From the Top 10 Archives - Jen's 10 Favorite Books of 2005

Once again, I'm looking back at one of my old top 10 book lists - today we'll re-visit my 10 favorite books from 2005.  As a reminder, that means books I read in 2005, not necessarily books published that year.

Here's my list from 2005, in alphabetical order by author's last name:


P.S. I Love You - Cecelia Ahern
The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell
Pope Joan - Donna Wolfolk Cross
Something Borrowed - Emily Giffin
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hoseini
Little Children - Tom Perotta
The Egyptologist - Arthur Phillips
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters - Elisabeth Robinson
Enchanted, Inc. - Shanna Swendson

How Does This List Hold Up Over Time?

This list actually has held up pretty well.  Some of these were more memorable than others, but I actually remember pretty much all of these books, which is not always the case.  The only one I really don't remember is The Rule of Four, but I at least still remember that it was basically a more intellectual Da Vinci Code.  I also have recommended a number of these books many times in the years since 2005 and continue to do so.  On the other hand, there is no standout book on here that I would for sure include on a best of the best of all of my top 10 lists.  But I'd say the overall quality of these books is still pretty high.

Genres


This list has 3 chick lit books (P.S. I Love You, Something Borrowed, and Enchanted Inc.), with the latter two still being among my favorites in the genre as recommended in my chick lit post.  There are also two historical fiction books (Pope Joan and The Egyptologist), and one thriller (The Rule of Four).  The rest are pretty much all contemporary fiction (unless you count The Kite Runner as historical fiction in which case there are three historical fiction books).

Popularity

The Kite Runner was a huge best seller and one of those books that pretty much everyone I knew read and loved.  It has more than 2 million ratings on Goodreads.  My Sister's Keeper, Something Borrowed, and P.S. I Love You were also read by a lot of people.  The most obscure of these seems to be The Egyptologist with only 3,355 ratings on Goodreads.

Other Random Stuff

Clearly at this stage of my life, Jodi Picoult was my favorite author, as this list marks her 4th appearance on the list in the first 7 years that I compiled a list.  However, although I have continued to read most (though not yet quite all) of her books, this was also her last appearance on the list to date.

The highest rated of these books on Goodreads is The Kite Runner, with an average rating of 4.27.  The lowest rated is The Rule of Four with an average rating of 3.22

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Note that I'll give all these posts the tag "Top 10," so you should be able to click on the label  "Top 10" at the bottom of the post and see all my other Top 10 posts.  And if you just want to see all my old Top 10 lists now without waiting, you can also click through to my Goodreads profile - I have a separate shelf for each of my old lists.