2010: The year in books

The period before and after Jan 1 seems like a good time for looking back on the year. Some probably prefer doing it earlier, but I didn't get around to it. In today's post, I want to look back at 2010 through the lens of the books I read.

Unless I missed recording some of them--a distinct possibility--I only read 24 books this year, and six of them were re-reads. That's down from 43 in 2009 and 53 in 2008. Gosh, maybe having a baby had something to do with that?

I've reviewed a number of these on my old blog and on Goodreads, but if you want my thoughts on any of them, just ask in the comments. I'll sort them by category and author rather than order read, and I'll mark the ones that were re-reads (R). Also, the ones that were audiobooks (A).

Fantasy and Science Fiction
Treason's Shore by Sherwood Smith
Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling
Iorich by Steven Brust
American Gods by Neil Gaiman (R)
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (R)
Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson (R)
Turncoat by Jim Butcher (R)
Changes by Jim Butcher
Od Magic by Patricia A. McKillip (A)
Fugitive Prince by Janny Wurts
Grand Conspiracy by Janny Wurts
Peril's Gate by Janny Wurts
Traitor's Knot by Janny Wurts
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (A)
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (A)

Fiction
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
World Without End by Ken Follett (A)
Hester by Paula Reed
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (A, R)

Non-fiction
Everything I Want to Do is Illegal by Joel Salatin
How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitehead
The Greek Way by Edith Hamilton (A)
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer (A)
Columbine by David Cullen (A)

There are a lot of audiobooks there because we've listened to quite a few while driving. Sometimes Lauren and I listen to them together (the fiction) and some of them I listen to while I'm driving and Lauren's sleeping or on my mp3 player, for instance when walking the dog (that's all the non-fiction).

The re-reads have either been for a book club (American Gods) or because I was getting ready to read a new book in the series.

I've also had a lot of books that I partially read without finishing. There was Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway and Edible Forest Gardens by David Jacke and Eric Toensmeier, which I read along with the forest gardening book mentioned above--I was preparing for a presentation, which I finished, and will probably get back to those books eventually. I started listening to a history book, Through a Distant Mirror, but I found myself wanting to take notes all the time, so I couldn't very well listen to it under the circumstances when I would normally listen. I started reading Stormed Fortress by Janny Wurts, as a preview on the Kindle app of my new iPod Touch, and I will read that now that a paperback copy has arrived in the mail. I similarly started Aristotle's Ethics and A Christmas Carol on the Kindle app. I'm currently re-reading Steven Erikson's Memories of Ice, part of my re-read of the whole series in preparation for the final volume coming out in March.

And that's that. How was your reading in 2010?