Have You Read a Single Book on The New York Times “10 Best Books of 2011” List?

Todd St. John

Me? Not one. Does that make me some kind of idiot? Funny thing, I probably read half a dozen books a year…so I’d like to consider myself a “reader“. That’s fair, right? Bet I’ve read more books than that jerk in a book cover jacket you see up top. How many books do you have to read to consider yourself a reader? Serious question. What’s the qualification? Like, I own two surfboards and a wetsuit, and I go out surfing anywhere from 5 to 30 times a year depending on the year. My brother-in-law surfs twice a day. He’s a surfer. I’m a guy who surfs every once in a while.

So, a couple questions, lobsters: what makes someone a reader? Have you read a book on this list? If so, which one(s)? Here’s the list, minus commentaries, via New York Times.

Todd St. John

THE ART OF FIELDING – By Chad Harbach. Little, Brown & Company, $25.99.

11/22/63 – By Stephen King. Scribner, $35.

SWAMPLANDIA! – By Karen Russell. Alfred A. Knopf, cloth, $24.95; Vintage Contemporaries, paper, $14.95.

TEN THOUSAND SAINTS – By Eleanor Henderson. Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers, $26.99.

THE TIGER’S WIFE – By Téa Obreht. Random House, cloth, $25; paper, $15.

NONFICTION

ARGUABLY – Essays. By Christopher Hitchens. Twelve, $30.

THE BOY IN THE MOON – A Father’s Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son. By Ian Brown. St. Martin’s Press, $24.99.

MALCOLM X – A Life of Reinvention. By Manning Marable. Viking, $30.

THINKING, FAST AND SLOW – By Daniel Kahneman. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30.

A WORLD ON FIRE – Britain’s Crucial Role in the American Civil War. By Amanda Foreman. Random House, $35.

Anybody? Anybody?

-bp

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