2009 found me in old world Britain in the company of some pretty peculiar characters, courtesy of Nancy Mitford’s witty and sarcastic writing. I spent the last days of the year in Sookie Stackhouse’s world where vampires and werewolves and witches and all sorts of supernatural creatures are part of everyday life and could in fact be competing for your affections…
In the twelve months in between, I’ve read many, mostly great books. Here are some bookish facts about a great reading year:
- I read 36 books in 2009. I’m very happy with that number. It’s 12 or so more books than last year. Also, the last half of ‘09 was crazy what with moving to a different country and everything so the first half of the year was better reading-wise… And let me tell you, just in case you were wondering, doing a MSc in Theoretical physics is hard work and leaves little time for anything else.
- I read books by 20 different authors. 12 were new to me. 2009 was a great year for discovering new authors. That is mostly thanks to the wonderful book blogs that I started to follow, I just love reading other people’s thoughts, reviews and recommendations.
- I read books by 11 male authors and 9 female authors. Nice and balanced, as it should be.
- 2009 was also a good year for short story collections. I never used to read short stories, I’d much rather read a novel, which is still sort of true I guess, but I actually really enjoyed reading the collections I read… From the hilarious to the touching to the downright depressing, the short stories I read were varied but had one thing in common: beautiful writing.
- Only reread 1 book in 2009. Every summer, around the end of July, I really start to miss that “Harry Potter feeling”. So I read the 6th book of the series which helped me refresh my memory in preparation for the movie. I wanted to go on and read the last book as well but life came in the way and never got around it.
- Speaking of Harry Potter, I’m still trying to find a series to fill that void in my heart since the series ended. This year it was the Sookie Stackhouse series. The books are interesting and properly addicting, but alas I’m not satisfied and my quest continues…
- Out of the 36 books, 34 were in actual book form and 2 were ebooks. I just have to accept that I like holding the book and actually turning the pages, scrolling down or pressing play on my ipod just doesn’t do it…
- Without a doubt, the best bookish thing about 2009 is that I discovered P.G. Wodehouse and found myself roaring with laughter at the hilarious things that always seem to happen in Bertie Wooster’s world. Bertie earned a special place in my heart right from the start and he will be number one every time I have to answer the question “Which five people would you invite to your ideal dinner party?” or any variations of that.
