This has been an exciting reading/reviewing year for me. I discovered some excellent authors, chatted with lots of writers, hosted some awesome giveaways, and had a ball. I felt a bit guilty about dropping out of all the challenges I so optimistically joined this year, and I'm still feeling guilty about the mountains of books I still have to review. Still and all, it's been a good reading year. I'm looking forward to more fun this year on BBB. Thanks so much for all of your support in 2008 - I hope you'll stay with me for 2009 and beyond!

Here's how my reading year turned out:

I read 116 books in 2008 - 50 more than last year!

Of those, 37 were written by men, 77 were written by women and 2 were written by a man/woman combination.

15 of the books I read were non-fiction, 101 were fiction.

46 were YA/children's books.



Of the books I read this year, these were my favorites:

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger
The Rackety-Packety House by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Ida B by Katherine Hannigan
The Grace Valley trilogy by Robyn Carr
Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs
The Talented Clementine by Sara Pennypacker
Virgin River by Robyn Carr
Taken By Storm by Angela Morrison
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

In the waning days of December, I was feeling way too pooped to do a wrap-up post on my reading. Now that the kids are back in school and I feel some of my energy returning, I decided to take a look at my stats. I'm glad I took a look - the numbers are interesting.

In 2007, I read:

66 books total (give or take; I know I didn't review every book I read. Still, this number seems really low to me.)

Of those books:

25 were written by male authors; 39 were written by females; and 2 were written by a male/female team

59 were fiction; 7 were non-fiction

1 was a short story collection

19 were YA novels

I also abandoned 3 books and completed 1 challenge.

I read a lot of books I really loved. The best 3 were:

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Very, very interesting. My goal in 2008 is to read more, especially non-fiction. I'm also going to keep a running list of books read on the sidebar - that will make my 2008 wrap-up post much easier :) I've also got a ton of challenges to tackle. Furthermore, I'm going to try to finish up several series of which I'm currently in the middle. So, stay tuned. Lots of fun stuff is coming up!

Happy reading this year. I look forward to reading all of your blogs!