My Year in Review - Reading

Before I get into what I read this year, a few other things I enjoyed this year:

Favorite Art Exhibit Off the Top of My Head - Jeff Koons in Chicago. I don't think everything he does is genius, but a lot of it is and this was an engaging exhibit. His large scale pieces are wonderful.
Favorite Museum of the Year - Saatchi Gallery in London. I really like the new location a lot. There was something about the flow of the galleries that I really liked. The openness lent itself to a variety of mediums and while I thought the current exhibit of contemporary Chinese art was alright, I thought everything flowed very well. Really the antithesis of the Tate Modern, which I've always felt has been laid out horribly.

Podcast Listening this Year:
This American Life - Still the best thing on the radio, even with less new episodes there were still some wonderful ones, especially the very timely ones on the economy and the election.
Radio Lab - I don't listen to it as much as I should, but one of the most engaging shows around.
All Songs Considered - Bob Boilen is a good bit hipper than Nic Harcourt, which is nice, although he still has his old dude moments. This is still a great podcast and a nice chance to hear new stuff now that I don't have an endless stream to review from WMUC. Their show on the 80s was especially amusing.
Sound Opinions - This features the two music critics for the two Chicago papers. Their interview format is occasionally more brown nosing than actual conversation, but they're unafraid to talk about things very mainstream to very obscure.

Magazines I read or didn't read this year:

Stuff I read pretty religiously:
New York Review of Books
Believer

A Magazine I should have read more regularly than I did:
Wire

Quarterly or Bi-Anually Stuff That I will read more of as time permits:
McSweeny's
n+1
Granta

Stuff I Just Started Subscribing To:
Atlantic
Harper's

Stuff I borrow from my parents and read more than some of the stuff that I actually subscribe to:
New Yorker
Economist

And the books I read by the numbers:
58 Books Read
7 Graphic Novels
31 Books from the Library
4 Issues of Granta (Yes these are books)
12 Non-Fiction Books (that were also non-Graphic Novels)
39 New Authors I hadn't read before

And in no particular order my favorite books I've read this year:
John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany
Coramac McCarthy - Blood Meridian
Michael Pollan - In Defense of Food
Jonathan Letham - Motherless Brooklyn
Zadie Smith - White Teeth
Alison Bechdel - Fun Home
Kazuo Ishiguro - When We Were Orphans
John Updike - Rabbit, Run
Douglas Coupland - Girlfriend in a Coma
Roddy Doyle - A Star Called Henry/Oh Play That Thing