Though I would swear in a court of law with my hand upon the Bible that it is simply impossible for 365 days (or 366, leap year and all) to have passed by already, the calendar indicates that it is the time of year for looking back over the past year’s literary journey. For some, these Year End/Best Of lists are likely an obligation that they feel they must do because everyone else is doing it. Not so for this blogger. For me this year-ending ritual is a literary love letter for another year of having the privilege to read (mostly) great books. I have faithfully tracked the course of my literary journey over the past year with a great anticipation about what the end of 2008 would reveal. The only real challenge for me in constructing a Year in Review post is to not make the world’s longest year end post. In this challenge I will no doubt fail.
However, to spare you dear readers the agony of having to wade through this entire post I have broken it up into sections*. The first section consists of a some thoughts on the year in reading, particularly focused on the events of January 2008. The next section details Best Of’s and Pleasant Surprises. After that, for you stats geeks, the various breakdowns of things I tracked throughout the reading year. And finally, the comprehensive list with links to those books that I managed to do reviews of this year (63 out of 76). I put the list and stats at the end in order to give an out for those who simply will have had enough by that point and will want to end the torture of my Year in Review.
To make the post even longer, I will link to the Year in Review posts of my fellow bloggers. If you would like your list included here, please leave me a link in the comments section.
*sections brought to you courtesy of the Leia Heads from my June 2007 post “Picture Practice, or Fun with Leia”, in honor of the recently announced Sci Fi Experience 2009.
And now, for the fun part:
