What I read in the Year 2009

My look at my reading for the past 25 years has brought me to 2009. It’s a year in which I was working part time, had teenagers at home and two dogs to look after. I can’t, therefore, understand how I could have read 469 books in the year when currently, as a retired person with significantly more time available, I usually average about 350 books each year. I think that there is a significant difference in the books I read now than I did then – I read more meaty books now including a lot more non-fiction, classics and literary fiction. A look at 2009 tells me that few of the books in my list had any real substance although obviously I enjoyed them otherwise I wouldn’t have read them.

I recorded my books in this year in a lovely hard backed notebook which shows the spines of penguin books on the cover. It’s bigger than the notebooks I had been using. I think that it was a gift from my sister-in-law. The notebook was thick enough to be used for four years in a row and it’s still in good condition.

The first book that I read in the year was Salvation in Death by JD Robb. This is one of a long series of books about police investigations in New York in the near future. They are light crime novels and often include some romance. They shouldn’t be taken seriously but I have found all the books to be very enjoyable – the author knows how to tell a good story. You can find my review of one of the book in this series here.

The last book that I read in the year is also a lighter crime/suspense novel. It’s Breaking Point by Suzanne Brockmann. This is the ninth in a series of novels featuring men and women in the armed forces (especially SEAL teams – we are in America) or the FBI. All the heroes are brave and full of integrity and fight the forces of evil for the greater good of America – and they fall in love. This one is about a brave woman in peril and a rescue by the FBI and Special Forces. There are many of this type of book around and I certainly read a lot of them at this time but this particular author, like JD Robb, tells a good story and grips the reader. She also includes disabled, black and gay people in her books as main characters which certainly wasn’t usual practice in popular fiction of this type in 2009.

My notebook records that I read a lot of similar books to these two during the year from a number of writers, mainly American. I still read some of this type of fiction these days but a lot less than I did in 2009.

Among the romantic suspense, urban fantasy and cosy crime which made up most of my reading in the year I also did get time for some more serious books. I note that I read a lot of Bill Byson this year and a few history books and biographies. I read Jeannette Wall’s autobiography The Glass Castle, Robert Hutchinson’s book The Last Days of Henry VIII, Necropolis by Catharine Arnold and Bad Science by Ben Goldacre all of which I would recommend.

Reading, for me, is about entertainment, learning new things and escaping from my reality. I think that 2009 reflects all of those aspects.