books, books, books

[saturn]

I've been inspired by lists elsewhere to do a roundup of the books I read in 2008. I've seen some people post that the read 40- 50 books in '08 and all I can think is, "Where did you find the time?" but I realized I also posted 325+ fic recs in 2008 and suddenly it's obvious where much of my reading time was devoted. *hearts Dean/Castiel*

So I read 22 books in 2008:
Science: 6
Sci-fi: 4
Children's/Young Adult: 5
General Lit: 6
Graphic Novel: 1


Science
The Black Hole War by Leonard Susskind
The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin
The Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hager
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman
What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard Feynman
Light Years by Brian Clegg

Sci-fi
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Endymion by Dan Simmons
The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons

Children's/Young Adult
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan

General Lit
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
A Lion Among Us by Gregory McGuire
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff

Other
The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller; Graphic Novel

Book I Wish I Could Read Again for the First Time: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I loved this book and will certainly read it again but a re-read will never compare to the moment of realization when it all came together that first time.

Favorite Book: This is a toss up between The Time Traveler's Wife and The Road by Cormac McCarthy but I'm going with the latter. I expected to love TTTW but The Road took me completely off guard. I'm not one who thinks much about language but McCarthy is a genius. It's the first book I've ever read where I stopped to reread passages simply because they were too beautiful and powerful to read just once.

Book I Wish I Never Read: The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. MANIPULATIVE TRIPE. Oh, how I hated this book. I hated it almost as much as I hated The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards and that's saying A LOT.

Book That Taught Me the Most: This one is tough because I learned from all of the science books I read but I'm going to go with The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin. It didn't just teach me new facts and figures - it taught me a different way of thinking about science and it reminded me that, even as a non-scientist, I need to approach science reading with critical thought.

Book That Deserves Wider Recognition: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. 2008 was the year Stephanie Meyer's uninspired, insipid Twilight series became all the rage. At the same time, Collins released The Hunger Games which is an answer to all that is wrong with Twilight. There's unique world building, true jeopardy, and a female hero that girls and parents can learn from (and with).

I have every intention of being productive today which means I need to get up off my butt and put a load of linens in the washing machine. Coffee would be good, too. Happy Sunday!

ETA: Season 4.0 of BSG is out on Tuesday and Best Buy has exclusive packaging. Corporate loyalty or really cool BSG dog tags??