A year in reading

[StarOpal]

So it's the end of 2007, how was your year in reading?

Was it mostly a good year, or incredibly crummy?
Read a lot of books, or just even just one or two that stood out?
Any great book stories (a perfect gift you gave or received; finally finding a book you've been looking for forever)?
Discover any new authors?

[StarOpal]

At the end of 2006 a friend suggested we keep a record of the books we read this year. She stopped two months in. *huff* But I decided to keep up with it. I had hoped to read a minimum of 50 books, but (after being sick on and off most of the year) it looks like I'm only going to get to 30.

It was a mostly good year. The lowest "grade" I gave a book was a C.

I set out to find new-to-me authors, and so tried Neil Gaiman and Stephen King for the first time.

In nonfiction fell in love with Hollywood Horror: Gothic to Cosmic, and Death in Yellowstone. Both are fascinating reads.

A highlight was finally getting my hands on a professionally translated Twelve Kingdoms light novel. Can't wait for the next one in March!

On the sadder side: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out right before my birthday, so I was prepared to have to wait for it (It'd be kind of messed up to go get yourself something like that, espescially when you know you're hard to buy for). Then my cat got sick and had to be put to sleep, so my mom went ahead and gave it to me figuring I could use something to take my mind off of things. While it was a mostly satisfying ending to the series, it'll be a while before I can go back and reread it.

[TheOogieBoogieMan]

While I have been making more of an effort to read in recent years, I haven't been able to read as much as I would have liked, mostly due to a part-time summer job that somehow turned into a full-time summer job.

I haven't kept track of how many books I read this year or which ones, so I might follow your example, Star, and keep a tally for 2008.

One of the most notable things I did this year, in terms of books, was that I became a fan of Kurt Vonnegut. I have a bad habit of either knowingly and unknowingly getting into the works of a musician or author that recently passed on - you can imagine how disappointed I was last year when I found out Wilson Pickett had died. So it was with Mr. Vonnegut; I've only read two of his books, the wonderful Breakfast of Champions and God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian so far, but I've got Hocus Pocus on my shelf, and I know it won't be long before I get started on that one.

This was also the year I confirmed that Piers Anthony just isn't that good a writer. I picked up On a Pale Horse either in early '07 or late '06 after I found out that it had been a source of inspiration for Dead Like Me. I got about halfway through it before the awkward fumbling of a good idea and the appalling dialogue became unbearable. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when I got A Spell For Chameleon from the library. I had looked into his Xanth series through Wikipedia and Amazon, and I reasoned that Pale Horse was just a fluke, and that this book would be as interesting as it sounded. Nope.

Another author of note for me this year was Stefan Zweig, who I was introduced to courtesy of my German Literature course. I heartily recommend Chess Story to everyone here. I'll probably be reading more of him in '08.

[StarOpal]

oogieboogieman said:

I haven't kept track of how many books I read this year or which ones, so I might follow your example, Star, and keep a tally for 2008.

Incase you're interested, I used this format:

Number. Title, Date I finished it, Letter grade of initial impression

I think for 2008 I'll also put in page count. Aside from keeping track of what and how many, it's interesting to see what I felt about a book right after I finished.

Oh, and that doesn't include rereading or graphic novels, since they read at a different speed.

[sarahbot]

I read way less than normal this year for a few reasons:

I have class on Fridays, which used to be my day to go to the library.
I worked full-time during the summer, and my hours made it hard to get to the library.
I think the internet is giving me a short attention span (instant gratification whoo!), which I've actually been working on fixing lately.

But I didn't discover any new authors. I read a few new books I liked: I'm just finishing up Stardust, which I hadn't read before. I loved the movie and my mom said I wouldn't like the book because of the differences. I intend to set her right on that one, because I think Stardust is just about the greatest thing Gaiman's ever written, aside from some short stories and Sandman (which is in a different category).

I discovered The French Executioner, by C. C. Humphreys. Sadly, his other books don't begin to live up to this amazing historical fiction story about the man who executed Anne Boleyn and was sent to bury her hand at a crossroads in France. I can't recommend this book enough, honestly, but don't read Blood Ties (the sequel). I like what he tried to do but it didn't suck me in as much as Executioner did. Plus, he essentially had to reset all the characters to their emotional status mid-way through Executioner for Blood Ties to work, which makes it feel like the ending of Executioner is cheapened.

Oh, I thought of something else I really really liked: a graphic novel called Blankets. I can't remember the author but I think it must be fairly popular as I've heard of it quite a bit. Not since I read Maus by Art Spiegelman did a graphic novel have such an effect on me.

I'd put off reading anything by Christopher Moore for quite some time, and I think I was right to. I read Lamb when I was in grade 12 and it made an effect on me then, but I don't think I realized how much until I re-read it about a year ago. I wasn't sure if I wanted to read anything else by him because I didn't think anything else could match it.
...
I was right. I do like A Dirty Job in a different way, and The Stupidest Angel is one of the laugh-out-loud funniest things I've ever read, but none of them have the same effect as Lamb.

[TheOogieBoogieMan]

sarahbot said:

Oh, I thought of something else I really really liked: a graphic novel called Blankets. I can't remember the author but I think it must be fairly popular as I've heard of it quite a bit.

The author's Craig Thompson. I got that one for Christmas. Since it's 600+ pages long, it'll be one of the few graphic novels I include in my '08 tally.