Books I have read in 2012

Ya pretty much didn't rule the month of November.
I shaved a few weeks ago (I can't grow a good mustache, yet)
I didn't write a novel.
Though I  might have failed at National Novel Writing Month, I certainly have not failed at National Book Reading Year, which is every year.  The people that designated this National year thing looked over that fact that once you make every year National Book Reading Year, it kinda loses its meaning.  Sad.

Here's how I won National Book Reading Year:(meaning here is the books I read this year)(as far as I can remember.)(which is a good thing cuz if I don't remember reading a book, then it wasn't a good book, so thus I am saving you from even knowing the title of a book that you shouldn't read):
-Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
-The Holden Age of Hollywood by Phil Brody
-The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman
-a few other books from the library that I forgot. (just putting this down to earn my status as book worm. and I'm not lying.  I read a lot from the library in the beginning of the year when I was unemployed)
-Zombie Spaceship Wasteland by Patton Oswalt
-The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams
-After Dark by Haruki Murakami
-Dairy of a UFO Investigator
-Number9Dream by David Mitchell
-Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
-Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
-lots and lots of short stories from the Nonrequired Reading books and also Best American books.  and maybe an O. Henry award short story book I picked up at the thrift store (I might do a best short stories post once I rummage through my organic computer, a.k.a. my brain.)
-The Hot Gates by William Golding (this is only a short story, but a very good one, so I put it on the list)

 the books I re-read:
-Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (all five novels!)
-Lord of the Barnyard by Tristan Egolf
-Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
-The Last Dogfight by Martin Caidin

In Process of reading or either started reading, then somehow stopped, but will continue in the future but once I find the place where I left off, I forgot what was happening, so I pretty much have to start from the beginning.
-Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
-Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
-Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
-Ashes by Kenzo Kitakata

Book that will always and forever entertain me
-They Call Me Naughty Lola: Personal ads in the London Review of Books (thank you bargain bin at Zia records and thank you Christine for taking way too long trying on clothes at Buffalo Exchange)

and if I had to rank the books, including the partially read, here are my top 5 and one short story
1. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-  all 5 Novels that I own in a fancy black hardcover that I bought from Barnes and Noble, one of the few purchases from them this year.  These 5 books, which I will eternally consider one large book cut into 5 novels by evil publishing companies hungry for deadlines, will always be at the top of my list.
2. Ready Player One
3. The Visible Man
4. After Dark
5. Microserfs (only a third of the way in, but I put this on here because I just discovered this author and I am excited so far by the way he wrote this book.
 and for the short story
*River of Toys by Edward Allen-appears in The Best American Short Stories 1990
     -I read this story before I even bought the book, and I was lucky to even have seen it.  I only saw it because my friend wasn't finished shopping so I looked over the books for a second time.  That's when I saw this book and I decided to buy it because I was born in the same year, but my friend still wasn't finished browsing in the few seconds it took to make this decision, so I proceeded to read the first story (standing up, not sitting on the dirty thrift shop floors, if that matters), which was River of Toys, and for the first time a long time, I was blown out of the water by this story.  It may not do the same for you, but for me it was amazing, especially this one part, which needs hardly any introduction, except this whole story is this guy remembering his childhood neighborhood:
   "There was this one girl.  I wanted marry her. I wanted to tell her, in complete seriousness, "We couldn't be more wrong for each other; we have nothing in common but the leaves and the heat and the line of a crooked smile and the air like an umbrella of moisture and stars you can't see, domed above my dreams of a relationship that I say will work because we both know it never could; and so by the same implacable gravity that draws the small water in its bends and meanderings through subdivisions where the roots of trees haven't yet grown out of their burlap coverings and the kids play tag into the night from yard to yard, by that same law we shall be married, in the month of may.""

and I guess that is my passage of the year.

but now that this year is over, I need new things to read, so feel free to drop a title and author in the comments, and I will read it next year.

so long until next year, I am going to hibernate and work and read and celebrate Christmas for the rest of the year.

see ya, that is if the world doesn't end on December 21st, and if it doesn't then I will celebrate by maybe selling back things I bought for cheap from people that seriously thought the world was going to end.