My 2008 Reading Year

Last year I read 67 books (or stand alone novellas). This year it was reduced to 57, but at least it was more than 52. I like to average a book a week or I feel like I'm not participating in the very action that made me want to be a writer in the first place -- reading stories.

I "grade" my reads on a score of 1-5, with nothing getting below a 1 unless it gets a DNF. Anything that's a 3 or above I would say that I liked. Anything that's a 2.5 or below, I would say that I had reservations about it and was more likely to send it to Goodwill than give it to a friend.
26 of the books I read were ebooks, most read on my lil ole PDA. I picked from a bunch of genres, everything from straight category romance to chick lit to sf/f to Southern fiction to mystery to nonfiction (but only 1 of those). I did not count things I critiqued for friends, comic books (Buffy Season 8, Angel and Gang After the Fall, a couple Firefly things), short stories or kid's books, because then my total would have been more like 5692, and 5000 of them would have been rereadings of Winnie the Pooh, Skippy John Jones and Go Dog Go.

The bad: This year I had more DNFs than last year. Last year I only had 3. This year, 9, which reduces my total books read to less than 52. Boo! On the bright side, the sooner I put down a DNF, the sooner I picked up another chance at a perfect score. Wait, scratch 2 of those DNFs. I would have finished them if I'd owned them, but they were Samhain's free partial downloads, intended to get you hooked by the first third of the book so you'd buy the rest. These were both read in December so it's quite possible I'll get them soon. (Bettie Sharpe, Like a Thief in the Night; Maria Zannini, Touch of Fire)

7 books received what I would consider a "failing" grade and which I would not recommend to anyone. Most of my dislike was due to poor worldbuilding or characterization. Two of the failing grades were of the "OMG, why is this so popular??" ilk that made me question my ability to assess good prose and storytelling.

Luckily, I got over it.

The good: 2 books got a perfect score -- Harris's Dead to the World and Shinn's Mystic and Rider.

11 books got a close enough to perfect score that I can recommend them to fans of their particular subgenre here: Heart Dance by Robin Owens; California Demon by Julie Kenner; Dogland by Will Shetterly; Mistborn by Brian Sanderson; Dixieland Sushi by Cara Lockwood; Magic Lost, Trouble Found by Lisa Shearin; The Paid Companion by Amanda Quick; Jenna Starborn by Sharon Shinn; Stray by Rachel Vincent; Not Quite a Lady by Loretta Chase; and Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold.

My biggest glom of 2 whole books by the same author (aside from the Shinn) were Unbound and Wild Hunt by Lori Devoti, both of which I quite enjoyed, even if they were shorter than I wanted (sometimes a curse of category romances!) The worldbuilding was unique and wasn't at all the same old/same old vampires and shifters.

Yeah, I'm not much of a glommer. I don’t know why. Probably because I have so many books to choose from and so little time?

Another read worth mentioning was Midnight Sins by Cynthia Eden. One thing really stood out for me: this was one of the few romances involving a cop I've read where the cop actually passed on sex or angsting about the relationship in order to GO DO HIS JOB. I just loved that touch of realism in a book about a secret paranormal underworld full of succubi, shifters and demons! While it's true I don't gravitate toward cop novels, I was happy to see it in Eden's book.

Leigh Wyndfield's Secret Obsession was hot, as Wyndfield books typically are, but it had a solid, contemporary feel with a touch of Romeo and Juliet. Sometimes in lusty books, the protagonists hook up because the author is writing erotic romance, if you know what I mean, but in Secret Obsession, I totally bought the attraction between the hero and heroine.

One last fun book. Sharron McClellan's Breathless was an action-packed romantic adventure with a satisfying touch of the paranormal. It's part of the Athena Force continuity published by H/S, but I didn't have any trouble picking up the concept. However, I had read some of the Athena Force novels back when the yummy Bombshell line was being published. I liked the fact the whole book was from a single POV, since that's out of the ordinary for a romance, and that the characters were both likeable.

Here's last year's reading stats, if you're interested: http://blog.jodywallace.com/2008/01/my-reading-year-2007.html

I hope I'm able to surpass 52 books this year without as many DNFs. I won't make it a goal, but it's a touch of wishful thinking. Hey, at least I didn't watch as many movies in 2008 as I did in 2007! More on that in a later post.

Jody W.
http://www.jodywallace.com/
Now available at Red Sage: MEGAN'S CHOICE--You pick the adventure!