Read in 2011:

January
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson 
Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon (abandoned)

February
Coming into the Country by John McPhee

March - April
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

May
The Known World by Edward Jones

June
The New Yorker Stories by Ann Beattie
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene 

July
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe 

September
The Best American Crime Reporting 2010 edited by Stephen Dubner

October
The Missing of the Somme by Geoff Dyer
The Most Human Human by Brian Christian (abandoned) 

November
1Q84 by Haruku Murakami

December
Moneyball by Michael Lewis

That makes for 15 books including 2 that were abandoned midway through either because of the crushing complexity (Against the Day) or because of their horrid writing and repetition (ahem, Most Human Human). I read fewer books than I did last year, but I partially attribute that to having read a fewer longer, more complex novels (like 1Q84) and to reading quite a bit more essays and articles (thanks in no small part to the continued excellence of the iPhone app Instapaper and my New Yorker subscription). To that point, I’ve already read 3 books this year, though these are the waning days of winter, where there’s little to do aside from stare at screens and sit on the couch. 

Nonetheless, these totals seem paltry and make me feel like yet another illiterate American. I would find it interesting to tally the articles I’ve read, but I think it would be a rather thankless and daunting task. Here’s to doing better this year!