Books: A Year in Review

So close. Yet so far.

I set out with the goal to read 40 books in 2009, just like I do every year. And every year I've surpassed the goal.

Not this year.

Maybe it was deciding to start out by tackling Gone with the Wind. At 1,024 pages, that puppy took me 51 days to read. Fifty-one days. That's a lot of pages. And a long time. And seeing February end with two books read? Kind of painful. So it was a bit hard to regroup. But I tried. Yes, I tossed in some short books that I've read before. But I tried to reach that 40 book goal.

So close. Yet so far.

I finished the year with 39 books consisting of 12,594 pages. That's compared to 45 books and 15,397 pages last year. The longest book I read this year? Do you have to ask? Of course it's Gone with the Wind at 1,024 pages. The shortest? Why They Killed Big Boy and Other Stories by Michael Perry at 94 pages (yet I still managed to take three days to read it).

There were some good ones. And some not so good ones. I really liked Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer and I just finished Open by Andre Agassi, had to read about the tennis career of the man who made me fall in love with the game. The worst? This award goes to Pan, Pan, Pan! A Survivor's Story by Capt. Denis G. Murphy. Granted I was expecting much since it was thrust into my hands by an over-eager pilot at AirVenture. If you see it on a shelf, take my advice. Let it sit.

So what's the list of 2009 completed books look like?

1. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
2. Testimony by Anita Shreve
3. The Reader by Bernard Schlink
4. The Broker by John Grisham
5. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron
6. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
7. Mistaken Identity: Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope by Don & Susie Van Ryn and Newell, Collen & Whitney Cerak
8. Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
9. The Innocent Man by John Grisham
10. The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
11. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
12. Why They Killed Big Boy and Other Stories by Michael Perry
13. The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity by William P. Young
14. Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
15. Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde
16. No Limits: The Will to Succeed by Michael Phelps
17. Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty
18. Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting by Michael Perry
19: Thursday Next: First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
20. Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan
21. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
22. Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty
23. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
24. Fourth Comings by Megan McCafferty
25. Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty
26. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
27. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
28. Land of a Hundred Wonders by Lesley Kagen
29. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
30. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
31. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
32. It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life by Lance Armstrong
33. Ford County by John Grisham
34. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
35. It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It by Robert Fulgham
36. Pan, Pan, Pan! A Survivor's Story by Capt. Denis G. Murphy
37. No Bed of Roses by Chris Kennedy
38. The Christmas Tree by Julie Salamon
39. Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi

What's on tap reading wise for 2010? Not sure. I've got a couple on hold at the library that I'm waiting to come in. And there are a few others that I want to read. All I know is I'm not starting 2010 out with a 1,024-page classic.