christianreader | Books for 2010 (Reply)

Statistics:
Total number of books: 275
Total number of pages: 67.510
Average number of pages per book: 245
Average number of pages a day: 185
Rereads: 120 (quite possibly highest number ever, and DEFINITELY this high thanks to BSC)

Genres: (%)
Childrens Fiction - 5
Young Adult Fiction - 5
Young Adult Sci-fi/Fantasy - 19
BSC - 34
Historical fiction - 2
Fiction - 4
Sci-fi/Fantasy - 4
Chick-lit - 2
The Classics - 2
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense - 3
Non-fiction - 8
Memoir/Autobiography/Biography - 5
Poetry/Short-stories - 1
Christian Fiction - 2

A list of all books I've read this year can be found at GoodReads here

Authors That I Fell in Love With This Year:
No new ones unfortunately, but I fell deeper in love with Walter Moers.

Best New Series:
Percy Jackson - Rick Riordan
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Book With No Name - Anonymous

10 Best Fiction
The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear - Walter Moers
The Book With No Name - Anonymous
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
The Gorgon's Gaze - Julia Golding
The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
Halfway to Forever - Karen Kingsbury
Who Do I Lean On? - Neta Jackson
Born at Midnight - C.C. Hunter
Dark Life - Kat Falls
Under the Dome - Stephen King

10 Best Non-fiction
The Happiness Project - Gretchen Rubin
Too Busy Not To Pray - Bill Hybels
84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
Garlic and Sapphire - Ruth Reichl
Ex Libris - Confessions of a Common Reader - Anne Fadiman
Good Book - David Plotz
The Year of Living Biblically - A.J. Jacobs
The Gift of Fear - Gavin de Becker
Hearts on Fire - Various
All By My Selves - Jeff Dunham

10 Worst for 2010
Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger
The Struggle - L.J. Smith
Stilleleg - Julie Clausen
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
Chosen - PC. & Kristin Cast
Frygt - Helene Tegtmeier
Eternal Hunger - Laura Wright
The Love Dare - Stephen Kendrick
The Penny - Joyce Meyer

Awards:

Best classic-I-should-have-read-earlier: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. It was LONG, but well worth it.

Most Thought-Provoking Young Adult Novel: Tunnelmanden by Dennis Jürgensen. A madman is out to kill people. You can either tell him who to kill or keep quiet and wait to see whom he chooses by himself.

Best Non-Fiction: Too Busy Not To Pray by Bill Hybels. Very thought-provoking book

Best Retelling of a Legend/Fairy Tale: Wicked by Gregory Maguire. But it's also the only retelling I've read this year, so easy award to win. The musical is MUCH better.

Biggest Tear-Jerker: Halfway to Forever by Karen Kingsbury. I pretty much sobbed my way through the last half of it. It's GOOD though.

The Book is Better Than the Movie Award: The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. The movie was a fairly average chick-flick, but I LOVED the book!

The Movie is Better Than the Book Award: The Love Dare / Fireproof - not that I loved the movie, but it was SO much better than the book!

Epic that Completely Captured my Attention: World Without End by Ken Follett. But no surprise there since Pillars of the Earth did as well.

Worst Book That Everybody Raved About: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. Honestly, I don't understand what the fuss was all about. I thought this was rather boring and pretty much had to force myself to finish it.

Honorable mention: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I didn't actually think this was bad, but it DEFINITELY does not deserve all the hype there's been about it.

Best Children's Book: Professional Shrink by Mac. Terrific book! If you have kids or the heart of a child, then I highly recommend it. It's one of the few children's books I've read that didn't need the rosy-coloured glasses of nostalgia to make me love it.

Best Memoir: I've read too many memoirs this year!!! A three-way tie between All By My Selves by Jeff Dunham, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson.

Most Surprising Book: The Book With No Name. I had no idea what to expect, and even knowing the plot, it's a book I'd generally not have expected to like, but I was intrigued and loved it.

Best Book I Would Never Have Read If Somebody Online Hadn't Told Me To: There are a LOT of those this year, so I'm hard pressed to pick just one. There's Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles as recommended by

aurillia, Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl as recommended by

eattheolives, Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman as recommended by

dichroic... and that's just the ones that jump out at me. Thank you!

Hands-Down Best Book I Have Read All Year For once I can actually answer that! The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers. FANTASTIC book!