The Big Time ~Fritz Leiber
–published 1958
–130 pages
–Awards: Hugo (1958),
–3.5/5 stars
If the name Fritz Leiber looks familiar to you it may be because of the posts I have done in the past year reviewing a few of the collections of his most famous creations: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. In addition to creating multiple short story adventures for this sword and sorcery duo, Fritz Leiber was a prolific and award-winning writer of numerous novels and short stories.
Speaker for the Dead ~Orson Scott Card
–published 1986
–280 pgs
–Awards: Hugo (1987), Nebula (1986), Locus (1987)
–5/5 stars 
The waning hours of 2007 passed with me lost in Ender’s Universe. I had to admit, as the ball dropped, that I was not going to finish this book in 2007 and thus edited my Year in Review post. Did that bother me? Not in the least. I ended the year with Orson Scott Card (A War of Gifts) and have begun the year with Orson Scott Card. And what a fantastic beginning! If I believed in omens I would have to say that on the strength of this book alone, 2008 looks to be the most satisfying year of reading in my life.
“New Year’s eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights.”
~Hamilton Wright Mabie
I apologize in advance for the length of this post. I get excited when reviewing a year of reading.
This time of year, the last week of the old year and the first week of the new, are among my favorites for both blogging and blog reading. Why? Because it is ‘Best Of…” time! I love reading lists of people’s reading accomplishments for the year, their favorites, their least favorites, etc. I also thoroughly enjoy preparing my own year-end roundup posts. I used this post all year to track my reading and I have been tinkering with it for the past few weeks, just having fun reviewing my reads for the year. I have resisted the urge to go off reading a bunch of other blogger’s best-of’s until I posted my own, partially because I love waiting for the last few days of December to do so and partially because as a part of my post I am keeping a list, at the end of this entry, of all the other fellow blogger’s lists for you to peruse. So I’ll tell you now, if you don’t see your list in this post, leave me a comment and link and I’ll add it right away!
Before we begin, here are my own personal rules that I changed at the start of this reading year: Any book counts as a read. It doesn’t matter if it is an art book (which quite frankly I spend almost as much time with as some novels), a children’s book, a graphic novel, etc. I don’t keep track of my individual issue comic reading or count that. If I listen to an audiobook I count it, although for the sake of this post I listed those separately. Now that we’ve established that, here are the books I’ve read in 2007. They are mostly in the order I read them although a few were things I recalled later and added them when I thought of them. Following the list are some stats, best of’s, etc.
Read on:
I have a relatively small collection of children’s books that I add to whenever I come across a book whose art and design appeal to me. When I came across Oliver Jeffers‘ latest release, The Incredible Book Eating Boy, I just knew I had to bring it home with me. Dear readers, this book is a true gem.
For those who devour the written word, Henry is indeed a kindred spirit. I have no doubt that were you to read this book you would clearly identify with his passion and his dilemma.
Continue reading The Incredible Book Eating Boy ~Oliver Jeffers