A Wormbook Year: 15 Notable Posts Of 2008

January: Even though I was contemplating getting rid of books, I still shared three favorite bookstores to visit. Unfortunately, I didn't get to any of these in 2008... maybe next year.

February: Save Ferris: When bad covers happen to good books.

March: Should memoirs be fact-checked? Oh, Margaret Seltzer, I hope you enjoyed your 15 minutes this year. James Frey's first known novel got a little more attention, but the gangland life that wasn't led so many people to disavow memoirs in general. (Not me, though.)

April: I thought I was being funny on the first, but my post about a frustrating experience with public library e-books was and is my top traffic generator to this blog. Even a NY Public Library representative came over to comment on it. It's good to know I'm not alone! But I haven't tried to check out another e-book recently -- just haven't had time.

May: Still disproportionately proud of my all-D.R. cast for THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO, the movie. Fun fact: After I finished this book I lent it to my mom, whose response to it was to plan a trip to the Dominican Republic in 2009. If you've read the book, you will understand how funny that is. So I'm probably going there next year, and I hope it will be as little like Oscar Wao's as possible.

June: This was my first month on "Talk of the Town"! If you had asked me in January whether 2008 was the year I would make my Big Radio Debut I would have scoffed, but I'm glad it's worked out so far and I look forward to more air time in '09.

July: "Ainslie Copper" prompts me to muse on how book reviewers get their work done. If I were ever in a position where I could interview someone who, say, regularly contributes to the New York Times Book Review, I would ask them about preparation and their own methods for assessing their fitness on a topic. (Or perhaps one of the editors would be better, since they can speak to how they match writers to review books.) I wouldn't say I was less serious about book reviewing when I began, but I did much more of it in '08 than in years previous.

August: Speaking of Frey, I read his bad book this month but also a great book about which you are all tired of hearing.

September: Now that it's been three months since I read it, I think Joseph O'Neill's NETHERLAND is rated just right.

October: We weren't even calling it a recession back then, but I explored some frugal indulgences I liked in honor of the book of the same name.

November: In honor of a personal and a business trip, I read on the road -- two times. And yet neither time was I able to correctly predict how many books I would get through on my trip, a pattern that seems to be repeating itself over this vacation. I'm cooking up an equation, but I'll get to that later.

December: Well, there was the "Revolutionary Road" Hype Train, but I finally had an Unbookening of which to be proud.