2006 in review

Total books: 82. Plus 6 no-counters.
Month with fewest books: January with 4.
Month with most: November and December, 10 each.

The break-down:
Adult fiction: 12
Adult non-fiction: 12
Young Adult Fiction: 48
Children’s (long children’s): 10
Other children’s and picture books: about a million
No-counters: 6 (Five of the no-counters were children’s books that I really enjoyed and wanted to record reading, but didn’t feel like they should count toward my annual count. One was The Liar’s Club, which I’ve read so many times, it doesn’t seem like it should count.)

For comparison, last year’s count:
51 total
22 children’s / YA fiction
12 adult fiction
17 adult non-fiction

In January, I started working as a children’s and young adult librarian, and it shows in my reading count. Part of it is that I want to read a lot of YA fiction so I can recommend it to patrons. Part of it is that a lot of it is just plain good. I’m really pretty surprised that the adult numbers stayed so close. There were a lot of times over the year that I was terrified my adult numbers were slipping, and times that I thought, “Must…read…grown-up…book…need…challenge…” So, yes. Interesting.

Best books of the year, in order of reading:
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
I listened to the audiobook, read by John Ritter, and just loved it. Yeah, it was pretty predictable, but just the kind of weird-kid love my fourteen year old self would have needed.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Such great voice. So real and so… I don’t know, just real.

The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
It’s a book about books someone else read — what’s not to love? What’s that? This is proof that I’m a giant booknerd? Oh. Oh, well, it was still great.

Skellig by David Almond
I was really surprised by this one. Beautiful, but haunting.

Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Sadder than anything, but also kind of inspiring. Also, pretty much flawless writing. I should really read more of her stuff.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Hi-larious. I really, really loved this one. It was great, great writing, but it was also just plain fun to read. There’s been some discussion around the library about whether things on the Lone Star list should just be fun crowd-pleasers, or if it should focus on quality of writing. I can’t figure out why the discussion. If they’re the best books of the year for teenage readers, shouldn’t they be both Good and gooood? (I hope that makes sense.) Anyway, An Abundance of Katherines was both quality and fun. I loved it.