The Year in Review

I'm pretty sure I'm not going to finish the book I'm currently reading (The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy) by midnight (but, well, you never know) so
here are this year's stats, and looking at last year's resolutions and how I did:

Last year's resolutions?
1. Blog at least 5 books a week for a total of 260, or to keep up with my reading habits. FAIL! I blogged 221
2. Read at least 20 nonfiction books. CHECK! I read 32
3. Read at least 50 books from the scary list. (See, this might be a little hard to pull off. We'll see.) FAIL! I read 16
4. Set a silly reading challenge every month. Started to do this, then FAIL!
5. Never have more than 5 pleasure reading materials checked out from the library at a time. I was pretty good at this until I checked out a bunch for the 48 reading challenge and went crazy again. FAIL!
6. Finish reading the rest of Silvey's top 100. FAIL!

Ah well. Here are this year's goals:

1. Blog at least 5 books a week for 260 total, or to keep up with reading habits, whichever is less.
2. Read at least 20 nonfiction books
3. Read at least 50 books from this year's scary list.
4. Never have more than 5 pleasure reading materials checked out from the library at a time.
5. Finish read the rest of Silvey's top 100. (This is only 26 books, 7 of which are picture books. I can do this! Listening totally counts.)
6. Never be more than a year behind on reviewing. I will catch up with 2006 books by the end of January

Anyway, this year's stats...

I read a whopping 251 books (up from last year's 219)

June was the busiest month for me, reading 49 thanks to 2 different read-a-thons and no school. School killed November and December, which were my slowest months with 7 each. (Ok, November was more NaNo than school.)

74 were children's books (based on where my library puts things), down from last year's 82
140 were YA, WAY UP from last year's 80
36 were adult, down from last year's 57
32 nonfiction, about the same as last year's 33
10 were under 100 pages (usually they don't "count" if they're under 100 unless I decide otherwise based on my gut feeling. Or if I'm spending a lot of time with it, such as reviewing or a Cybils book)
17 were graphic novels, down from last year's 32
6 were re-reads, about the same as last year's 8

All in all, a good year in books. Here are some of my favorites:

Favorite new-to-me authors:

Elizabeth Scott
Lenore Look
Meg Cabot

Favorite guilty pleasure series:

The Specialists Shannon Greenland
Twilight Stephenie Meyer

Favorite Fairy Tales with new Twists:

Sunlight and Shadow Cameron Dokey
Fables Vol. 10: The Good PrinceBill Willingham
The Storyteller's Daughter Cameron Dokey
The Night Dance Suzanne Weyn
The Swan Maiden Heather Tomlinson
Book of a Thousand Days Shannon Hale

Favorite Nonfiction

The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed Michael Meyer
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food Jennifer 8. Lee
Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud Shuyun Sun
Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood Ibtisam Barakat
Inside the Red Mansion: On the Trail of China's Most Wanted Man Oliver August

Favorite Children's Books

Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Writing Thank-you Notes Peggy Gifford

Favorite YA Books

Paper Towns John Green
Ten Cents a Dance Christine Fletcher
Audrey, Wait! Robin Benway
Girl Overboard Justina Chen Headley
Good Enough Paula Yoo
She's So Money Cherry Cheva
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie
Freak Show James St. James
Before I Die Jenny Downham
Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale Holly Black
Kimmie66 Aaron Alexovitch

Favorite Adult Books

Mister Pip Lloyd Jones
The Bastard of Istanbul Elif Shafak

Favorite Authors that aren't new to me, but reinforced why I love them

Jaclyn Moriarty
Narinder Dhami

AND! MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2008!

The Storyteller's Daughter Cameron Dokey
The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed Michael Meyer
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food Jennifer 8. Lee
Ten Cents a Dance Christine Fletcher
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie
Mister Pip Lloyd Jones
Airhead Meg Cabot
Spell Book Of Listen Taylor Jaclyn Moriarty