This year I didn’t match the 130 books of 2006 nor the 141 books of 2007 but at least I bested the 83 books of 2008. I wish I’d read more than 101 books in 2009, but do bear in mind that I wrote one (1) book, which ate into my reading time. Also it ate into my sleeping time, eating time, relaxing time, and sanity. Can’t say I recommend writing a book, though I do recommend buying one, specifically, the one I wrote.

Without further ado, I present the excruciatingly detailed discussion of the my year in reading, 2009:

Total books read, cover-to-cover: 101

Total books written, cover-to-cover, including two indexes and an appendix: 1

Age Levels:

• Adult: 75
• YA: 12
• Children’s: 14

Books read that were published in 2009:

• 33 or thereabouts. I don’t keep record of when the book was published, but that’s about right.

Nonfiction: 13

Fiction: 88

Genres:  (as some books have more than one genre, total exceeds 101)
 

Nonfiction:

• Animal books : 2
• Biography: 2
• Grammar/Language: 1
• History: 2
• Memoir: 2
• Political Science: 2
• Readers’ Advisory: 1
• Travel: 1
• True Crime: 2

Fiction:

• Biblical: 1: The Book of Genesis, illustrated by R. Crumb
• Classical/canonical literature: 1: Henry V (or 2, if you include Zamyatin’s We)
• Fantasy: 40
• Historical fiction: 9
• Horror: 7
• Humor: 12
• Literary fiction: 9
• Mainstream/popular fiction: 5
• Mysteries: 10
• Science Fiction: 13
• Superhero: 3
• Suspense/Thriller: 6

Formats

• Graphic novels: 39, of which 3 were nonfiction
• Cartoon collections: 1: The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack, a bizarre and funny book
• Essay collections: 1: State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America
• Photo collections: 1: Creature, by Andrew Zuckmen
• Plays: 1: Shakespeare’s Henry V, interpreted in graphic novel format but with the original, unabridged text, and no footnotes, which was really quite difficult to read, pictures notwithstanding
• Annotated bibliographies: 1: Women’s Nonfiction: A Guide to Reading Interests

Miscellaneous

• Annual fat Russian novel: Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, probably the least-Russian Russian novel I’ve ever read. I didn’t like it, per se, but I appreciated it for its influence on Orwell’s 1984
• Re-reads: 5

Authors:

• 58 total

Favorite new (to me) authors:

• K.J. Parker and Kate Atkinson. Also Jessica Zellers.
• Most read author: K.J. Parker. As soon as I discovered her, or perhaps him, I devoured all 11 books that he, or maybe she, has published.

Best: Hell, by Robert Olen Butler. Also Women’s Nonfiction: A Guide to Reading Interests.

Honorable mentions:

• Creature, by Andrew Zuckerman
• Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett
• Purple and Black, by K. J. Parker
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, by Jeff Kinney
• The Book of Genesis, illustrated by R. Crumb
• Beat the Reaper, by Joshua Bazell
• When Will There Be Good News?, by Kate Atkinson

Worst: I’m getting better about not reading books I don’t like, so I’m pleased to announce that I didn’t read anything horrible. However:

• Sven the Returned, a graphic novel by Brian Wood, was confusing to me; I couldn’t keep the characters straight
• Kevin Smith did a smashing job interpreting the Green Arrow, but his book Batman: Cacophony just didn’t work for me, maybe because Batman isn’t the right character for the snarky dialogue that Smith excels at.
• Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters, a young adult novel by Gail Giles, disappointed me because it turns out the narrator was unreliable and she was basically fabricating the whole story the entire time. I hate tricks like that.

One last thing:

Women's Nonfiction: A Guide to Reading Interests, by Jessica Zellers, really is worth the price of purchase. I recommend acquiring a copy for home and for work, and naturally you'll want to advise your local public and academic libraries to acquire copies.