2009 Reading Wrap-Up

Last year, my wife challenged me to mimic one of her habits. Thus, I kept track of nearly every book I read. I didn’t record or remember books I’d only read pieces of (for research), nor did I record anything I read for hobby and work purposes (like game books from Paizo). I didn’t bother to count those books I could not finish, like Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen & Grahame Smythe-Jones; I’d have thought I was the perfect audience for that book, but the joke/conceit grew tiresome after 20 chapters or so and I had to put the book down.

Still, I was shocked when I found just how many complete books I got through in one year: 193.

32 Fiction (novels or collections or anthologies)

94 Graphic Novels (comic book collections or original graphic work)

67 Nonfiction books

Alas, I ended 2009 with a number of books in the currently-reading-queue and they’ll be the start to my 2010 list: Darkest Hour (Age of Misrule Book 2) by Mark Chadbourn; Toward 2012 (Perspectives on the Next Age) by Daniel Pinchbeck & Various; Graphic Design for Non-Designers by Tony Sedon & Jane Waterhouse; The Return of the Sorcerer: The Best of Clark Ashton Smith by CAS; and a random sundry of other graphic novels and short story collections and books on baby-rearing.

I’m not going to bore folks with the full 2009 list, but random favorite reads of last year (not in any order of preference or standing, simply the order in which I read them) include:

Fiction

Memory & Dream by Charles de Lint

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life by Philip Jose Farmer

Widdershins by Charles de Lint

Ravens in the Library: Magic in the Bard’s Name by SatyrPhil Brucato & Sandra Buskirk & various

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

The Ladies of Grace Adieu & Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

Riding Shotgun by Charles de Lint

The Little Country by Charles de Lint

The Shadow of Reichenbach Falls by John R. King

Gamer Fantastic by Martin Greenberg, Kerrie Hughes (ed)

Little, Big by John Crowley

Enemies & Allies by Kevin J. Anderson

The Annotated A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens & Michael Patrick Hearn

Wolf Moon by Charles de Lint

World’s End (Age of Misrule Book 1) by Mark Chadbourn

STAR TREK® A Singular Destiny by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Tapping the Dream Tree by Charles de Lint

Graphic Fiction

Brave & the Bold (Vol 1) by Mark Waid & George Perez

JLA/AVENGERS by Kurt Busiek & George Perez

SUPERMAN and the LEGION OF SUPERHEROES by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank

DRESDEN FILES: Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher & Adrian Syaf

Jack Kirby’s THE DEMON by Jack Kirby with Mark Evanier

Astro City The Dark Age 1: Brothers & Other Strangers by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, & Alex Ross

Supermen!: The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936=1941 by Greg Sadowski, Jonathem Lethem, & Various

Booster Gold: 52 Pickup by Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz, & Dan Jurgens

ESSENTIAL DOCTOR STRANGE® Volume 4 by Roger Stern & Various

The Astounding WOLF-MANâ„¢ Volume 1 by Robert Kirkman and Jason Howard

Boris Karloff’s Tales of Mystery Volume One by Various

Freakangels: Volume One by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield

ETERNALS® To Slay a God by Charles & Daniel Knauf and Daniel Acuna

SPIDER-MAN 2099â„¢ Volume 1 by Peter David & Various

Masterpiece Comics by R. Sikoryak

Y: The Last Man The Deluxe Edition Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra

The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics by Art Spiegelman & Francoise Mouly

Solomon Kane: The Castle of the Devil by Scott Allie & Mario Guevara

Red by Warren Ellis & Cully Hammer

Sleeper: Season One by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips

Light of Thy Countenance by Alan Moore, Felipe Massalera, & Anthony Johnston

Richard Stark’s PARKER—The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke

Nonfiction

Algernon Blackwood by Mike Ashley

Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry

Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman by Hank Wagner etc

A Universal History of the Destruction of Books From Ancient Sumer to Modern-Day Iraq by Fernando Baez

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Q’s Legacy by Helene Hanff

Adventures in the Dream Trade by Neil Gaiman

The Printed Book in America by Joseph Blumenthal

Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe by John Evangelist Walsh

So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance by Gabriel Zaid

Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla/Biography of a Genius by Marc Seifer

Hitler’s Private Library: The Books that Shaped his Life by Timothy W. Ryback

A World of Letters: Yale University Press 1908-2008 by Nicholas A. Basbanes

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

Teenagers from the Future: Essays on the LEGION OF SUPERHEROES by Timothy Callahan & various

From a Writer’s Notebook by Van Wyck Brooks

The Well of Creativity by Michael Toms, Julia Cameron, Natalie Goldberg, Deena Metzger, Keith Jarrett, Isabel Allende, & Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman [Audiobook]

The Book on the Bookshelf by Tom Petroski

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

How to Grow a Novel by Sol Stein

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Built of Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde by Thomas Wright

Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative by Ken Robinson

Stein on Wriitng by Sol Stein

American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau—Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Works by Susan Cheever

Not in Kansas Anymore: A Curious Tale of How Magic is Transforming America by Christine Wicker

Haunting Museums by John Schuster (ed)

With Wings of Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain by Michael Korda

Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy: 20 Dynamic Essays by the Field’s Top Professionals by the Editors of Analog & Asimov’s Science Fiction

The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Rescued his Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford

Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy Worlds of L. Frank Baum by Michael O’Riley

The Devil’s Details by Chuck Zerby

Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life by Michael Dirda

A Splendor of Letters by Nicholas Basbanes

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Alison Hoover Bartlett

The Business of Books by Andre Schiffrin

Every Book, Its Reader by Nicholas Basbanes

Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood by Michael Lewis

Secret Societies by John Lawrence Reynolds

Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Health Care Reform by Howard Dean

Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role-Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms by Ethan Gilsdorf

Dames, Dolls, & Gun Molls: The Art of Robert A. Maguire by Jim Silke

Bringing Up Baby: The Modern Man’s Guide to Fatherhood by Sam Martin

Beyond The Occult by Colin Wilson

Bail Enforcer: The Advanced Bounty Hunter by Bob Burton

The Book of Dads by Ben George et al

Lapsing into a Comma: A Curmudgeon’s Guide to the Many Things That Can Go Wrong in Print—and How to Avoid Them by Bill Walsh

The Friendly Dickens by Norrie Epstein

The Body, Mind, Spirit Miscellany by Jane Alexander

The Babycenter.com Essential Guide to Your Baby’s First Year

Comic Books 101: The History, Methods, and Madness by Chris Ryall & Scott Tipton

The BATMAN® Vault by Bob Greenberger & Various

The Books in My Life by Colin Wilson

Skeptic’s Guide to Conspiracies by Monte Cook

January 1, 2010   Posted in: Steven Statements, Uncategorized

One Response

  1. Kyle - January 1, 2010

    I like this idea! I have no delusions that I read nearly as much as you do… maybe I’ll have to count Sandra Boynton books or “Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?”

    “Y the Last Man” was definitely my favorite graphic novel read of the year.

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