books 2007: Year in Review

[supercheesegirl]

So, I never did an end-of-2007 reading post. And I read 128 books in 2007! I like taking a look at my numbers periodically, especially because I can already tell that 2008 is a much different reading year than 2007 was. (So far in 2008 I have read more nonfiction than fantasy. Can you believe it??) And doing a wrap-up allows me to recommend to you the very best books I read last year, and there are few things I enjoy as much as recommending books! Hence I present to you the 2007 Reading Year in Review.

If you'd like to see the full list of what I read last year, go here. I'm not going to try to link to my post about every book I'm going to talk about because, hey, the memories function does that for me. So go take a look if you'd like more information about any of these in particular.

First off, some very general categories and totals:
Nonfiction: 19 (6 of these were archaeology books)
Fantasy: 45
Fiction: 32
SciFi: 6
Poetry: 11
Literary Journals: 14
Graphic novels (non-vampire): 1

Total for the year: 128

Definitely happy with that total. I'm also struck by the fact that 2007 was a much different reading year than 2006--a lot more fantasy novels and more archaeology books, and poetry books and literary journals don't show up on the 2006 list at all, so this is a major improvement!

No vampire-related books for 2007, interestingly. Although I never logged the Buffy season 8 comics on the books list, and I've been reading those, so maybe they fulfilled my blood lust.

Rereads: 15. I reread the first four Charlie Bone books and the first six Harry Potter books, notably, and several of my favorite books of poetry.

My favorites for the year, by category:

Best Fantasy: This is hard, because I read a lot of solid fantasy last year, and a lot of sub-par easy fantasy (I'm guessing this is why the fantasy total is higher than usual). The obvious choice, though, is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I absolutely loved it. Next, I'd say Guy Gavriel Kay's The Last Light of the Sun. Not my favorite of his, but a good solid and wonderful book.

Best Fantasy Series (ha): Last year I discovered Garth Nix's Sabriel series. So amazing. I absolutely loved those books, I can't even state how much. I also really loved Dark Lord of Derkholm, by Diana Wynne Jones, and its sequel. (I'm not counting Harry or Charlie here because they were not newly discovered in 2007.)

Best SciFi: Have to go with LeGuin here, since I didn't read that much that I would classify as "science fiction". Both The Telling and The Eye of the Heron were excellent, but I would lean toward The Telling as my favorite of the two.

Best Mainstream Fiction: This one's hard too. I read three Lisa Carey books and two Mrs. Pollifax books in 2007, so there's those. I can't choose among the Lisa Carey books, she's just fantastic across the board. I loved The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue--a really good entry in the "ghost love story" niche. Surprise nomination to Forever in Blue, the conclusion of the Traveling Pants series, by Ann Brashares--I really, really enjoyed it.

Best Nonfiction: Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert was my favorite memoir/creative nonfiction that I read, hands down. I also really, really loved Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh, and I cannot recommend it enough to absolutely everyone. Ann Fadiman's Ex Libris deserves a nod here as well.

Best Archaeological Nonfiction: Probably Brian Fagan's The Rape of the Nile, closely followed by The Keys of Egypt by Lesley and Roy Atkins. Both of these documented Really Important Stuff in the history of Egyptian archaeology, and did a good job of doing it--making it into a good story, not dry at all.

Best Poetry: I didn't read too much poetry last year, but what I did read was wonderful. I adored Gilgamesh. I loved Claudia Emerson's Late Wife, and I also loved Gary Young's No Other Life.

Best Literary Journals: My favorites were the Fairy Tale Review and Cave Wall. Good stuff, yo.

Best Reread: I reread American Gods, Stardust, the entire Harry Potter series, and my three favorite poetry books ever: The City in Which I Love You by Li-Young Lee, The Star Spangled Banner by Denise Duhamel, and Meadowlands by Louise Glück. I'd say that makes for a darn good rereading selection.

Best Surprise: I've mentioned all of these already, but Garth Nix shocked me with Sabriel, Ann Brashares shocked me by growing as a writer in Forever in Blue, and Diana Wynne Jones gave me a pleasant surprise in Dark Lord of Derkholm. Gilgamesh was a good surprise, too.

Funniest Book: Diana Wynne Jones gets the nod here too. Derkholm was just too good.

Best Prostitute-Related Book: 3 this year! Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott (nonfiction), A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies by Ellen Cooney, and Memories of my Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I did not love any of these books, actually, but I think Sin in the Second City was the best.

Least Favorite Book: Well, there were three books this year that I didn't finish--I'm not counting them in the final total, because I didn't finish them, but I got far enough to know that 2 of the 3 books I gave up on were awful. There was a Da Vinci code knockoff that I can't even remember the name of that was just dreadful, and a nonfiction book about threesomes that was deadly boring (file that under "Worst Surprises"). Of the books I finished, I have to say that I hated Susan Mitchell's Erotikon. There were other books I didn't love, but I'm pretty sure this was the only one I actively hated, so it wins the Least Favorite of the Year. Sorry, Susan Mitchell.

I'm looking at my list, and there's not a ton of stand-out amazing books on it from last year. I read a whole lot, but of the 128 there are only maybe 30 books I'd classify as really excellent, and that's taking Harry Potter into account. Overall, though, it was a good reading year, especially because I took up with poetry and literary journals again. That's probably the best news.

Comments

[sleepyworm.livejournal.com]

I'm a little surprised you didn't have any issues with the last harry potter book. It was a bit of a letdown for me in quite a few ways. :(

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I actually really loved the last Harry Potter book. There were a lot of things about it that made me really happy, and I thought it was a worthy ending. I didn't love the epilogue, but the bulk of the book, I really liked.