The Printed Page

Ah, the absolute amazing-ness Of books, books, books. Books tell stories. Books record facts. Books relate history And how to make snacks.

They come in many a shape and size, These books, books, books. Books can be fat. Books can be tall. Books can be skinny, And books can be small.

Oh, the many things you find When you look in a book, book, book. There are books about London. There are books about space. There are books about cartoons And even how to race.

You can find a story about anything In a book, book, book. About a family and children, About wizards and witches, About sadness and sorrow, Or about little fishes.

Unless you were born knowing, History is learned from a book, book, book. You learn battles. You learn dates. You learn cultures And once living greats.

Suppose you want to make a snack, what to do? Look in a book, book, book. Books help make cookies. Book help make cakes. Books help make snow ice cream And even chocolate crepe.

Oh the multitude of authors Who write books, books, books: Avi, Duncan, Keene, Babbit, Cooney, Carroll, Baum, Tolkien, Mitchell, Lewis, Lee, Homer, Cleary, Steinbeck, Pierce, Rowling.

Oh how much time you can spend Reading books, books, books. Oh how many books there are To read, read, read. I’m done. I must go now To my books, books, books.

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Another year come and gone. It felt like the year of the book around here or maybe too many books as the title of this post implies. As a book lover and avid reader I hesitate to say too many but there were times when the stacks were truly daunting.  I was on overload most of the year facing looming deadlines, mostly self-imposed I’m sure. Pleasure reading was becoming a distant memory. I took a much needed Bookation in October. I have good intentions of cutting way back on review books. I’m sticking to favorite genres and no more than 3 review books a month. I’m learning the word ‘no’. Accepting fewer review books might bring a change to Read It Forward. I’m still mulling over what I’ll do with RIF so more to come.

Looking back over 2009 I was amazed by some of my reading stats. I read 140 books! for a total of 52,671 pages. Of those 140 books, 119 were new-to-me authors; 108 were review copies with 103 published this year and 2 with publication dates next year.  54 were eBooks (I love my Kindle DX ). I DNF’d 32 books of which 26 were review copies. That last sentence is actually disheartening to me. While I won’t hesitate to DNF a book I’m not enjoying it does bother me when its an debut author’s book. I can only imagine how difficult it is to juggle work and family responsibilities while pursuing the dream of becoming a published author.

Of those 119 books from authors that were new-to-me I added several to my favs/auto-buy list. Some of my new favorite authors are Jack Kilborn (horror); Paul Levine (suspense/thriller); Joel Goldman (suspense/thriller); Blake Crouch (suspense/horror); David Ellis (suspense/thriller); Daniel Levin (suspense/thriller); Chelsea Cain (psychological suspense/police procedural); James Scott Bell (mainstream legal thrillers); Chris Kuzneski (suspense/thriller); Pai Kit Fai (historical fiction); Christine Trent (historical fiction); Ted Dekker (mainstream suspense/thriller); Travis Thrasher (mainstream suspense/thriller). I’m pretty sure if you’re still reading this you spotted a theme.

And for the visual crowd here are book covers from some of my favorites this year. This isn’t all inclusive but the highlights.

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I selected this week’s Book Art to honor the felines in our family ~ those who passed recently and those whose love still shines bright.