8. Sarah Ruhl "Dead Man's Cell Phone"

7. Richard Greenberg "Take Me Out"

Doing a buck in the latest drop:

"'Eileen Myles Reads You Lucky Ducks Some Poems'"

6. Jerry Saltz "Seeing Out Loud"

5. David Lindsay-Abaire "Rabbit Hole"

4. David Mamet "Glengarry Glen Ross"

3. Erik Larson "The Devil in the White City"

2. Anne Carson "If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho"

1. Joan Retallack "Memnoir"

...and sometimes "Single Ladies"

No favorite book this year. While I had a lot more time to read, I spent much of 2008 working on a new book and perversely didn't get to many of the novels you would expect to find on a list of this kind (see "2666," "Home," "The End," "A Mercy," the-started-then-stopped [because of moving] "Netherland").

Plus pretty much everything I encountered, book-wise, film-wise, clothing-wise, otherwise was just playing catch up with "A Milli" (and sometimes "Single Ladies") anyway.

65. Kristi Maxwell "Realm Sixty-Four"

64. Thomas Pynchon "The Crying of Lot 49"

63. Ada Limon "Lucky Wreck"

62. Raymond Chandler "The Long Goodbye"

61. Daniel Mendelsohn "How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken"

60. Peter Schjeldahl "Let's See"

59. James Tate "The Ghost Soldiers"

5 (more) Books for Lauren Atlas

1. Richard Yates "Revolutionary Road"
2. Michael Chabon "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh"
3. Jeanette Winterson "The Passion"
4. T.C. Boyle "Drop City"
5. Steven Millhauser "Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer"

58. Tracy Letts "August: Osage County"

57. James M. Cain "The Postman Always Rings Twice"

7 Books for Xaviera Simmons

1. Marilynne Robinson “Housekeeping”
2. Tom Perrotta “The Abstinence Teacher”
3. Alice Munro “Runaway”
4. Donna Tartt “The Secret History”
5. Claire Messud “The Emperor’s Children
6. Philip Roth “The Plot Against America”
7. Joan Didion “Play It As It Lays”

56. Ian McEwan "Amsterdam"

55. Jen Hofer "Slide Rule"

54. Philip Roth "Indignation"

53. Heather Ramsdell "Lost Wax"

52. Curtis Sittenfeld "American Wife"

51. Valzhyna Mort "Factory of Tears"

50. George Pelecanos "The Turnaround"

49. Jonathan Miles "Dear American Airlines"

48. Joe Wenderoth "No Real Light"

47. Robert Hass "Time and Materials"

46. Harper Lee "To Kill A Mockingbird"

45. George Orwell "Animal Farm"

George Saunders

VICE MAGAZINE INTERVIEW

44. Luc Sante "Kill All Your Darlings"

Luc Sante's "Living With Music Playlist"

The one and only comment I have ever made in the comments section of any website (aside from agreeing with Michael Nicoloff about how rad that Ghost Town DJ's song "My Boo" is) was a response to Rebecca Walker's "Living With Music Playlist." Usually these things are filled with the usual suspects: Bob Dylan, Velvet Underground, Talking Heads (all of whom I love, of course). So it was nice to see someone talk about Black Star and Yaz. Same goes with the above, with Luc Sante's list, probably the only time you'll ever see Rich Boy mentioned in the New York Times Books section.

My Repertoire is U.S.S.R.

Not necessarily

43. Caroline Knox "Quaker Guns"

42. Michael Chabon "Maps and Legends"

41. Mike McGonigal "Loveless"

40. Steve Erickson "Zeroville"

Steve Erickson/Bookslut interview

39. James M. Cain "Double Indemnity"

38. Rae Armantrout "Up to Speed"

37. Raymond Chandler "The Big Sleep"

SO MUCH:

(as Erica would say)

36. Michael O'Brien "Sleeping and Waking"

35. Steven Millhauser "Dangerous Laughter"

THIS IS WAY BETTER

than that Liv Tyler movie.

More pairings: two great rap videos set in school.

34. Tao Lin "Bed"

33. Peter Gizzi "The Outernationale"

32. Marjane Satrapi "The Complete Persepolis"

31. Matthew Rohrer "Rise Up"

30. Mary Jo Bang "Elegy"

DO YOU KNOW

what's wrong with the new Rick Ross song?



Yep. More of this.

Also, the video--the Ross video--makes no sense. Snoop and Slim Charles in a botched something or other? I just don't buy it.

29. Alice Munro "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage"

28. Denis Johnson "Tree of Smoke"

Two great black and white rap videos, old school and new...

27. Susan Choi "A Person of Interest"

26. Jean Valentine "Little Boat"

"IT'S AN HONOR JUST TO BE NOMINATED:"

Junot Diaz has won the Pulitzer Prize.

Which makes me two for two (just in case you were counting) in terms of my-favorite-book-from-the-previous-year-winning-the-Pulitzer.

Poetry and (so I'm told) drama winners are exactly who you expected.

Apparently customers who bought Christine Schutt's "All Souls" also bought one of Jennifer Weiner's novels and the recently released Disney film "Enchanted."

Also: who knew Schutt's new book was out already?

I can't wait.

25. Matthea Harvey "Modern Life"