2008 IN BOOKS

Thanks to Reading Project ’08, I read a decent number of books last year (I don’t have the exact figure right now, but it was more than in 2007), most of them fiction (I tried to make my top-10 lists but quit when I realized I had a dozen novels on one list and only one nonfiction book, Bonk, on the other). Technically I’m still working on Reading Project 2008, since I’m only halfway through the Jeeves and Bertie oeuvre, and that’s not the only reason I’ve decided against doing an official Reading Project ’09. There are currently 67 books on my library to-be-read list and at least a dozen unread volumes piled up on top of my bookshelf, not to mention all the books I keep swearing I’m going to reread, so I’m going to spend the year concentrating on whittling down some of that backlog. Several of my TBRs were inspired by Reading Project ’08, so there’ll be some fun little echoes here and there. It would be great if I could manage five books a month (that’s one per week, plus a little extra one crammed in here and there, which is totally doable as long as you read a lot of slender YA literature) and then blog about it in neat little increments, but we’ll see. I know that model will completely break down if I decide to revisit Dickens. Or if I travel, or start spending more time with my friends, fulfill my resolution to get a decent amount of sleep every night, or generally have a life. But luckily for you, since I spent January in a state of near-hiding, I did read five books and intend to tell you about them the next time I post.

Speaking of books: if you ever read the Little House series (and if you didn't, log off right now and get thee to a library), be sure to catch Half-Pint Ingalls’ updates on Twitter! Sample: “No Ma, I didn’t mean the squiggles of candy syrup I poured in the snow to look like they spell out I HATE YOU BABY CARRIE.”