Any fiction?

Finally someone is willing to overthrow the marketing-driven "best of" list of just this year's releases, which doesn't accord with any real reader's program, but seems instead to be calculated to do nothing more than promotional work for publishers. People read the books that interest them when they interest them. Those Gould books were written thirty years ago and more, but they still have the power to open minds and spark ideas (though they are not without their critics; but the arguments are abstruse, while the books are alive).

If there were place and time, I'd love to discuss the many forms of gold and beauty contained in each of these books.

Let us know if the place and time appear.

Also, your choice of painting shouldn't go unremarked. Not only is it striking and beautiful, but it seems to me that the use of light is somehow an appropriate representation of not just the themes that recur in your posts, but also the way you think; the subjects and manner of your thought. A world of darkness is illuminated by a crippling bolt of light.

5 and 9 were cool.

Other than that, most stuff sucked.

@4, you have not read a single one of these books.

For a variety of reasons I didn't get to read as many books as I hoped this year. I'd love to see you dish on these books.

We're honored to be on this list (even at #10!). Thanks, Charles.