Great books you read in 2009?
andrewcooke: is fiction ok?  i live in chile and stumbled across bolano's books (particularly the savage detectives and 2666) in spanish just as they became popular in english in the usa (2666 was released in translation).savage detectives is a funny account of adolescent "poets" in mexico; 2666 is a much darker, somewhat rambling tome that addresses "evil".  they're very different, but both great books.for non-fiction the book i've used most this year is an old classic - harbison & steele's "c a reference manual".  it's invaluable (if you're writing c).  i don't know how people can prefer kernighan & ritchie...