Bye bye 2008! Top Books of 2008 List

Okay, I know. I'm just a tad bit slower than I should be in finishing off the old and embracing the new. But, hey! At least I'm officially caught up on my 2008 reviews. I've got a few more from 2009 to do to get completely caught up, but I'm feelin' mighty perky now that I'm done with 2008.

I looked through my library over at LibraryThing, (the world's best site for cataloging my books) and now I'm sad. 2008 didn't produce a single 5 star book for me. By way of explanation, a five star book has only one criteria in my rating system. It is a book that I know I'll read at least once more. Simple? Yep, it is! Four stars means I liked it.....a lot, four and a half mean its so close to being a five that the only difference is that I probably won't read it twice. Three stars mean its average, and that's not a bad thing. Two stars mean its sort of like the D that kids get in school, not the worst, but sure in the heck could be better. One star means the author had an idea, just no clue where to go with it. And less than one star, usually means a DNF or Did Not Finish because it was just toooooo boring!! No DNF's this year! In fact, overall 2008 was a pretty good year, bookwise. I wish I'd read a 5 star, but a couple came pretty close.

My two top books were Guernica and The Geography of Love. I liked them both so much that I gave them to my mom for Christmas. (Not just because I'm cheap either, but because I really loved them!) I loved them, but won't read either of them again....sorry...no 5 star on these! I also really liked First Daughter and Say Goodbye, I rated them at four and a half, but they were closer to the four than the five for me.

I discovered some wonderful new authors, they will be such fun to watch and read. Its always interesting to see how an author changes and grows throughout their career. I remember the first Jodie Picoult book I read was My Sister's Keeper. (A five star in my opinion) I was so enamored with the book, I started reading all her work in chronological order. I started with Songs of the Humpback Whale and have been proceeding through her bibliography. Her first book was okay, maybe a 3, and she's just gone up from there. I think a lot of the new authors who had debut novels out this year have amazing futures ahead of them.

I completed 57 books this year, which is an all time low for me. I just have no clue how other bloggers can read 100-200 books a year. The most I ever managed to read was 85, back in 2002. Maybe I had read more prior to '02, but that was the first year I kept track. I can look at past lists and know if I took time out that year for my other hobby quilting. Apparently in 2002 I didn't sew a stitch! With the low number this year, you'd think I was quilting up a storm, but nope. I haven't worked on a quilt in over a year, and I really need to get myself in gear. I have one half quilted and an ongoing applique that I'm designing myself that has about 5 of the 12 blocks completed. And a stack of books....and I really need to reformat the upstairs computer, oh crap, taxes need to be started. Gotta get Bodie's room painted. Gotta get the wallpaper stripped in the living room and get it painted........yikes......what the heck am I doing blogging??