My Year Of Reading Wirelessly: The Sequel

Another year of reading wirelessly has come to an end. I just heard a few days ago that the Barnes and Noble at Westside Pavillion is closing and despite the fact that I haven't bought a book there in years, I was sad to hear it. B&N isn't exactly a small bookstore but clearly even giant like them can't compete against Amazon and of course, the ebook. While I absolutely love ebooks and being able to read on my phone has given me the chance to ingest books at an amazing rate, I can't imagine a world without real books and real bookstores. I used to spend hours browsing store shelves for new titles. Now I see how much Sofie loves books already and I dream of the day when we can browse the shelves together.

This time last year I was about halfway through "War and Peace" when I made my list, sadly I never got around to picking it up again, though I would like to at some point. I started on a cyber-punk/sci-fi kick that led me in a whole other direction this year. So without further ado, I present my reading list from 2011. Once again all read entirely on my phone. An asterisk denotes my favorites.

1. "Bossypants" by Tina Fey
2. "Neuromancer" by William Gibson
3. "Zodiac" by Neal Stephenson*
4. "The Leftovers" by Tom Perrotta
5. "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness
6. "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson*
7. "Jasper Jones" by Craig Silvey*
8. "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson (200 pages in)

A Year of Reading Wirelessly In Review

As the year winds down I thought it was about time that I looked back on the challenge I gave myself to spend a year reading "wirelessly", in other words only ebooks and all read entirely on my iPhone. The "year" is actually a year and change as I began keeping track late 2009.

When the ebook format came out I was skeptical, as a lifetime avid reader I love the feel of a book in hand but when I got my Kindle I quickly became a convert and then after having Sofie being able to entertain myself for long stretches in a chair became key and so I turned to the Kindle for iPhone app and never looked back. Of course there will still be books I'll read in print someday, especially since there are many titles not yet available as ebooks, but I can safely say this bookworm is happy to usher in the era of electronic reading with open arms.

Without further ado, I present the books I've read this year (and change) all via Kindle for iPhone (the starred ones were my favorites):

1. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
2. Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
4. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen*
5. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld*
6. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy*
7. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte*
8. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte*
9. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
10. Turn Of The Screw by Henry James
11. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
12. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson*
13. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
14. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (currently halfway through)*