Wow, I think this will stick out as a year to remember for me, but not necessarily for my book selections. Reading was a struggle at times but there were many rewards. Once again I was shooting for 40 books but ended up well short. Oh well, let’s not lament. We’ll dig right into it.
Overall Best Reading Experience
I’m going with The Company of Strangers. I was away from the classic spy novel for a long time and this brought me back with a vengeance. It was somewhat epic in that covered about a lifetime for the two main characters. It brought in some history, which I like a lot. It had plenty of twists and turns. And wow, the final twist at the end blew me away. This was a clear winner actually.
I’m having a hard time pinpointing the top reading experiences after this. I certainly wasn’t blown away by anything.
Sure, in pop fiction I liked World Without End, but that was a foregone conclusion. In sports, Once a Runner was surprisingly good, and I hadn’t read adult sports fiction in a while, so that was pretty memorable. I was disappointed with sci-fi/horror this year. The lit was solid and gave me a fix of family carnage. It felt like I read an above average amount of non-business, self-help/instructional kind of stuff; but in the end it was about the same mix I’ve had in the past.
Branching Out
I clearly did not do much branching out. I really wanted to throw in some more literature and I intended to add some theological or Catholic reading, but I didn’t do any of that. Those facts, along with the realization that my volume is on a downward trend are somewhat disconcerting. I need re-think a few of my priorities because there is not any reason why shouldn’t be up around 40 books with a little more diversity. I’m not going to make a resolution, but I will pay attention.
Site Redesign
For the second year in a raw I did a site redesign. I won’t be messing with this at all during 2010 because I’m really happy with my current single column design using the Thesis theme. I just have to leave that alone and not spend any time on it.
That’s it. I’m keeping this short and sweet so I can start chipping at that 40 book goal with more lit and theology during 2010. Thanks for listening.