Reading in 2010

So this year I read 76 books – nothing like the 200 plus I've seen some people munch through, but an improvement on last year's 65 and much better than the previous few years, where I'd pretty much stopped reading all together.

Reading has again become one of my preferred leisure activities, which was the aim of setting reading goals for the past couple of years. I've noticed that I tend not to read as much when I'm in editing mode versus drafting – so maybe this year I'll read more again (since it's a big drafting year).

Of the 76 books, only three were re-reads – so that's 73 new books, greatly ahead of last year's 52 new books. There were two books I didn't finish – Kaaron Warren's Dead Sea Fruit cause the year ran out, and Dracula cause I just stopped reading it. I'll try again this year, but I'm wondering if such a dense book isn't a good fit for an e-reader.

Last year, I chose a top ten with some thoughts and I'll do that again this year, although it's going to be hard – I had a fabulous reading year, with very few dud books. These are in no particular order.

* Death Most Definite and Managing Death by Trent Jamieson – a refreshing take on urban fantasy for a number of reasons. a) the first person narrator is a man, and he's not an alpha male either – in fact my description of him in book one is 'ineffectual'. b) It's set in Brisbane – what not to love there. c) Making Death an actual business in the real world is brilliant. b) Fabulous storyline that allows for each book to be a standalone, and yet the overall threat is building.

* The Demon's Lexicon and The Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan – I absolutely loved these books. The interplay between demons, magic and the modern world is so new and so real and the characterisation is absolutely top notch. I can't WAIT for the third book.

* Scary Kisses – yes, this has a story of mine in it but even so, it was the best short story collection I read all year. I know that I'm absolutely the target audience for a paranormal romance anthology, but it also included two of my favourite stories of the year – Bread and Circuses by Felicity Dowker and The February Dragon by Angela Slatter and LL Hannett. A very even and enjoyable collection.

* Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts – melding urban fantasy and traditional fantasy – who woulda thunk it? Well Tansy did and created a fantastic world and story and the second book isn't out until April and I want it now!!!!!!!

* Madigan Mine by Kirstyn McDermott – it gently drew me in, and then it horrified me. Honestly, I still think about what Madigan did, what her friends were doing and it makes me feel cold and small.

* Slights by Kaaron Warren – the woman is a freaking genius and I'd hate her, if she weren't so nice.

* The Southern Gothic series (aka Sookie Stackhouse aka True Blood) by Charlaine Harris – this year was the year I discovered Sookie, Eric, Bill the most boring vampire ever (although I understand my feelings on this will be changed by season three) and the rest of the gang from Bon Temps. I started with the tv series (season one was purchased for me last Christmas) and then went onto the books and could appreciate both as different visions of the same story. The most recent book disappointed me a little, but not enough to kill my love and have me panting for both season three and the next book.

* Stardust by Neil Gaiman – not often that you read something and you can hear the author's voice there in your head, reading it to you. I was surprised by how different the book was to the movie. One of my aims for 2011 is to study book and movie and think about what the differences were and why.

* The Zodiac series by Vicki Pettersson – if ever a town deserved to be the setting of urban fantasy, it's Las Vegas and Vicki's done a sterling job with a new vision of UF without nary a vampire or shapeshifter in sight (not that I have a problem with vampires or shapeshifters – see Southern Gothic above). It's a fantastic idea, twinning the notions of the twelve signs of the zodiac and good versus evil to create a stunningly original fight for the world scenario. Not to mention creating Hunter. Yum.

*Shadowglass and Poison Kissed by Erica Hayes – With every book of Erica's I read, I fall more in love. The dark, seemy underworld of Melbourne she's created becomes more real with every book and I love that she takes chances with romances that might not seem the norm but with confidence and a deep knowledge of your characters can really work.

So, what about 2011? Well, books I'm looking forward to include the end of Sarah Rees Brennan, Trent Jamieson and Tansy Rayner Roberts' series. Tracey O'Hara's follow-up to Night's Cold Kiss hits the shelves, which I'm really looking forward to. And then I look at my to-be-read shelf and see everything I didn't read this year and well… big year.

I was going to set 2011 as the year of only reading books written by women. I wanted to investigate the assertion that's been put forward in some of the gender-fail arguments on TOCs in the past few years that men and women just read and write different things and there's nothing wrong with that. However, this year I have pretty much exclusively read women – of the 76 books, only 13 were written by men.

I've decided that I need not so much to focus on a gender, but focus on what I'm reading. So here's my plan for 2011 – aim of one book a week, alternating between male and female authors. Where I can, I'll match genre – so if my first reading is a short story collection by a woman, I'll follow it by one with a man. Urban fantasy with urban fantasy and so on. I'll take notes after each reading of things I noted like style, characterisation, plot, tropes and themes. At the end of each month, I'll report on the things I noticed.

Hopefully by the end of 2011, I'll be a little more informed about what men and women write and whether the argument that men and women just like different things holds weight. Hopefully this considered reading will also help make me a better writer.