Fudgin' It and My Best Books of 2011

So. It's been a while since I've posted. Seventy-six days, to be exact. But, I'm here now. With only eight days left of 2011, I have decided to post my annual “Best Books” List. Without further ado:

. . .

I command you to read this book. READ IT!

I lied. I’m going to add some more “ado” before I reveal the list. This year’s list has an important backstory that needs to be told. And, besides, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged; I feel the need to type more than what is necessary (scroll to the bottom for the official list, if you must).

Like most other years, which book that I was going to choose to be number one was evident the moment I read it. It was actually January, early in Reading Season, that I first read and fell in love with Please Ignore Vera Dietz. It’s one the best I have ever read, and it achieved the great honor of being number one on my personal best book list this year. 

So, number was easy-peasy. I knew eleven months before the end of the year what it was going to be. The other books on list, however, were . . . not so easy to choose. On the journey to creating the list, I lied, cheated, and broke promises. And I fudged it.

Fudgin’ It, a List of Last-minute Decisions and Half-Hearted Efforts (etc.)

Length: Last year my list was twenty-one books long. Yes, an odd number, I agree. This year I struggled to decide if I should put a cap on how many books should be on the list. Should I add as many books as my wee heart desires? Should I continue adding until I fill up a page? Should I set an exact number, like, say, ten, and stop there? With no reasonable answer, I decided late Tuesday night that exactly fifteen books should be on the list. No more, no less. I didn’t even really look at which books I had already had on my twenty-two books long rough draft. I just copied the first fifteen and dumped them into a new Word doc. I made a few rearrangements, but I refused to make the list longer.

Doubles: In previous years I made up the rule “Only one book per series, per year.” This year, that rule transformed into “Only one book per author, per year.” John Green, you’re an amazing author. You truly are (I wrote a whole post on you). But I read all five of your books this year, and as much as I loved them all, I couldn’t put all of them on the list. If I did, then you would claim an entire third of the list. Sadly, that’s not fair to the rest of the books I read this year.

Second Place: Second place can get a bad rap sometimes. I mean, yeah, it’s not first, but it’s still silver. It’s worth something. I value my second place book almost as much as I value my first place book. This year I struggled deciding who should receive the honor of second place. I had three candidates: the book that actually received second, #3, and #4. I tried creating a three-way tie, but that would mean the list would only be thirteen books long.

2011?: OK, not all books on the list were published in 2011, but all books on the list were read in 2011.

The Rear End: So, as made clear by the previous nugget of fudgin’ (hmm . . . that sounds...funny?), books one through four are clearly life-long favorites, and they fully deserve the position on the list that they have received. The other eleven books, however? Eh, I just threw them together. Don’t get me wrong, all books on the list deserve to be on the list. It's just, I don’t know if they’re truly in their “right” position on the list. Looking at the finalized list now, I wonder if #5 and #7 should switch spots. But then I think, Is #7 really better than #6? And, But does #6 truly belong near the top four? Do you get what I’m saying? I could make so many changes and never be certain that it’s perfect (a chronic illness amongst us writers). So I just arranged the books in a manner that I though seemed right-ish, and then I just let it be.

. . . 

Well, I think that’s it for this episode of Jacob’s Mistakes. Let’s turn it over to the moment we’ve all been waiting for! The unveiling of The Best Books of 2011! [crowd goes wild]

BEST BOOKS OF 2011

1.  Please Ignore Vera Dietz written by A.S. King

2.  Looking for Alaska written by John Green

3.  Matched written by Ally Condie

4.  Wintergirls written by Laurie Halse Anderson

5.  Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children written by Ransom Riggs

6.  Nothing written by Janne Teller

7.  Divergent written by Veronica Roth

8.  Where She Went written by Gayle Forman

9.  Uglies written by Scott Westerfeld

10. Delirium written by Lauren Oliver

11. The Giver written by Lois Lowry

12. Okay For Now written by Gary D. Schmidt

13. Shine written by Lauren Myracle

14. Hate List written by Jennifer Brown

15. Olive’s Ocean written by Kevin Henkes

And by the covers:

Enjoy!

Look for more reviews soon, but don’t expect them. Weird advice, I know, but with the holidays and school, I have no idea when I’ll update next.

Merry Christmas,

Happy Hanukkah,

Happy Kwanzaa,

and Happy Whatever Holiday I May Have Forgotten!

– Jacob