Last year I had made
a New Year’s Resolution to make more time for reading. I didn’t set any
number goals but just wanted to try to read more. I also had made a
resolution to keep up on my book journaling and staying up to date on my
book reviews. Well, I’d say I succeeded in reading more but as for the
rest? Not too good. Still as behind as ever on book reviews. And
journaling? That pretty much went out the window! LOL So I’ve spent the
last week getting all caught up in my journal and finally finished about
1 AM this morning (1/20). Hopefully this year I’ll do better on all of
those!
And crazy woman that
I am I decided to up the ante even more. I decided to join the 2007
Harlequin 10,000 book challenge. Which means they hope to get 100 people
to read 100 books this year, with a minimum of 50% being Harlequin books
from any of their lines. I started out with a bang but the real struggle
for me will be keeping the numbers up on my Harlequin reads. I love
several of their lines but never have time to read as many as I like. So
this year I hope to change that. I’ll let you know next January how I
did. J
After finishing
updating my journal and counting this past year’s read here are the
stats…
In audio books I
managed to finish 46 books this past year across assorted genres. For
all other books I read 63 books total. Wow, I take back what I said
earlier about reading more this past year. I actually did worse! In 2005
I totaled 117 that I read or listened to. This year my totals are only
at 109! Ok, I need to redouble efforts this year to read more books! So
I didn’t keep ANY of last year’s resolutions regarding reading. This is
not good.
I still managed more
than one book a week, but not by much. Last year I averaged 2.06 books
per week. This year I think I’m going to try for three books a week.
Maybe that Harlequin Challenge will help me with that.
~~~~ So without
further ado, here is my “Best of 2006”… ~~~~
As with any year, I
had some books that blew me away, some that were just “eh” and some real
wall-bangers. I did discover a few new-to-me authors this year so even
if my numbers were down, it was still a good year if it helped me find
new authors to enjoy. I “discovered” some incredible authors like Ted
Dekker, Ellen Ashe, Deborah MacGillivray, Diana Groe, and Karyn Witmer.
After a lot of raving fans told me I had to try them, I started the
Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters in audio this year. I
read the first 5 but then needed to take a break or I may have OD’ed on
the series. LOL There were some authors this year with their debut book
that totally impressed me like Kari Thomas, Karen Chance and P J
Alderman. I found the absolutely phenomenal continuity series The
Madonna Key by some pretty impressive Harlequin/Silhouette authors
which had me begging for advance review copies. I also went back to my
romance roots and read some books by authors I cut my teeth on in the
romance genre like Phyllis A Whitney and Jude Deveraux.
As has become
tradition, I’ll start with listing those “best of the best” books I
read, the 5 star books. Anyone who knows me is well aware I am very
particular about giving a book a perfect score on my rating scale, so if
I rate it at 5, it was a phenomenal book that I have to rave about to
everyone! They are relatively alphabetical since I journal books by
author, but it’s not going to be a perfect order.
J
Keep in mind not all of these were published in 2006, though most were.
-
The Circle
Trilogy: Black,
Red, and
White by Ted Dekker - I had never read him before
and though I can’t remember what it was that made me pick up
Black
to try, but I’m glad I did! I borrowed them from the library but had
to go buy my own copies in audio to listen to again in the future. I
was blown away by these books!
-
The Mountain Man
by Ellen Ashe – As I said in my review of this
one… Why did I wait so long to try one of her books? I loved this
story!
-
Captive Moon
by C T Adams and Cathy Clamp –
This writing duo is consistently on my “best of” list ever since
they barreled into the paranormal genre with Hunter’s Moon
two years ago.
-
Touch the Dark
by Karen Chance – This urban
fantasy debut was amazing and I can’t wait to read book two! (Which
I have my review copy staring at me to read.
J)
-
The Madonna Key Book 7: The
Seventh Key
by Evelyn Vaughn – This
conclusion to the series was amazing and more than met all my
expectations. I am so sorry to see this series (and this line) end.
-
A Simple Gift
by Karyn Witmer – My local book club read this for one
of our monthly reads and we got to talk to Karyn on the phone about
it. This book was so incredible I cried buckets the last 150 pages.
And I loved it so much I absolutely HAD to share it with my Mom and
buy her a copy of her own for Christmas.
Like I do every year,
I had to compare to last year. In 2005 I read 5 books I considered
worthy of a coveted 5 star read. So I had one more this year, which is
pretty good. Each year my 5 star reads have gradually increased so I
hope the trend continues.
As for other
noteworthy reads? I have several I would be remiss if I didn’t mention
them too.
That wraps up the
best of the books I read this past year. My first love will always be romance novels but
I read more inspirational fiction this year and mixed it up by tossing
in some mysteries as well. A lot of my paranormal books, be they romance
or other genres, were in the fantasy sub-genre again this year.
© Kelley A.
Hartsell, January 2007. All rights reserved.
