading)
74. American Sublime, poems by Elizabeth Alexander
75. Anne of the Island, children's novel by L. M. Montgomery (second reading)
76. As I Walked Out One Evening, poems by W. H. Auden
77. Naked as Eve, poems by Rebecca McClanahan
78. Love Song with Motor Vehicles, poems by Alan Michael Parker
79. Northern Lights, poems by Susan Ludvigson
80. The Love That Ended Yesterday in Texas, poems by Cathy Smith Bowers
81. The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings, personal essays by Rebecca McClanahan
82. Elegy for Iris, memoir by John Bayley
83. On Chesil Beach, novel by Ian McEwan
84. Open House, novel by Elizabeth Berg
85. Kakalak 2006, NC poems
86. Mars Being Red, poems by Marvin Bell
87. Worldly Hopes, poems by A. R. Ammons
88. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, memoir by Maya Angelou
89. Shattered Sonnets, poems by Olena Kalytiak Davis
90. Immersed in Verse, book about being a poet for teens by Alan Wolf and Tuesday Mourning
91. Ballistics, poems by Billy Collins
92. The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
93. Wild Iris, poems bu Louise Gluck
94. Pretty Dead, young adult novel by Francesca Lia Block
95. Live What You Love, lifestyle book by Robert Blanchard and Melinda Blanchard
96. Mother Tongue, poems by Richard Fein
97. The Bride's Farewell, young adult novel by Robin McKinley
98. Nettles, poems by Betty Adcock
99. Mrs. Houdini, poems by Rebecca McClanahan
100. Before the Light Changes, poems by Irene B. Honeycutt
101. When the Leaves Are in the Water, poems by Maureen Ryan Griffin
102. A Voice of Her Own: Becoming Emily Dickinson, young adult novel by Barbara Dana
103. Morning in the Burned House, poems by Margaret Atwood
104. Delicate Edible Birds, stories by Lauren Groff
105. The Singing, poems by C. K. Williams
106. The Seven Ages, poems by Louise Gluck
107. The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry, memoir by Kathleen Flinn
108. Ordinary Life, novel by Elizabeth Berg
109. The Final Face of Eve, memoir by Evelyn Lancaster
110. The Sisters Antipodes, memoir by Jane Alison
111. I Love Artists, poems by Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge
112. White Center, poems by Richard Hugo

I read books I found randomly on library shelves, books I ordered used online, and books I'd wanted to read that were languishing on my shelves. In this way, it was a good year, and this is how I will remember it.

Do you have a memory of a rich reading period? I'd love to read about it.

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