Sigh. I love this time of year. I love it because you can be as cornball as you want but for now that’s just business as usual. This is when the Hallmark Channel becomes my go-to channel, sappy books pack my reading list, and I might watch the evening news to see stories about people being good to each other.
Another thing I love about this time of year are The Lists. Everyone -and I mean everyone!- seems to have a Best of 2008 list for everything: books, movies, television shows, Broadway shows, songs, albums, famous and not-as-famous people, events, and so on and so on and so on… Fun, right?
I particularly love the endless list of books-what a surprise!- and I thought maybe other people might want to see a few of these lists too. Do you? If you said “yes” you’re in luck, ’cause here they come:
Washington Post’s Best of 2008
New York Times Magazine’s Top Ten
Library Journal’s Best Books 2008
plus School Library Journal’s Best Books 2008
L.A. Times Favorite Books 2008
NPR’s Best Books of 2008
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s comforting -and intimidating at the same time- to know that there are more lists out there and more lists still being written. This will be my challenge to you now, think back over the year and see if you can come up with a list of your own top five or top ten favorite books. You can post your list in the comments, then we can see what’s what. I’m pondering what might be on my list already…
—Stacey
Read it or Weep 