literate This is the first year I've started keeping any sort of written record of the books I've read. Normally I don't bother because even though I can't add or subtract, I am a walking book and author database. Handy skill to have when I'm doing reader's advisory.
Book year in review:
Total number of books read and completed: 101
Total number of books started but not finished, or still in progress: 7
Ten best books I read this year in no particular order:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan
Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
The Book of Fred by Abby Bardi
Under the Wolf, Under the Dog by Adam Rapp
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
Not necessarily the best book I read this year, but definitely the most fun: Bling by Erica Kennedy
Five really overrated books I read this year:
Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Luna by Julie Anne Peters
Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo
Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich
Month in which I read the highest number of books: June (12)
Month in which I read the lowest number of books: November (5)
Book I'm probably never going to get around to reading even though it's been on my to-read list forever: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Percentage by which my teen circulation increased in 2004 over 2003: Statistics aren't final yet, but I think it's about 85%. In 2003, there was a 125% increase in circulation over 2002
Book this year that most pleasantly surprised me: Be More Chill by
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
ned_vizzini. I wasn't so sure about this book when I started it, but it turned out to be excellent, very funny and witty and even kind of sexy.Authors I met this year, or, people who've seen me blush and act like a moron:
libba_bray, Edward Bloor, Carolyn Mackler, Joyce McDonald, Darren Shan, Art Spiegelman, Lemony Snicket, Neil Gaiman, David Levithan, Paula Danziger, K.L. Going, Megan McCafferty, Ann Brashares, Jack Gantos, and my hero, Diana Tixier Herald. I swear, I could meet Brad Pitt or Orlando Bloom and not blink, but I got in front of Neil Gaiman and forgot how to talk. Honorable mention: Blake Nelson, who wrote to me after seeing this journal and got a very long fangirly response from me and now he probably thinks I'm a little strange. But I am.Saddest book-related moment of the year: hearing that Paula Danziger died
Happiest book-related moment of the year: getting fan mail from Sonya Sones, who loved the review I wrote for VOYA of One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies and hit up my editor for my email address so she could write to me
Number of times my husband shook his fist at me while we were moving my books into the new apartment: a lot
Number of copies of OotP I own: Five
My pick for the 2005 Printz Award, from the YA lit community's favorites that I've read to date: The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan. Honors: Under the Wolf, Under the Dog, Double Helix by Nancy Werlin, Bucking the Sarge
Best moment leading a book discussion: While reading Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind with a group of 7-9 graders this summer, one of the girls brought in a box of head scarves for all the female group participants to wear during the discussion.
Looking forward to in 2005:
zeisgeist's new book, Book Expo in NYC, the next Fables compilation, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
_witchinghour_ 
December 31 2004, 15:27:08 UTC 7 years ago
December 31 2004, 15:34:27 UTC 7 years ago
December 31 2004, 15:36:44 UTC 7 years ago
Number of YA fantasy books read this year: OMG MY EYEZ THEY BLEEEEED.
You'd be proud, though. I was in the bookstore right before Christmas, looking at the YA fantasy lit shelf to see what's popular lately and what's new, and there was a man there with his daughter staring intently at the shelf while she looked bored out of her mind. They sort of wandered off, and I could hear him say, "What do you think?" And the reply, in that whine that only high school girls can do, "I don't know."
So I went over and asked if I could help. I'm sure he thought I was crazy, but he said he was looking for a book for his fifteen year old son. I asked if his son liked fantasy, and he said yes, so Eragon it was, piece of cake, just like that. (*grin* I don't recommend The House of the Scorpion to children of strangers.) We had a little chat, he noticed my Republicans for Voldemort shirt. He asked where to get one. I told him.
I did not tell him that the website also sells shirts that say "My killer robot skull fucked your honor student."
But I finally did something useful with all that reading. About time!
December 31 2004, 15:55:05 UTC 7 years ago
Well, we can still be friends.
*HATED, HATED, HATED Eragon* But actually, I would recommend HotS to a stranger, especially if the boy was fifteen. I led two summer reading groups of about 12 kids I'd never met before, and at the end of the summer they all said that HotS was their favorite book from the summer.
*pokes* go beta
December 31 2004, 15:58:38 UTC 7 years ago
And I would never recommend HotS to any stranger in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Most conservative county in the country, and I'm not telling some guy I don't know to have his kid read books about drug wars and cloning and ethics. *grin* So there.
Can't beta. :P Am working! Can't you tell?
December 31 2004, 16:47:58 UTC 7 years ago
Oh lord, yes. I need to give a big Thank You to you and my YA lit prof from this summmer, for getting me involved in this series. The guys at the comic store know me by now, and they're all "hey, new Fables!" when I walk in the door. *g*
I'm also anxiously awaiting a copy of Sea of Trolls to come in at the library. Have you read that one, and is it any good?
January 3 2005, 03:02:54 UTC 7 years ago
January 3 2005, 03:12:53 UTC 7 years ago
January 22 2005, 05:50:44 UTC 7 years ago
If you're like the rest of the world and short on time, don't bother with it. After Scorpion and TEtEatA it falls flat.
Excuse the abbreviated titles, I'm actually not supposed to be online too long.
January 22 2005, 15:13:19 UTC 7 years ago
December 31 2004, 17:57:34 UTC 7 years ago
That is admiringly all.
December 31 2004, 18:06:04 UTC 7 years ago
Also are you strictly a novel sort of a gal,and a one genre reader at that? I love Stephan King and was reading his Danse Macabre.In it he suggested Lovecraft.I'm not normally a sci-fi horror fan but I read and become totally fascinated by his short stories. Try "Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos" by HP Lovecraft and Others if you are interested.
January 3 2005, 03:09:39 UTC 7 years ago
I read everything except most science fiction and fantasy. I'll probably be ousted from the YA lit community for saying this, but I don't like science fiction and fantasy except for a few books. Love horror though, except am bad and have never read Lovecraft. So many books...
December 31 2004, 18:17:26 UTC 7 years ago
I could meet Brad Pitt or Orlando Bloom and not blink, but I got in front of Neil Gaiman and forgot how to talk.
Heh, this is just like me...except for other authors, not Neil Gaiman, because I think I'm the one person in fandom who hasn't read anything of his.
December 31 2004, 21:16:31 UTC 7 years ago
December 31 2004, 23:40:10 UTC 7 years ago
I LOVED her stuff as a kid.
January 3 2005, 03:06:36 UTC 7 years ago