I'm a devout listophile, and I look forward every year to the flurry of lists that come around the holidays.

Considering Salon's new letter format, I'd love to see some reader recommendations posted here. I'd read several of the books mentioned in the article - "Never Let Me Go" and "White Teeth" are two I particularly loved - but I'd really appreciate some top 10 lists from Salon readers as well. Even more fun would be some "worst" lists.

Not to dwell on the negative, but I read two books that I considered to be highly overrated. One was "Prep", by Curtis Sittenfeld. It's all over "best of" lists - including the NYT list - and I just hated it. I thought it was maudlin, and I can't remember reading a novel that had a falser ring to it. Just horrible.

Another book that arrived with much fanfare was Elizabeth Kostova's "The Historian". At first I thought it had to be a gothic parody - it trotted out every dusty old stereotype from that genre - but the only horror that it elicited was the dawning realization that it was meant to be a straight-faced Dracula novel. I can't remember the last time I actually quit reading a novel, but this one made me fling it to the floor in disgust after about 600 pages. It makes a lovely doorstop, by the way.

On a sunnier note, I thought that Doris Kearns Goodman acquitted herself from that nasty plagiarism scandal quite admirably with the nonfiction "Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln". It was factually dense but as readable as a good novel, and it helped me to finally make sense of the 1850's, the fateful decade that led up to the American Civil War. It also spotlighted Lincoln's gracious and magnanimous nature, attributes that made him the perfect man for the office of President. Lincoln stands in such stark contrast to the dwarves we presently have in high political office.

So - any takers among Salon readers? What were the highs and lows from your year in literature?

What about poetry, Salon? I ask myself this question every year. Come on, guys! You're at the forefront of intellectual thought in this country and you hardly ever acknowledge an entire genre of literature! If you don't talk about it, who will? What if your news department only covered the executive and legislative branches of government, but not the judicial? Or if your sports columnists wrote about basketball and football, but not baseball? What if there were only two political parties that ever got any attention? Oh, wait, that one's true. Yeah, you heard me, Fiction and Non-fiction are the Republicans and Democrats of today's literary world, while poor little poetry limps along like the Green Party, shouting desperately to be heard, but to no avail. Is it a personnel issue? Is it simply that you don't have anyone on the payroll who reads enough poetry to maybe write a column about it, or at least come up with a top-5 list of poetry books once a year? (If that's all it is, I'm happy to help. I don't have a lot of credentials, but I do have an English degree, and I read poetry all the time. Why, at this very moment I've got at least ten poetry books checked out from the library. Give me a call, we'll work something out.) If it's not a staff issue, what other excuse could you possibly have?

Anyway, since you asked, here is my list of the Top Five Poetry Books of 2005.

1) The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch-- The life's work (excluding his longer poems, which will be published next year) of America's most underrated poet, and one of its finest.

2) Where Shall I Wander by John Ashbery-- As is always the case with Ashbery, the poems speak for themselves.

3) When a Woman Loves a Man by David Lehman-- Yeah, I know, this list is turning out to be somewhat slanted in favor of a certain "school" of poetry, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for this stuff.

4) Elegy on Toy Piano by Dean Young-- The title poem is an elegy for Koch, and is pitch-perfect. The poems in this book have so much tightly-packed energy, I think they're made of plutonium.

5) No Planets Strike by Josh Bell-- Yes, a newcomer. Finding this one was really exciting not only because the poems are so great, but because the guy is actually from my hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana! Move over, Theodore Dreiser, you're not the only man of letters in the "Crossroads of America" anymore.

Okay, that's my letter. Sorry about all the yelling. I'm not usually like this.

Salon's list is strikingly familiar to the NY Times 10 Best Books of the Year. Veronica, Kafka on the Shore, etc. Hmmm.

I think my favorite book that was released this year was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. It didn't get the best reviews, but I think it was a great book that fell victim to literary-world politics/snobbery and deserves to be reconsidered. I enjoyed Until I Find You by John Irving, but I wouldn't put it in a top ten list.

Some of the best books I read this year did not come out this year but here I go anyway. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, is a classic and excellent. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth was amazing and fascinating and beautiful. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson is incredibly written. I would highly recommend them to anyone who reads contemporary fiction. Also worth reading: Mrs. Kimble by Jennifer Haigh, Brick Lane by Monica Ali and the funny What Was She Thinking by Zoe Heller (a little lighter but well written and engaging). Short Story Recommendation: Reading Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer.

I also read Prep and agree that it doesn't necessarily warrant top 10 status, but I think the characters were exceptionally well written and I did like it a lot. Mark of a good book: I couldn't stop reading the book and when I did, I couldnt' stop thinking about the main character.

I could go on forever!