Well we are just about at the finish line for 2009 and, as usual for myself, I’m a bit behind in examining my thoughts on the past years worth of reading and blogging. At the end of 2008 I promised myself that I’d post more frequently and more consistently (with more substantial posts) throughout this calendar year. I’m happy to say that was a pretty big success and, with very few exceptions, managed to post on a fairly consistent schedule.
In terms of hard numbers well:
2008: 34 books reviewed
2009: 70 books reviewed
I know I read a lot this year. I know I reviewed a lot this year. I didn’t know it was more then twice as much as last year. There are some caveats to that number. Namely the amount of video games I played, and completed, is significantly down and that number of music albums I’ve reviewed was also down. That latter is a deficiency I noted earlier this year, and one I kept meaning to correct, but just never got around to. I’m a little disappointed in that fact since I’m a bit terrified to actually calculate the amount of money I spent on music purchases over the last 12 months. Hopefully 2010 will see that change.
Towards the end of this year I introduced “themes” to my monthly reads. It has so far been an enjoyable process and, if not comprehensive in the themes I chose, at least provided a stable base to look at what I was reading and provided some interesting insight into whatever genre or theme I had decided on. I will definitely be carrying that same process forward into 2010 though likely not every month. Though I intended it from the beginning I had intended for each month to end with some sort of post-game discussion on what I encountered during my little sojourns but never managed to actually sit down and do-it. I came closest in October with some of my theme-related non-review posts but it was never quite at the level I wanted it to be.
From the very start I also intended to ground some of the themes with some-sort of non-fiction reading. You can see the remnants of that intent in some of my October reviews that reference Lovecraft’s Supernatural Horror In Literature. I’m going to make a better effort at with my next project, hard-boiled detective fiction, my starting the project reading Raymond Chandler’s The Simple Art of Murder. It is a bit academic (it is the same way my Reading Interests of Adults class operated when looking at genre fiction) I guess, and a lot nerdy, but I’ll direct your attention to the title of the blog. I don’t know if I can pull it off, but I’ll certainly try.
With the exception of my friend Val’s look at The Strain I’ve been the only poor sap posting around here which, at times, can be a bit trying. I’d like to be able to convince some of my friends to write some kind of review for this blog here. Or at least convince Ricker (you’ll note some of his science related posts in the archive during 2008) to try and start posting again.
Regardless, 2009 has been a pretty good year around here and I’m thinking that 2010 will be even better. I’m not going to do another big year-end post with a lengthy best-of whatever but stay tuned tomorrow for, at the very least, my top two reads of 2009.
King of the Nerds!!! 