NYT Notable 100

The New York Times posted their 100 Notable Books of 2011 this week. I’m a fan of the accompanying graphic.

For some reason, I’ve allowed the NYT Notable 100 to be my annual yardstick to measure my year’s reading against. As I’ve noted in previous years, the list has become:

…a touchstone of sorts for this blog, since the annual notable books list is semi-responsible for our beginnings. After reading the 2004 list, I was surprised at how few of the books on the list I had ever heard of. I e-mailed the list to a few friends that were also avid readers with similar results. We collectively resolved to start paying better attention to printed reviews, to this new-fangled blogosphere that the kids were all talking about back then, and to the recommendations of our local independent booksellers. Two months later, the idea had somehow morphed into this blog, which will soon begin its [eighth!] year.

It’s generally an annual recipe for heartbreak. This year I’ve read eight of the fiction titles and zero of the non-fiction titles with a couple more sitting in the to read stack. Next year!