2009: My Year in Reading

I think that I can call this year my most prolific as a reader. I have read 119 books so far, and with two weeks remaining I will be adding a few more to this list. Some of my favorites this year included: The Help by Kathryn Stockett, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson, Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella, and City of Thieves by David Benioff.

One of my other reading accomplishments this year has been to read Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. I have about 150 pages left in the last volume, so I believe I will finish it before the end of the year. It is certainly an interesting book, parts of which are just wonderful and yet other sections made me want to throw the book against the wall. I set up a group on Goodreads for others to join me in reading it, and was pleasantly surprised at the number of other people who were brave enough to take this on. Having conquered this book, I hope to eventually take on a few other bulky classics - Ulysses and War and Peace.



I joined a couple of in-person book discussion groups this year which have been wonderful, especially the Classics group organized by Rebecca of Rebecca Reads. Not only do I love to read, but I love to talk about what I'm reading, and so I'm glad to have found some groups that have sparked great conversations.



And of course, I discovered the wonderful world of book blogging and the amazing amount of book/reading sites available on the internet. Goodreads has become one of my favorite websites, and Books on the Nightstand's podcast is not to be missed each week. And then there's Twitter, which has led me to so many new book blogs and books/publishing information. The internet will not be the death of books and reading; for me it has increased my t0-read list exponentially.



I'm still new to my own blog, so I hope that those of you who do read it will be patient as I continue to learn as I go. I'm in the process of setting up a "plan" for what I want to do with it in 2010 -- any suggestions and comments are most welcome.



I'm travelling to visit my family in Winnipeg, Canada over Christmas and will be busy with year-end projects at my "real" (that is, paying) job so let me take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah/Happy Winter and I hope that 2010 brings us all some great books to read.