Hello, & favorite books from 2013

Here's a picture of a book I found. (via)

Hi. I made this blog mainly to have a place to post about books, since I read quite a few and tend to have thoughts about them that I'd like to put out into the world. I used to write book reviews at The Blue Bookcase, but after awhile the system we had there felt constricting and now I just want to venture out on my own. I suck at coming up with cool/funny blog names, and I refuse to use any sort of alliteration or pun so we're just going to go with a bland one for now.

To start, here's a quick list of my favorite books I read in 2013. I work at an independent bookstore and read a lot of new releases, mostly literary fiction. I read 73 total books in 2013, which honestly was not up to my usual standards and thus a little disappointing. I'd say though that the percentage of books I absolutely adored was much higher in 2013 than in 2012, so that's good I guess.

Dirty Love by Andre Dubus III
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsid Hamin
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Best American Essays 2013 ed. Cheryl Strayed
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish by David Rakoff
Tales of Burning Love by Louise Erdrich
Taipei by Tao Lin
The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
The Life of Objects by Susanna Moore
Shrapnel by William Wharton
How the French Invented Love by Marilyn Yalom
This is How by Augusten Burroughs
How to Create the Perfect Wife by Wendy Moore
All That Is by James Salter
Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked by James Lasdun
Elders by Ryan McIlvain
Mad Girl's Love Song by Andrew Wilson
Artful by Ali Smith
Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham

I'm not going to link to Amazon, sorry. Support your local independent bookstore. Also, I would suggest googling the title if you want to learn more about any of the books I mention here. There are a plethora of bright, thoughtful book bloggers out there who have blogged about all of these books. There's some really crappy book blogs too, obviously, but they are easy to sort through. It's fun and cool when you find a blogger you like whose tastes you share. Book bloggers bring personality and character to the reading community, and there is lots of fun to be had on their sites.

I've been meaning to go back to book blogging for awhile, but honestly what's held me back is the fact that I'm not super confident in my writing. I think that blogging regularly will give me a chance to improve.

I hope you'll keep up with me and comment on my posts. Recommending and talking about books is one of my favorite things to do, and I hope we can have lots of fun discussions together. Here's a link to my goodreads, twitter, and I'm also on edelweiss.

See you soon!