The Millions: A Year in Reading: Pete Lit's List

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November 29, 2005

A Year in Reading: Pete Lit's List

At the end of the year lots of newspapers and media outlets release "best of the year" lists. It's nice to have a record of the year's literary highlights, but the lists do not represent the experience of any real readers. Sure, we may read handful of brand new books each year, but these are likely to be outweighed by older books - books that we are finally getting around to or books that we have just discovered, books two years old and books 200 years old. All these books taken together represent a year in reading, and as a counterpoint to all of those "best of" lists, I've asked authors, bloggers and readers to send along the best of from their year in reading.

For today, I asked Pete from Pete Lit to share with us the best books he read this year and he sent back a nice list. Chicagoans may notice that Chicagoans are well-represented here. Says Pete:

My top choice is An Unfinished Season by Ward Just. The writing is just beautiful, and Just wonderfully evokes a bygone Chicago era.
Runners-Up:
William Trevor, A Bit on the Side
Joe Sacco, Palestine
Alex Kotlowitz, There Are No Children Here
Honorable Mention:
Stuart Dybek, I Sailed With Magellan
Kirby Gann, Our Napoleon in Rags
Ian McEwan, Saturday
Davy Rothbart, The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas
Nick Hornby, The Polysyllabic Spree
John McNally, The Book of Ralph