List of Top Reads of the Year

My goal this year was to read a wider range of books from a variety of genres (I also wanted to make a dent in my Atlantic Canadian reading list) . . . and to include more nonfiction.  I'm not sure I ever really manage to stick to my goals.  New books attract my eye and off I go in another direction, but I think I have read a wide range of books .. . just not as many in as many directions as I'd intended. This coming year I'm aiming to be more selective.


And I still haven't completely broken myself of the compulsion to finish books I start . . . even if I don't like them. I'm getting better at leaving them behind, I just don't do it often enough (hence the need for more selectivity).

Books read: 148 

Books by men: 88

Books by women: 57

Books by both (or involving both, i.e. translations): 3

Fiction read: 127

Of the Fiction . . .

Novels: 84

Poetry: 18

Plays: 5

Short Stories: 5

Children's Lit/YA fiction: 15

Nonfiction read: 21

Of the Nonfiction . . .

Essays/lectures/letters: 4

History/Biography/Memoir: 5

On Literature and/or Poetry: 6
Gardening/Outdoors/Food: 6

Books in translation: 5

Books that were re-reads: 19

The top 5 prose fiction reads from this past year (regardless of year of publication and excluding canonical and/or quasi-canonical). Listed in no particular order (oh, and not including re-reads):

• Walt Whitman's Secret by George Fetherling. Best example of intelligent, subtle literary fiction I've read in a long time.
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel 
• Darkmans by Nicola Barker
• Atonement by Ian McEwan
• The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch   

Honourable Mentions:


Three great mystery series I started reading this year are the Flavia de Luce mysteries by Alan Bradley (beginning with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and continuing in The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag), the Inspector Pekkala series by Sam Eastland (beginning with this year's Eye of the Red Tsar), and the Stieg Larsson books (read and loved the first one!).  I'm looking forward to reading the rest of each (some new instalments of the Bradley and Eastland are coming out in 2011!).

Top 5 Poetry books read this year. In no particular order (excluding re-reads/classics/canonical):

• Light Falls Through You by Anne Simpson (2000)
• That Other Beauty by Karen Enns (2010)  I've recently finished this collection of poems and found it quite wonderful.  A lengthier post is in the works.
• Rites of Alienation by Douglas Fetherling (1988) Fetherling rarely disappoints.  I could have put any of the Fetherling collections read this year on a top 5 list.
• The Good News About Armageddon by Steve McOrmond (2010)
• Windstorm by Joe Denham (2009) Its tone and subject bear some similarities to the previous collection, but the style is quite different.  I was completely blown away while reading it recently and will attempt a suitable post about it in future.

Honourable Mention:

Really, this list should be a top 6, because Julia McCarthy's Return from Erebus was also a favourite poetry read this year. Just brilliant!

Top 5 nonfiction books of the year (not including re-reads):

• Journal of A Solitude by May Sarton 
• Absence of Mind by Marilynne Robinson
• Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster
• Grammar Matters by Jila Ghomeshi
• Travels By Night by Douglas Fetherling

Reading goals for the coming year:

I'm still hoping to work more nonfiction into the reading diet. (Elusive goals may still be worthy goals.) And I'm hoping to make a dent in that TBR shelf. The TBR shelf that has been suffering from great recommendations from lovely bloggers ... but I'm not complaining. :)  

I wish you all a fun, safe evening of celebrations, and a brilliant, book-filled new year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!