With all the writing I’ve been doing in library school, blogging in depth has fallen by the wayside a bit, but I have been keeping up my “Books Read” list.  I read 54 books and graphic novels in 2009.  Eighteen of those were related to my young adult literature class in some way.  It’s amazing how much you can read when you’ve got a deadline. 

I don’t believe I set a definite goal for 2009, but 36 books was probably about right, and it’s what we’re left with if we take away the books I read for class.  I read 35 in 2007 and 34 in 2008, so 54 is quite a jump.  I’ll be taking a children’s literature class in the summer or fall, so that will push the numbers up a good bit I expect, but I’d like to set a goal for reading entirely out of class.  I feel like I should come up with an elaborate formula but I think we’ll just aim for 40.  Since I do count graphic novels, and trade paperbacks of comic series, it’s not hard to push the number up quickly.  I think 40 is a good number because it’s a bit of a stretch but it’s not at all out of reach.

So here I record it for all of you to see: I will finish 40 books or graphic novels (including TPBs) in 2010.

I say “finish” instead of read because I started reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 2009 but I’ve not finished it yet.

My favorite of the 2009 list by far is Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon, Dean, and Nathan Hale.  It’s a graphic novel with a Western twist on the traditional Rapunzel tale.  I’d strongly recommend it to fans of the fractured fairy tale genre and people looking for cool girl main characters.

What was your one favorite thing you read in 2009?