2009: The year in books

At the moment my tally for 2009 stands at 138 books. If I can force myself through the rest of The Secret History of Science Fiction by tomorrow night, it will be 139, but that book will not feature in this post regardless, so onward.


Seven excellent (fiction) books:
M.T. Anderson, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume II, The Kingdom on the Waves
Roberto Bolaño, 2666
A. S. Byatt, The Children's Book
Kelly Link, Pretty Monsters
Neal Stephenson, The System of the World
Shaun Tan, The Arrival
Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

Books I gave as gifts:
Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren
Adam Gopnik, Angels & Ages
A. S. Byatt, The Children's Book
Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Shaun Tan, The Arrival


This was the year I rediscovered sff; hell, this was the year I rediscovered reading for fun. I very much hope that I can keep up the reading in 2010; my goal is to expand my reading range, as well as, in general, to read at least 100 books. We'll see. On that note...


Five 2010 books I want now: 
Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard
A Wizard of Mars by Diane Duane
Lord Sunday by Garth Nix
Cast in Chaos by Michelle Sagara
City of Night by Michelle West


With two prominent exceptions, all the non-fiction books I read this year were excellent, and are recommended. Relatedly, I didn't post about Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama, but it's great, and I think it's a book (along with The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing) that every U.S.-ian should read.

All the links go to the Dreamwidth entries, but there may be more discussion on the LJ posts.

And beneath the cut, without links-back or italics,

( the full list )

One last Yuletide post

Everything I have open in tabs, unread, has been recced to the comm already; almost all of these have too. Contrary to appearances, there is a filtering mechanism at work here! But Yuletide is full of awesome writing.

Relatedly, if anyone wants to take a stab at guessing which fics I wrote, go Yulegoat-wild! I very much doubt that anyone will be able to, since Yuletide 2009 doubled my finished fanfic output by 200%, but regardless, here are a few hints:

1. I wrote four fics: two in Yuletide and two in Madness.
2. I have written in none of these fandoms before.
3. One has been recced to the comm.
4. None are in really popular Yuletide fandoms, and none are explicit.

On the offchance that any one gueses correctly, I will owe you a story, at least 500 words. Comments screened (if you comment about the recs I will unscreen).


( Spirited Away, album fic, composer RPF, Hidden City, My Little Ponies, Chronicles of the Kencyrath, Earthsea, Darkangel trilogy, Temeraire, The Prisoner, Hook )