It's early January, so it must be time for my year-end roundup of how I spent my time this year. This was the third year I've kept track of all the books I read and all the movies I watch. This year I also made sure to include concerts, plays, and TV on DVD. But today's entry is only going to discuss books, because there is so much to say about them.

I read 37 books in 2007. That's up from 22 in 2006, but still shy of my personal (recorded) high of 47 in 2005. I like to see if I can end up with more books on my list than movies, but this year I didn't quite make it -- I watched 46 movies in 2007. I attribute that entirely to the fact that we signed up for Blockbuster Total Access last January, and during the three-week trial period when I had unlimited access to as many movies as I could watch, as fast as I could watch them, I watched 12 movies. Subtract those anomalous movies and the book list is longer. For the record, I did consume more books than movies in 2006 and 2005. In 2008, I've made it a firm goal to do so, and I've already completed one and have 5 books already checked out from the library ready to be read.

The 2007 list includes 23 nonfiction titles and 14 fiction titles. That's a little surprising, since I think I kind of try to keep things even.

Here, then, is the complete list, with a short description of each book, and the date on which I finished reading it. This does not include books, like Plague Dogs by Richard Adams, that I started but just couldn't get into enough to finish (though I admit the prospect of putting a book on my list kept me going through some books that I otherwise might have set down). An asterisk indicates that I had read that particular book before at some point in my life.

1. The World Is Flat (Release 2.0) by Thomas L. Friedman (1/16/07). This is one of those popular businessy change-your-way-of-thinking books. The main premise is that the Information Age has globalized everything, and businesses and individuals are going to have to learn how to work in that kind of an environment. The most interesting fact I remember is that most consumer help hotlines for American companies are staffed in India these days.

2. Forrest Gump by Winston Groom (1/20/07). A rare case where the book is clearly not as good as the movie. Forrest is portrayed as just plain stupid, rather than endearingly innocent. He has a lot of weird non-sequitur adventures that seem pointless and strange, such as going into space with an orangutan and running into Raquel Welch when she's naked. Don't bother.

3. Isaiah For Today by Mark E. Petersen (1/22/07). Surprisingly and disappointingly, the only LDS title on the list for the entire year. I read this book on GospeLink 2001 (my old database of LDS titles that doesn't work on my new Windows Vista computer) as part of my preparation for a year studying Isaiah. It was helpful as a background and history lesson to provide context for the scriptures.

4. Ice Cream: A Delicious History by Marilyn Powell (~1/30/07). A nice little book about ice cream through the ages. I can't remember much that I learned here, but it was enjoyable while I did it.

5. The Language of Names by Anne Bernays and Justin Kaplan (2/6/07). I thought this would be a fascinating look into naming culture from a perspective different than that of Laura Wattenberg, author of the best book I read in 2005. But when it's boiled down, it ended up being just a screed about how married women shouldn't take their husband's name.

6. Our Undemocratic Constitution by Sanford Levinson (~2/15/07). I read a review of this in a legal magazine and was intrigued. Levinson, a law professor, argues that we should abolish the current U.S. Constitution and replace it with a whole new one becuase the current one has all sorts of problems with it. I didn't agree with the majority of what he had to say, but he said it very clearly and convincingly. He pointed out several difficulties in the current system that I hadn't previously thought about. A good read for anyone who cares about the Constitution, whether you want to abolish it or not.

7. The Piano Book by Larry Fine (3/8/07). Definitely the most unusual book on the list. This is essential reading for anyone who is interested in buying a piano. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to buy a piano without having read at least the relevant portions of this book. However, unless you're a real big fat piano geek, there's no reason at all to read it if you're not in the market for a piano. I firmly believe that the fact that I read this book got me a better deal on a better piano than I otherwise would have gotten. Just having it in my possession when I went piano shopping or mentioning it in passing to a piano salesman (they all call it "Larry Fine's book") worked wonders for my credibility and bargaining power.

8. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (3/15/07). I finally got around to reading what many consider Lewis' best work on Christianity. There were several inspiring passages, but I think I got hung up more on the parts where I disagree with him doctrinally. No matter how many times he's quoted in LDS General Conference, C.S. Lewis was very much not a Mormon.

9. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (4/9/07). Chock full of swashbuckling, derring-do, double-crossing, treachery, swordplay, and suspense, this novel was much better than I had expected. I wonder if 18th-Century France was really like this. A guy could get killed for saying something uncomplimentary about the col0r of another guy's horse. My only question: If they fought so exclusively with their swords, why are they called Musketeers?

10. The Michelangelo Method by Kenneth Schuman and Ronald Paxton (4/16/07). Such a forgettable book that I have forgotten just about everything it says. It's some gimmick pop psychology book, where they encourage us to pattern our lives after the way Michelangelo lived his in order to unlock our creative potential or something like that. I didn't buy the gimmick.

11. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, Vol. 1 by Bill Watterson (4/19/07). A glorious treasure trove of sublime humor, social commentary, and some of the best watercolor-and-ink art you'll find anywhere.

12. Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne (4/25/07). Who knew that the opening to the center (or centre, if you prefer) of the Earth is in Iceland? Exactly what you'd expect from Jules Verne, this is 19th-Century sci-fi at its best.

13. A Mormon in the White House? by Hugh Hewitt (5/4/07). Although it's classified at the library as a biography of Mitt Romney, this book is really more of an argument of why Romney's Mormonism shouldn't stop him from being elected President. Hewitt, a Fox News commentator and non-Mormon, is very kind towards Romney, and he presents and refutes each of the three arguments that people are using to say that we shouldn't elect a Mormon: 1) Salt Lake will control the White House, 2) a Mormon President will validate a false religion and more people will accept it and therefore go to hell, and 3) someone stupid enough to believe the crazy stuff Mormons believe can't be smart or rational enough for the job.

14. The Pirate Hunter by Richard Zacks (5/4/07). It took me about three months to get through this highly detailed biography of the infamous pirate Captain Kidd. But wait--it exonerates him, making the case that he was not a pirate at all, but rather a misunderstood and unfortunate pirate hunter. Exceptional detail about the heyday of piracy and what life was like around the 1690s, but that exceptional detail makes it bog down often. I had a hard time maintaining my attention throughout. Would have been better if it were half as long.

15. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People* by Stephen Covey (6/14/07). How to apply gospel principles to business and everyday life. I bet if someone took the time to do everything Covey suggests and really implement his seven habits, their life would be more organized and enriching, but they'd be no fun at parties.

16. The Pelican Brief by John Grisham (7/21/07). Unbelievable coincidences, one-sided characters, and implausible plot twists make for a thrilling narrative that never lets up. In the end, I'd have to give it a thumbs-up despite its many flaws because it was so entertaining. I don't know why John Grisham's thrillers are called "legal thrillers" -- they're really crime thrillers that involve characters who happen to be lawyers (or in this case, a law student).

17. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (7/31/07). Just like everyone else in the English-speaking world. I wrote earlier about Snape.

18. What Ifs? Of American History ed. Richard Cowley (8/3/07). A series of essays by various authors imagining how history would have shaken out if certain things had happened differently. Some were more intriguing than others -- I didn't like the ones that simply pointed out how unlikely the chain of events that did happen was. I preferred the ones that supposed one little, likely thing had gone differently, and then speculated on the consequences. My favorite might have been the essay about what would have happened if a certain Confederate letter hadn't been lost and picked up on the side of the road by a Union soldier. The letter gave the Union generals enough information it may have turned the tide in the Battle of Antietam, which helped turn the tide of the whole Civil War. If that letter hadn't been lost and found, would there be 50 United States today?

19. Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card (8/25/07). Definitely the most disappointing of any Orson Scott Card book I've read. I'm always a fan of his characters and stories and style, and this being the latest installment in his excellent Ender series (though the first three books are far superior to any of the others), I expected more. I think I'll abandon Ender (except for possibly re-reading the first few books) and try out the Red Prophet series this year.

20. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (8/31/07). I had to see what all the fuss is about, and it ain't much. There are a lot of engaging and interesting anecdotes, and the overall themes are novel. This kind of book is certainly enjoyable to read, even if it doesn't change your life or your outlook thereon.

21. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (9/3/07). The only book on the list that I started and finished in the same day, I read it because it was on the bookshelf at the state park-run cabin we stayed at in the Northern Neck of Virginia on vacation. Haddon speaks very realistically and endearingly in the voice of an autistic teenager, and really drew me into his world. The plot, however, left something to be desired.

22. Visions of Jazz: The First Century by Gary Giddins (9/5/07). I bought this exhaustive history of jazz way back in 2001 and couldn't get through it, partially because of its sheer size. Ever since, it's been taunting me on my bookshelf like the Frenchman in Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail, so I finally decided to conquer it. Giddins is a masterful writer who knows just about everything there is to know about jazz. The book presents the history as a series of shortish chapters about an individual performer or composer, many of whom I had never heard of, and many of whom I got to know a lot better. The only complaint I have with it, other than its length, is the fact that it didn't come with 25 or 30 CDs so that I could actually hear all the music I was reading about.

23. The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams (~9/15/07). This work comes across more as a tribute to Douglas Adams than as an actual book that he wrote. It's made up of a lot of essays and fragments that were found on his computer when he died, but it's good Adamsian stuff. My favorite part was the cab driver who longed for the day when someone would hop in and shout, "Follow that cab!" I need to read Dirk Gently.

24. The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas (10/3/07). I thought this was a sequel to the riproaring Three Musketeers, but it only is in the loosest sense of the word. After I'd delved in and still couldn't follow all the new characters who weren't properly introduced or figured out how the characters I did know got to where they are, I turned to Wikipedia, which told me that this is only the last of many sub-books to a larger book that is a second sequel to Musketeers. So I ended up skipping hundreds of pages and about thirty or forty years of narrative history. The plot didn't grip me like it did the first time, and I say if Dumas was so sad when his Musketeers started dying that he had to spend several pages lamenting each of them, he shouldn't have killed them in the first place.

25. American Gospel by Jon Meacham (10/15/07). Unremarkable little book making an argument about the role of religion in the lives of the Founding Fathers (his argument: it wasn't that great of a role) and how our Constitution has become a sort of civil religion for us. Meh.

26. The Salem Witch Trials by Peter Charles Hoffer (10/25/07). Since I lived in Massachusetts I've wanted to read a detailed history of the Salem Witch Trials that is more fulfilling than the stories the guides tell at the various tourist traps in Salem. This might have been that book, but I was still left wanting to read something that made more of an attempt to understand why things happened as they did. The thing Hoffer did that I liked was to emphasize the role of individual choice in the goings-on. None of this was inevitable, and it's not inevitable today.

27. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (10/30/07). Great series of loosely related short stories telling the history of a futuristic robot-manufacturing company, U.S. Robots (the name of the company gives away the fact that it was written in the 50s -- a real 1990s-to-2020s company (when the book is set) would be named some crazy word like Gagza or Andrix). Asimov puts a lot of thought into his sci-fi, and this made me want to read a full-length novel by him.

28. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, Vol. 2 by Bill Watterson (11/1/07). Stupendous, euphoric, surreal, witty, hilarious, fascinating, grotesque, awe-inspiring, and just plain downright marvelous. Even Gary Larson can't compare with Bill Watterson as a complete package of perfection in comics.

29. Richistan by Robert Frank (11/5/07). This is a fascinating study of the super-rich in America today. People who buy $20,000 wristwatches and whose households are small businesses in and of themselves. It almost led me to pity these poor people who are trapped by their wealth. They even have support groups!

30. Dave Barry’s Only Travel Guide You’ll Ever Need* by Dave Barry (11/7/07). I should read more Dave Barry. Everyone should. Shelly checked this one out of the library to read while she was in the hospital and recovering from Annie's C-section, but I had to take it away from her and read it myself, because such body-rattling laughter isn't healthy for people like her who have just had their stomachs sliced open.

31. Bowls, Polls & Tattered Souls by Stewart Mandel (11/11/07). I didn't want to purchase this book (I don't generally purchase books), but the library didn't have it, so I read this one at Borders (in a couple of sittings). It's a well-written and thoughtful explanation of everything you ever wanted to know about the sorry state of college football. Reading this helped me understand why things are as they are, and why we'll alway be able to rail against something in our favorite sport, because things aren't changing anytime soon.

32. General Washington’s Christmas Farewell by Stanley Weintraub (11/14/07). A short history of a particular two-week period in Washington's life, when he resigned his commission as general at the end of the war and made his way to Mount Vernon for Christmas.

33. The Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson (~12/1/07). A hilarious and unique collection of crazy knowledge and facts disputing various things that the public allegedly believes to be true, but aren't. Learn about the chicken who lived without a head for over a month, the single biggest organism in the world (it's a fungus), and where most of the world's tigers live (the U.S.A.).

34. Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America by Jonathan Gould (12/12/07). I just recently gave a thorough review of this excellent group biography. I think what helped make it so remarkable to me was that I corrected the flaw I experienced with Visions of Jazz and listened to all of the music as I went along.

35. The Life of Our Lord by Charles Dickens (12/14/07). When the prophet recommends a book, one should read it. One of my favorite podcasts, the Classic Tales, presented this as a special episode I listened to on my iPod. Really, it's not much more than a summary of the Gospels, but Dickens inserts a few poignant commentaries about what we can learn from various episodes in the Savior's life.

36. Trust Me by John Updike (12/21/07). Everyone says Updike is a great writer, so I thought I should see for myself in this collection of short stories. Indeed, he is a great writer. He uses words to great effect to create a mood and establish the feelings of his characters. The problem is that his characters are depressed, miserable, unfaithful to spouses, and sad.

37. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (12/26/07). You know what? You could totally take Christmas right out of A Christmas Carol. It's not really about Christmas as much as it is about Christianity, and specifically the virtue of charity. Scrooge begins the book not caring about anyone but himself. As we see his transformation (which Dickens describes better than any adaptation ever could), it's caused by a realization that other people have feelings and needs that he should respect, and that he has a longing to be loved and accepted by others as well. And you know what else? The Muppet Christmas Carol uses a lot of the original language from the novel.

If I were to pick my very favorite books from among this list, I would list Calvin and Hobbes, Can't Buy Me Love, The Piano Book, A Christmas Carol, A Mormon in the White House?, and The Three Musketeers, in that order. My least favorite books would be The Language of Names, The Michelangelo Method, The Man in the Iron Mask, Forrest Gump, and Shadow Puppets, in that order.