For many years I have been keeping track of the books I read in a small purple notebook. Though I only record the names and authors of the books, I find that when I flip through it I have vivid memories (usually) of the books, and often remember where I was when I read them, and what was going on in my life at the time.

Because I find it interesting to see what other people are reading (and I assume you do to, since you clicked on the link), below is a virtual copy of my ongoing book journal. Books that are in some way associated with Bookcrossing have links to their journal entries.

Books Read in 2004

In summary: 2004 was the year of Tolkien as I re-read The Lord of the Rings and thoroughly enjoyed The Silmarillion and a collection of Tolkien's shorter writing. In the fall I took a world literature course at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies (read: no exams or papers!) which was one of the best things that I have ever done. Since taking the class, I have delved into the world of literature in translation and my reading has gone in unexpectedly wonderful directions. Just what I needed, hundreds of books to add to Mt. TBR!

1. Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler
2. kilter: 55 fictions by John Gould
3. The Lord of the Rings (single book edition) by J.R.R. Tolkien (re-read)
4. The Life & Loves of a She Devil by Fay Weldon (BC trade) (book club)
5. The Mann Booker Prize (retrospective) by various (BC trade)
6. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
7. The Book Shop by Penelope Fitzgerald (from Book Relay)
8. Rush Home Road by Lori Lansens (book club)
9. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (re-read)
10. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
11. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (wild catch!)
12. The Tolkien Reader by J.R.R. Tolkien (from Book Relay)
13. A Student of Weather by Elizabeth Hay (borrowed)
14. The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride (BC trade from Alainas)
15. A Hard Witching by Jacqueline Baker
16. Naked by David Sedaris (book club)
17. England, England by Julian Barnes
18. Affinity by Sarah Waters (bookring)
19. Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt
20. The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket
21. Elle by Douglas Glover
22. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (bookring)
23. Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (BC trade)
24. Staying On by Paul Scott
25. Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography by Lemony Snicket
26. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (from Book Relay)
27. The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket
28. The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter by David Colbert
29. Brick Lane by Monica Ali (BC trade from goatgrrl)
30. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
31. Happiness(TM) by Will Ferguson
32. The Little Disturbances of Man by Grace Paley (BC trade from goatgrrl)
33. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
34. Dorian by Will Self
35. One Last Good Look by Michael Winter
36. The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler (borrowed)
37. The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp (book club)
38. The Big Why by Michael Winter
39. Acts of Worship by Yukio Mishima (world lit class)
40. The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino (world lit class)
41. In the Labyrinth by Alain Robbe-Grillet (world lit class)
42. If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino (tr. William Weaver)
43. Summer in Baden-Baden by Leonid Tsypkin (world lit class)
44. The Confusions of Young Torless by Robert Musil (world lit class)
45. Mazurka for Two Dead Men by Camilo Jose Cela (world lit class)
46. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
47. N.P. by Banana Yoshimoto
48. Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
49. Sixpence House: lost in a town of books by Paul Collins

Books Read in 2005

Summary: The summer of Don Quixote! Loved it and went on to read Graham Greene's Monsignor Quixote - highly recommended for anyone who has recently read DQ. More world literature, and the penultimate Harry Potter (my summer holiday reading along with Quixote - good thing we were travelling by car so I didn't have to limit my luggage). Another highlight was Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

1. Tails from the Bark Side by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson (bookring)
2. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (tr. William Weaver)
3. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (tr. Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky)
4. Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino (tr. William Weaver)
5. After the Quake by Haruki Murakami (tr. Jay Rubin) (world lit class)
6. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
7. The Story of Zhara by Hanan Al-Shaykh ("rendered into English by Peter Ford with the author's cooperation") (world lit class)
8. The Path to the Spiders' Nests (revised edition) by Italo Calvino (tr. Archibald Colquhoun, revised by Martin McLaughlin)
9. Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto (tr. Michael Emmerich) (world lit class)
10. Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey edited by Karen Wilkin
11. t zero by Italo Calvino (tr. William Weaver)
12. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
13. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (borrowed)
14. A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami (tr. Alfred Birnbaum)
15. The Pooh Perplex by Frederick Crews (BC trade from tnkbl)
16. Martin Sloane by Michael Redhill (re-read)
17. The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (re-read)
18. The Industry of Souls by Martin Booth (from Book Relay)
19. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (borrowed)
20. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (bookring)
21. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (borrowed)
22. Blow-Up and Other Stories by Julio Cortazar (tr. Paul Blackburn)
23. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (re-read)
22. The Mirror of Ink (Penguin 70s) by Jorge Luis Borges (tr. not listed - bad Penguin!)
23. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
24. The Enamoured Knight by Douglas Glover
25. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (audio book)
26. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (tr. Edith Grossman)
27. Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene (BC trade from BookGroupMan)
28. The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe (tr. E. Dale Saunders)
29. The Box Man by Kobo Abe (tr. E. Dale Saunders)
30. Unreasonable Hours by Julio Cortazar (tr. Alberto Manguel)
31. Cronopios and Famas by Julio Cortazar (tr. Paul Blackburn)
32. All You Who Sleep Tonight (poems) by Vikram Seth
33. Road-Side Dog by Czeslaw Milosz (tr. by the author and Robert Hass)
34. On Balance by Leila Seth (autobiography by the mother of Vikram Seth)
35. About a Boy by Nick Hornby (bookring which I signed up for in April 2003 and finally received Sept. 2005!)
36. Two Lives by Vikram Seth
37. Postmodern Pooh by Frederick Crews (BC trade from tnkbl)
38. Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov (from Book Relay)
39. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
40. Kaddish for a Child Not Born by Imre Kertesz (tr. Christopher and Katharina Wilson)
41. Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (tr. Edith Grossman)
42. The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
43. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
44. Holes by Louis Sachar
45. Martha and Hanwell (Penguin 70s) by Zadie Smith
46. Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto (tr. Michael Emmerich)
47. Street Haunting (Penguin 70s) by Virginia Woolfe
48. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (picked up at the December meetup)
49. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (re-read)
50. Smoke by Elizabeth Ruth

Books Read in 2006

2006 was an eventful year that started with the re-reading of the Harry Potter series and ended with the anticipation of the birth of our twins due in early 2007. In between, there was the North American Bookcrossing Convention which took place in Toronto in April, and a whole bunch of dog training and behaviour books (a reflection of the fact that our dog and I were getting into the sport of canine agility - at least until I no longer had the energy to run). I am sure it will be a few years before I can once again read the equivalent of a book per week - unless you count children's books being read aloud to a captive audience of two!

1. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
2. Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets: Selected Poems 1962-1996 by Al Purdy (CANADA READS 2006 finalist) (Released April 20, 2006, and was caught and journaled the same night! Woo hoo!)
3. 4 By Pelevin by Victor Pelevin (tr. Andrew Bromfield)
4. Everything and Nothing by Jorge Luis Borges (tr. Donald Yates, James Irby, John Fein, Eliot Weinberger)
5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling (re-read)
6. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (re-read)
7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (re-read)
8. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (re-read)
9. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
10. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (re-read)
11. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (re-read)
12. Difficult Loves by Italo Calvino (tr. William Weaver and D.S. Carne-Ross)
13. Silk by Alessandro Baricco (tr. Guido Waldman)
14. The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs by Patricia McConnell
15. Marcovaldo by Italo Calvino (tr. William Weaver)
16. The Power of Positive Dog Training by Pat Miller
17. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander (J.K. Rowling)
18. Guiness World Records: Amazing School Records ed. Ryan Herndon (BC trade from Blackcats-Books)
19. The Book of Laugter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera (tr. Michael Henry Heim) (BC trade from Blackcats-Books)
20. Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp (J.K. Rowling)
21. Making A Killing by Warren Dunford (author speaking at the 2006 North American Bookcrossing Convention)
22. How to Speak Dog by Stanley Coren
23. By His Own Might: The Battles of Beowulf by Dorothy Hosford (BookRelay trade from Shylock)
24. Three Dollars by Elliot Perlman (RABCK from SerenityBlue)
25. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
26. Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay by Annie Proulx (story), Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (screenplay)
27. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
28. LOST: Secret Identity by Cathy Hapka (picked up at the 2006 Bookcrossing Convention)
29. On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals by Turid Rugaas
30. A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict by John Baxter
31. King Arthur in the East Riding by Simon Armitage (Penguin 70s) (picked up at the 2006 Bookcrossing Convention)
32. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (BookRelay trade from SKingList)
33. What Wendell Wants: Or, How to Tell If You're Obsessed with Your Dog by Jenny Lee
34. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
35. The Judgement and In the Penal Colony (Penguin 60s) by Franz Kafka (tr. Malcolm Pasley) (BC trade from geishabird)
36. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera (tr. Michael Henry Heim) (bookring)
37. The Jealous Extremaduran (Penguin 60s) by Cervantes (tr. C.A. Jones) (BC trade from geishabird)
38. Ex Libris by Ross King
39. Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn't Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out ed. by Ted Thompson
40. Uncle Boris in the Yukon and Other Shaggy Dog Stories by Daniel Pinkwater
41. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (tr. Lucia Graves) (RABCK from RlyLv2Rd)
42. To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
43. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima (tr. John Nathan)
44. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (re-read)
45. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
46. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
47. The Helmet of Horror by Victor Pelevin (tr. Andrew Bromfield)
48. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
49. Twinspiration: real-life advice from pregnancy through the first year by Cheryl Lage
50. Intuition by Allegra Goodman
51. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (re-read)
52. For Bea: the story of the beagle who changed my life by Kristin von Kreisler

Books Read in 2007

I am surprised that I actually managed to read twenty books in 2007, what with our two new bundles of joy. Tandem breastfeeding does not lend itself to reading, though I did make the supreme effort to get through HP7 in less than a week (without dropping it on either of the babies, I might add). About halfway through the year, I discovered that re-reading some favorite books was a great idea, because while it didn't require the same amount of concentration as an unfamiliar story, I still discovered things in the books that I didn't remember from my first reading. Notable reads this year were HP7 (very satisfying), and Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, which deserves all the accolades it has received.

1. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
2. Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Victor Lam (winner of the 2006 Giller Prize for fiction)
3. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
***the twins are born!***
4. The Bird Factory by David Layton
5. Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid by Lemony Snicket
6. Words Without Borders: The World Through The Eyes of Writers ed. by Samantha Schnee, Alane Salierno Mason & Dedi Felman
7. The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler
8. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (re-read)
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
10. Saltsea by David Helwig
11. If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino (tr. William Weaver) (re-read)
12. What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7 by Ben Schoen, Emerson Spartz, et al. (I know, I know...I had already read HP7, but it was fun to see how their predictions panned out. Besides, I wasn't ready for the fun to be over yet.)
13. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (re-read)
14. A Book Addict's Treasury by Julie Rugg & Linda Murphy
15. The Late Hector Kipling by David Thewlis
16. The Architects Are Here by Michael Winter
17. The Diving-Bell & the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby (tr. Jeremy Leggatt)
18. Adverbs by Daniel Handler
19. The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
20. The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson

Books Read in 2008

1. The Book of Other People ed. by Zadie Smith (short stories)
2. Le Bal by Irene Nemirovsky (tr. from the French by Sandra Smith)
3. The Penguin Book of Summer Stories selected by Alberto Manguel (short stories)
4. Under the Jaguar Sun by Italo Calvino (tr. from the Italian by William Weaver) (short stories)
5. Sudden Fiction International: sixty short-short stories ed. by Robert Shapard & James Thomas (short stories)
6. Claire's Head by Catherine Bush
7. Shopgirl by Steve Martin
8. Joe by Jonathan Safran Foer (text) and Hiroshi Sugimoto (photographs)
9. The Unabridged Pocketbook of Lightening (Penguin 70s) by Jonathan Safran Foer (short stories)
10. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
11. Time and the Hunter by Italo Calvino (tr. from the Italian by William Weaver) (short stories)
12. Tobermory and other stories by Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) (from the Leeds/Toronto book exchange box) (short stories)
13. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
14. Adam, one afternoon by Italo Calvino (tr. from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun and Peggy Wright) (short stories)
15. Blindness by Jose Saramago (tr. from the Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero)
16. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
17. 253 by Geoff Ryman (picked up at the June social)
18. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (tr. from the Russian by Clarence Brown)
19. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
20. Waiting by Ha Jin
21. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
22. The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God by Etgar Keret (tr. from the Hebrew by Miriam Shlesinger and others) (short stories)
23. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
24. The namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
25. The Girl Who Played Go by Shan Sa (translated from the French by Adriana Hunter)
26. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
27. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
28. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind (tr. from the German by John E. Woods) (bookray started by Ythan)
29. Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (tr. from the Spanish by Edith Grossman) (short stories)
30. What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn
31. Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions by Neil Gaiman (short stories and poems)
32. Flash Fiction Forward: 80 Very Short Stories ed. by James Thomas & Robert Shapard (short stories)
33. Sudden Fiction (Continued): 60 New Short-Short Stories ed. by Robert Shapard & James Thomas (short stories)
34. Harry, A History: the true story of a boy wizard, his fans, and life inside the Harry Potter phenomenon by Melissa Anelli
35. Visa For Avalon by Bryher
36. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling (short stories)
37. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
38. Coraline by Neil Gaiman (re-read)
39. The Paper House by Carlos Maria Dominguez (tr. from the Spanish by Nick Caistor)
40. The Outlander by Gil Adamson (Canada Reads 2009 finalist)
41. Book Lust: recommended reading for every mood, moment, and reason by Nancy Pearl

Books Read in 2009

1. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (tr. from the German by Carol Brown Janeway)
2. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (Canada Reads 2009 winner)
3. Fruit: a novel about a boy and his nipples by Brian Francis (Canada Reads 2009 finalist)
4. The Cube by Annie Gottlieb and Slobodan D. Pesic (wild catch!)
5. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (bookring started by KiwiinEngland)
6. The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay (tr. from the French by Sheila Fischman) (Canada Reads 2009 finalist)
7. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle (bookray associated with The Lost World Read 2009)
8. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
9. The 13 Clocks by James Thurber (bookring started by davemurray101)
10. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
11. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows
12. The Importance of Being Earnest (graphic novel) by Oscar Wilde and Tom Bouden (bookring started by GoryDetails)
13. Vikram Seth's "A Suitable Boy": a reader's guide by Angela Atkins
14. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
15. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
16. Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud (bookring started by Ythan)
17. Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore
18. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (bookring started by jozebedee)
19. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
20. Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer
21. Bad Twin by Gary Troup
22. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
23. The Stand by Stephen King
24. The Humble Administrators Garden by Vikram Seth (poetry)
25. Coyote Blue by Christopher Moore
26. A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li
27. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
28. Day by A.L. Kennedy
29. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
30. Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman
31. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
32. New Sudden Fiction: short-short stories from America and beyond ed. by Robert Shapard & James Thomas
33. Growing a Reader from Birth: your child's path from language to literacy by Diane McGuinness
34. Bloodsucking Fiends: a love story by Christopher Moore
35. Half-Minute Horrors ed. by Susan Rich
36. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Books Read in 2010

1. Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut
2. The Stupidest Angel: a heartwarming tale of Christmas terror by Christopher Moore
3. Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor (short stories)
4. The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy (Canada Reads 2010 finalist)
5. Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner (translated from the French by Lazer Lederhendler) (Canada Reads 2010 winner)
6. Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link (short stories)
7. Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott (Canada Reads 2010 finalist)
8. The Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpha Lahiri (short stories)
9. What Becomes by A.L. Kennedy (short stories)
10. Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
11. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
12. Expendable by James Alan Gardner
13. No one belongs here more than you: stories by Miranda July
14. Payback:Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood (audio)
15. You Suck: a love story by Christopher Moore