Since everyone else is doing it, now—in the closing hours of 2004—I wanted to share my own list of the best reading I did over the course of these many months. People who know me well will notice the addition of fiction to my list this year, because after many years of just not caring, I started reading fiction more widely over the summer (first up was Evelyn Waugh’s humorous and biting “Scoop“) and realized—shock of all shocks—that there’s some really great fiction out there.

Anyway, here’s my list:

1) “Blue Blood” – by Edward Conlon (which I successfully nominated as a Daily Dose pick at Powells.com over the summer)

2) “Benjamin Franklin” – by Walter Isaacson

3) “Bel Canto” – by Ann Patchett

4) “The Quiet American” – by Graham Greene

5) “Dispatches” – by Michael Herr

6) “The Plot Against America” – by Philip Roth

7) “Things Worth Fighting For” – by Michael Kelly

“Off to the Side” – by Jim Harrison

9) “Against All Enemies” – by Richard Clarke

10) “The 9/11 Commission Report”

Honorable mentions go to “Colossus,” by Niall Ferguson, “The Working Poor,” by David K. Shipler, and “The Republican Noise Machine,” by David Brock, which all influenced my thinking this year in a lot of different ways. An honorable mention in fiction goes to “The Power and the Glory,” by Graham Greene, and its unforgettable whisky priest.

As I enter 2005, I’m reading Malcolm Gladwell’s new “Blink,” Joseph Ellis’ “His Excellency,” and Stephen Greenblatt’s “Will in the World.” I’ll have to pick up some fiction after all that.

Happy New Year’s Eve and stay tuned for a report from Times Square….