Reading makes you a better writer. I think we can all agree on that. A couple of years ago, feeling I don’t always read enough or a diverse enough selection of things, I decided to copy Jane Smiley and read (and blog about) 100 different books. These posts are not about whether the books are good or bad, but rather what I learned from them. (In some cases what I’ve learned is that it’s not always easy to cough up a blog post, but that’s neither here nor there.)

The list:

1. The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
2. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
3. Bitter Grounds, by Sandra Benitez
4. Little Children, by Tom Perrotta
5. Howard’s End, by EM Forster
6. The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen
7. The New Yorkers, by Catherine Schine
8. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
9. The Book of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill
10. The Hatbox Letters, by Beth Powning
11. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
12. Saint Maybe, by Anne Tyler
13. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
14. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
15. Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins