RobAroundBookLists: Amazon.com’s ‘Best Books of 2008′

So Fridays are RobAroundBookLists day and I know today is Sunday but NanNoWriMo is all time-consuming and I have let things slip very slightly on here. I know it’s no excuse and I’ll try not to let it happen again, so here’s Friday’s delayed-for-a-good-reason RobAroundBookLists feature:

I tend to concentrate mainly on ‘all time favourite’ booklists in this weekly feature, and while that’s all well and good, there’s not much focus or interest for the more contemporary reader. So ever wary of wishing to satisfy all of my readers I thought I’d address that shortfall and point you to Amazon.com’s recently posted ‘Best Books of 2008″

This is an an interesting list, not least because it combines all formats and genres, fiction or non-fiction, into an eclectic ‘editor’s choice’ list of 100 best books published during 2008. As one would expect from the .com version of Amazon, the list is wholly tailored for an American audience, so one or two of the recommendations are not particularly suited to to a wider international readership, but it’s still worth checking the list out. Highlights i.e. the titles soon to be added to my own wishlist, include:

• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – Not a title I’d normally go for but a lot of people are talking about this lately, including Bart over at his Bookshelf who called this ‘one of the absolute favourite reads of the year’, and I’m not really hearing a bad word said about it.
• How Fiction Works by James Woods – Which looks to be a fascinating exploration by Woods on the mechanics of fiction and what makes a work of fiction …err…work.
• The Boat by Nam Le – The synopsis for this novel alone, makes it looks very interesting.
• The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston – I’m not usually a fan of ‘true crime’ but there’s something about the setting in which the grisly murders of this serial killer take place, that make this a ‘wanna read’ title.
• Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith (eds.) – This is title I’m most curious about. Readers of SMITH magazine (some famous, some not so) were asked to describe their lives in only six words, and this is the collected best of those responses.

That’s just a few of the titles that stood out for me. There were many more but I’d end up copying the list verbatim if I kept going so I’ll leave it at that. Any titles on the list that really interest you? Have you read any of the books on the list and considered them to be an all-time favourite? I’d love to hear your thoughts.