2010 Year-End Reading Notes

I don't think I'll be finishing any more books before the year is out, so I am putting together a wrap-up of this year's reading highlights, lowlights, and everything in between. 

1. Best book of 2010?  Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden was the best book I read this year. It was intense and heavy and oh, so beautifully written.

2. Worst book of 2010? This one could be hard to pinpoint because if a book is not reaching me on some level I do not hesitate to re-shelve it. But if I had to pick my least favorite finished book I would have to go with The Woman Who Can't Forget by Jill Price. Why was this even made into a book?

3. Most Disappointing Book of 2010? The Cider House Rules by John Irving and Interview With The Vampire by Ann Rice. They were just not as good as I thought they would be. 

4. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2010? The Road by Cormac McCarthy. As grim and gruesome as this book was, I just really really liked the message it conveyed through such sparse writing.

5. Book you recommended to people most in 2010? Both of Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road and Through Black Spruce. 

6. Best series you discovered in 2010? I am not fond of series. I don't know if it's the authors or the fact that a story goes on and on and on that I don't like. I even tried Steig Larsson this year but he crashed and burned pretty quickly too. So, no.

7. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2010?   Bill Bryson.

8. Most hilarious read of 2010? The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson. 

9. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2010?  Dracula by Bram Stoker and  The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, and probably The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett too.

10. Book you most anticipated in 2010? The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I quite enjoyed this book, but perhaps not as much as I had hoped; it meandered a bit too much in the middle.

11. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2010? Huh, like I could pick just one ?!

12. Most memorable character in 2010?  The police inspector in Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment. He plays a small part but is the very picture of patience, composure and restraint. He is so cool and assured that Raskolnikov has no other option but to turn himself in, 'Like moths to the light.' 

13. Most beautifully written book in 2010? Cherry by Mary Karr. This author creates literary magic.

14. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2010?  Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is one of the most thought provoking books I read this year. There's so much more to it than just a 'monster' story. Read it.  Also Your Call is Important To Us by Laura Penny is a heartening call on all the bullshit that's being thrown around in the media and politics.

15. Book you can't believe you waited UNTIL 2010 to finally read? Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I would have loved this book in my teens and twenties!


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