Booking Through Thursday 12-20: Best of 2007

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  1. What fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
    (Older books that you read for the first time in 2007 don’t count.)
  2. What non-fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
    (Older books that you read for the first time in 2007 don’t count.)
  3. And, do “best of” lists influence your reading?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

I’m really not qualified to answer the second question at all, and barely able to address the first one. Since I’d rather buy books than borrow them from the library, I tend to wait until they come out in paperback before I read them, which means I rarely read anything in its original year of publication. I read no hardcover nonfiction at all – I bought Stephen Colbert’s book for my husband as a birthday gift, but haven’t borrowed it from him yet. I read a grand total of four novels actually published in 2007:

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Harry Potter’s final installment belongs at the top of that list as my “best new book” for 2007.

As for the last question – yes, those “best of” lists do influence my reading to some extent; more than the bestseller lists usually do, as it happens. I’ll check out some of the titles that show up on multiple lists, since that tells me there may actually be a consensus that they’re good; if they sound interesting, I’ll add them to a list of books I need to watch for when they come out in paperback – next year. Amazon’s Book Blog has posted a very useful roundup of links to various lists that have been published online so far this month, but there are probably even more lists to come.

Head on over to today’s BTT post to find out what other players nominated for their best books of 2007!

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5 comments

  1. Hello Florinda,

    Wonder if you would like to do a tag? It is at my blog. 🙂

    Your profile said you are too old for blogging? How so? I have seen grandmotherly and grandfatherly folks who blog and are enjoying themselves?

    Serena
    ChatnChill

  2. I sometimes glance at best sellers lists, but they interest me very little. The “best of” lists tend to be more worthwhile, I think. That’s just me though. 🙂

    I do hope I get to read A Thousand Splendid Suns next year. I don’t think I’ll be able to fit it in this year like I wanted. 🙁

  3. Serena – Thanks for the tag! I left a comment on your blog about it, since I did this meme very recently.

    I’m really not TOO old (43), but since many people think of the Internet as a kids’ playground, I made that comment in my profile. I’ve been meeting all ages online, truly.

    Literary Feline – I would have waited till 2008 (paperback) to read A Thousand Splendid Suns if my book club hadn’t picked it in the fall :-).

  4. i thought that i’d not read a lot of 2007 releases – but i do get most of my books from the library … we did read two of the same ones (Harry Potter and Nineteen Mintues).

  5. Alisonwonderland – I think I’ve gotten so used to “waiting for the paperback” that I hadn’t thought about the fact I’m reading most books at least a year after first publication. I was surprised I’d even read four 2007 books in 2007!