I had originally intended to eschew the “best of 2008” and “worst of 2008” trend that always appears at the end of the year. However, one of the best websites I discovered in 2008 was Goodreads. Since joining in May 2008, I can’t recommend it enough. A self-proclaimed bibliophile, much of my leisure time goes toward reading. Thanks to a terrible memory, I have trouble recalling the particulars of books I’ve read; my reviews usually emerge as hazy generalizations that make me feel like I didn’t read the book at all. Continuing my trend of using technology to replace my memory, Goodreads helps me organize my books; I can keep track not only of books I‘ve read, but I also add books I want to read. It’s pretty much awesome.

So I thought, since I can actually remember what books I read this year, why not post a top 10 list of the best and worst books I read in 2008? Technically, this is “best and worst since May 2008”, since that’s when I started using Goodreads. Even so, I had trouble paring down each list to only ten books—I can only imagine it’ll be more difficult to do next year when I have twelve months’ worth of books from which to choose.

This list originally appeared as a blog post.

In 2009, I read 156 books. This gives me considerably more selection when it comes to choosing my best and worst books of the year. As always, this list originally appeared as a blog post.

I read 137 books in 2010, and of those books, I gave 19 a five-star rating. Thus my annual task of choosing the top 10 books of the year was a daunting one. It doesn't help that I have so many different ways to rank these books among each other, so many ways to define "best." Do I want to choose books I think other people should read? Do I want to choose books I enjoyed the most? Those two criteria, while not mutually exclusive, would not necessarily produce identical rankings. In the end, I took a middle road. All of these books are, obviously, worth reading. I think everyone should read the top 5. Beyond that, I tried for each book to determine where best it fit.

This year is different from last year's list for a few reasons. Firstly, no Umberto Eco! I did read an Eco novel, The Island of the Day Before, but much to my chagrin it did not receive five stars, let alone a chance to get on this list, which this year was quite competitive. That competition means there are several books that might have made the list but didn't. I suppose I could do a "top 11" list, or a "top 12," because after all, ten is such an arbitrary number. Nevertheless, I like the fact that with ten and only ten spots I have to think hard and choose carefully how to fill those spots.

That being said, there are certainly a few books that deserve honourable mentions. I re-read the Dresden Files in 2010, and four of them are five-star books. One of these, Small Favor, made my top 10 list in 2008. I considered selecting at least one Dresden Files novel for this list; however, as much as I love Harry Dresden and the writing of Jim Butcher, I just read so many other books that I feel more urgently need the recommendation.

I'll also give a shout-out to The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell. It's an awesome anthropological science-fiction novel. Similarly, the novellas Act One and Shambling Towards Hiroshima, by Nancy Kress and James Morrow, respectively, made the short list. Both are Hugo-nominated (the winning novella, Charles Stross' Palimpsest, was my favourite in that category, but because it is not listed on Goodreads I didn't write a review for it) and worth reading.

Finally, this year's list includes four non-fiction titles. Not only is this the most non-fiction ever to grace my top 10 list so far, but it's interesting because I didn't read as many non-fiction books this year as I had hoped. I guess I just discriminated well!

Looking at this list, a few observations immediately jump out at me:

• Fully half of the books on this list are ones I was re-reading—and had not read since childhood or early high school. I did not begin this year with the intention of re-reading so many fine books; it just sort of happened that way!
• The other readily-apparent theme would be one of the so-called classics: Austen, Maugham, Davies, and Eliot, oh my! Even Dune and the Earthsea books are notable if somewhat more prone to periodic bouts of genre. Only The Dervish House sticks out because of its recent publication. Again, I did not set out intending to read (and rank so highly) so many classics.
• Last year’s list featured three non-fiction books. There are no non-fiction books on the list this year. I’ll give an honourable mention later to one in particular, but truth be told this was not a great year for non-fiction. Maybe next year!
• Robertson Davies and Ursula K. Le Guin share the honour of being the first authors to get two of their books on the year’s best list. Le Guin also bears the distinction of having been on both my best and worst lists on different years (but her spot on the 2008 worst list is barely worth mentioning!).

Deciding on rankings was very difficult this year. There are good arguments for, say, moving Persuasion up the list and bumping down Dune or A Wizard of Earthsea. And I had a difficult time deciding who would take the #1 position. It’s almost enough to make me get rid of the numbers entirely and just say, “Here! Here are the best 10 books I read, completely unranked.” Yet as much as top 10 lists are arbitrary, there is something interesting about picking one book and holding it up as my single favourite. Just beware that its position is not one determined with absolute conviction.

Honourable mentions:

• Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It, edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O’Shea
• Feminism FOR REAL: Deconstructing the Academic Industrial Complex of Feminism, by Jessica Yee
• Palimpsest, by Charles Stross
• Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom, by Daniel T. Willingham

As always, please feel free to comment over at my blog.

This list originally appeared as a blog post.

In 2009, I read 156 books. This gives me more selection when it comes to choosing my worst books of the year—and there are some bad ones! As always, this list originally appeared as a blog post.

I read fewer than 10 1-star books in 2010. Perhaps I was more discriminating in my reading, or perhaps I've simply had a better year for books. Nevertheless, building this list was very difficult, since I had to choose two books from among my many 2-star ratings. And then I had to rank all those 1-star books, and that was not easy. As with determining greatness, determining how terrible a book is has so many criteria. Some books are on this list because they bore me. Others because they offend. Yet more because they are, by any standard I cared to throw at them, simply bad.

This is the first year a non-fiction book has made my worst list. It managed just to squeak in at #10 by dint of its dubious ability to enlighten me just how the Irish saved civilization. Sorry, Ireland! And I vacillated a lot over which was worse, Time's Arrow or The Fionavar Tapestry. One is excruciating but short; the other is annoying but long. Ultimately, however, the answer is simple: the latter is an omnibus, so I couldn't edge it past Time's Arrow just because it's a doorstopper.

Finally, I unwisely chose to re-read Dan Brown's novels this year, and I had to put those on the list! But I didn't want to take up three valuable spots when, after all, the books are nearly identical. So you're getting 12 bad books for the price of 10. Enjoy!

I only read four 1-star books in 2011! Constructing this list was quite a task, consequently, because I had to choose six unfortunate 2-star books to fill the remaining spots. Some of these books are on here because they are just bad. Some are here because they are boring, or a little flat, but not altogether unrewarding.

Unlike this year’s best books list, I don’t see a cohesive theme to these books. There are a few “thrillers” on the list. Otherwise there is a mixture of fantasy, science fiction, and non-genre/literary fiction. Many of the books were just a burden to read; a few actively made me dislike them, and for those I think I wrote the best reviews of all the books on the list. Enjoy!

As always, feel free to comment over at my blog.