2010 Mid-Year Recall

2009 was the first year I started tracking my book reading by month and book purchases by year, and it was quite enlightening to see how many books I read during that year.  I didn’t think to capture a mid-year tally for 2010 but seeing many of you recall your reading list at the halfway mark has gotten me excited to see how my reading count has changed from last year.  So here goes,

| On Reading |

The change is 18.3%↓ from prior year but I’m happy – and quite surprise – that I averaged about 16 books a month.  Sadly though, only 8 were books from the 2009 & Prior Years’ TBR pile which means less than 10% dent! I need to do better than this!

| On Buying |

Majority of my readings are from books I purchased on my own.  Books I won from a giveaway or ebook freebies are not included in the book count above.  Even excluding those books, the net change in purchases is 45.8%↑.  Not hard to guess that I love to book shop!

| On Favorites |

I’m not going to list favorite books read because there are so many to choose from the list of awesome authors I read.  Instead I’ll just recount author and series I’ve really enjoyed so far:

Goodness, all 4 authors and series I’ve listed are new-to-me authors for this year AND Urban Fantasy books.  To my biggest surprise, I had found myself wanting to read Young Adult Urban Fantasy books and the two authors I decided on entertained me above and beyond my expectations of reading the YA genre.

Elizabeth Jennings is Lisa Marie Rice’s alter ego and the two books by her that I’ve read and greatly enjoyed was Homecoming and Pursuit, which are, respectively, Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense.  Homecoming is a soothing read, featuring a sweet romance in a utopic environment while Pursuit grabs your attention and entrances you with a suspenseful plot, sexual pulls, and emotional connection between two survivors.  I love the treasure I found with EJ’s writing and look forward to gaining the rest of her backlist and future releases.

| On Honorable Mention |

Though not quite a favorite series but still enjoyable, I’ve alternated the past several months glomming Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld and Kay Hooper’s Bishop/Special Crimes Unit series.  Between the two authors, I’ve read 21 books so that says something of my enjoyment if there ever was any question!

…

I did good on the first half of 2010 – great pick of new and old authors, books, series, and genres.  I can’t wait to see (and hope) that the 2^nd half of the year will be just as great or even better!