Now it's time for the qualitative post where I take that list of 47 books and tell you which ones I liked the best and which ones you should read too. It's a lot harder to make a "Worst" list for books than it is for movies, because books take so much longer to read, if it's bad, they're not worth the investment. Some of the bad books I read this year don't appear on the list I posted yesterday because I didn't finish them. The ones that come to mind are Charles Dickens's Bleak House (too long, too dull, too British) and Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (simply too profane). That said, here are my favorites and least favorites of the books I read in 2005.

The Worst Books:

1. The Iliad, by Homer. I can see why this thing is revered as classic literature, but it was a drudge to read (or, in my case, listen to). It's just full of a lot of violent images of people's helmets being cloven in two, you're expected to know everything about Greek mythology before you begin, Achilles is a total selfish prick, and much to my surprise and dismay, the book doesn't even cover the two most famous and most interesting events of the Trojan War: the abduction of Helen and the Trojan Horse. I'm all about being well-read, and I suppose I'm a better person for having slogged through this, but I wouldn't wish The Iliad on anyone.

2. Childhood, by Bill Cosby. I reviewed this book on my blog in March when I read it. My main gripe is just with Cosby's over-the-top/stream-of-consciousness writing style, as well as his pointless anecdotes. Not really worth the short amount of time I spent reading it.

3. Legally Blonde, by Amanda Brown. Fabulous movie, stupid book. In this version, Elle Woods is truly an airhead, not a misunderstood genius. And she's mean-spirited to people who oppose her throughout the story. I couldn't like her, even if I did imagine that she looked like Reese Witherspoon. Plus, it's set at Stanford Law School, an obviously inferior place.

Runner-up: The Carousel, by Richard Paul Evans.

The Best Books:

1. The Baby Name Wizard, by Laura Wattenberg. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that out of the 47 books I read this past year, the book that I enjoyed the most, the book that surprised me the most, the book that fascinated me the most, the book I wanted to talk to all of my friends about the most, and the book that changed my perspective on life the most was a baby name book. But, as I've explained before, it's more of a scientific study of names than a list of names. It's great reading for anyone, whether they're thinking of naming a child in the near future or not. In fact, this book did not specifically help me and Shelly pick Elise as our baby's name. Rather, it just made us more savvy about names. Nowadays, when I am wandering around in a store and see a display of litte kid keychains with names on them, I stop and ask, "Kristen? Do these people know anything about names? There are no 5-year-old Kristens in the world anymore! Who are they trying to sell these things to?" Wattenberg's blog is the only one I follow the regularly that isn't written by someone I know personally, and I now consider myself a name expert.

2. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, and Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I listened to these two books on audiobook in rapid succession, and therefore found a lot to compare between the two. So they're kind of inseparable in my mind now, as weird as that might seem. They're both about a superhuman creature who is misunderstood by the society he finds himself in, and about how society should treat its members. I should have written more about these books soon after I read them. As far as the classic literature that I read this year, these two books take the cake. If you think you know the stories of Frankenstein and Tarzan (especially if you think the monster's name is Frankenstein), you should read these books. I very well might read them again.

3. The first two-thirds of Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond. Although it bogs down in its last few chapters telling you intimate stories of tribal culture that you don't care about, the first two-thirds of this book were a fascinating romp through the history of the world. I've never even really thought about the question of why it was that Europeans conquered America using African slaves, rather than Africans conquering Europe with American Indian slaves. But Diamond presents this tantalizing question, and then gives a simple, fascinating, and satisfactory answer. Read this book to understand why the inherent behavior patterns of zebras and the genetic characteristics of strawberries determined the fate of nations. I couldn't help but talk to Shelly about what I'd read each day on the train when I got home.

4. Cod, by Mark Kurlansky. Another weird choice, but this actually goes along with my feelings about Guns, Germs, and Steel. This is a book about how one species of fish determined the fates of nations. Or rather, how nations changed their course because of their desire for one species of fish. It's history, it's biology, it's even (and I think this is a little too much) a cookbook. I had no idea cod was such a factor in the American Revolution. If only there had been a Boston Cod Party.

Also highly recommended: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, Clinton and Me by Mark Katz, Big Fish by Daniel Wallace, By the Hand of Mormon by Terryl Givens, and The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp (but only if you've got a newborn).