2009 in Books: 47

Whilst I have little doubt that the web is a wonderful thing, I personally waste a lot of time online reading half-formed, half-baked, off-the-cuff opinions. There are a lot of things that are better said in 300 pages than 140 characters. Unfortunately my mindless clicking online leaves far less room for books than I would like. At a minimum I would expect to read 50 books in a year, unfortunately (thanks to that ever encrouching web) 2009 saw me read a mere 47, or rather, finish 47 books; my shelves are littered with half-read books which if I return to I will feel it necessary to start again from the start.

The work related books: 16
'Work' can be stretched to cover a multitude of subjects that I am interested in, from sociology, through the narrative, to Second Life.

Unfortunately some of the work related books are far less enjoyable. Often (although not always) these were the ones that I had offered to review for a journal and therefore have to struggle through to the end.

Whilst some books are always worse than others, without a doubt Knowledge Networks: The Social Software Perspective (Premier Reference Source) was not only the worst book I read this year, but one of the worst publishing efforts I have ever seen.

Other non-fiction: 19
There isn't much of a theme to the rest of my non-fiction, although I possible got a bit carried away with books about Samuel Johnson.


The one with least merit is The Impulse Factor: Why Some of Us Play it Safe and Others Risk it All; don't even think about buying this book. The keen-eyed wondering what happened to book number 19, it was HOW TO USE BOOKS, I can only presume that it was the lack of picture that mean't Amazon would let me add it to a widget.

The Fiction Books: 12
Curiously my fictional reads of 2009 both started and ended with an Adrian Mole, and there are the usual inclusion of personal favourites such as Grisham and Irving. But beyond that it is a curious selection of odds and ends.



Conclusions
Clumped together it looks a slightly bizarre collection, especially the fiction shelves (I believe Mr Majeika was free in a cereal box a previous year), but there again I suppose a lot of people's do. As with every other year I shall resolve to read far more in 2010; maybe I should also resolve to read better books in 2010.