Overview
It’s hard to compare the rating of this year with last years rating because I only finished 27 books in 2009. The reason for that was the total FAIL of Robinson Crusoe, which slowed my reading to a crawl during the first half of the year. I still can’t understand why its a classic. The only thing I can think of is that everyone else read the abridged version which left out most of the second half of the book.
Also last year I was unable to use the emoticon rating system and actually had a five point rating, not a 7 point system. 2006 and 2007 also have the 7 point system. 2008 uses the five point one.
Summary of 2010 Ratings:
Loved It– 18
Liked It A lot– 7
Liked It– 10
It Was Okay– 11
Kinda Bad– 2
Bad– 3
It Stunk– 0
Total= 51
Book of the Year
Although I marked a lot of books with a Loved It rating many of them do not qualify for the Book of the Year simply because they are well, Junie B. Jones books, four of them in fact. The two Stephen R. Lawhead books Scarlet and Tuck are good, but don’t represent the best of Lawhead, so like last years Hood they are out of the running too. Serenity is out because its a movie adaptation. I would be greatly ashamed if the best book I read during a given year was a movie adaptation. Stephen King’s Wolves of the Calla also gets dropped for shame. It’s way too pop-culture not to mention graphic to be real book of the year material.
Two other books Holes and Seven Day Magic are very good books and I highly recommend them. In fact if I were to separate out a YA book of the year I would choose Holes. The 7th Tower series is also very good YA and I have been tempted to consider it. The series was so completely engrossing and the idea refreshingly new that I speed through the entire thing. However, it hasn’t withstood the test of time. The further I get from the reading the less it appeals to me, and I wonder if there is enough depth for very many re-readings.
That leaves me with four real nominations for books of the year; A Name of Her Own, The Case for Christ, Starship Troopers, and As Sure as the Dawn.
A book of the year pick has to be more than a book I really enjoyed reading. First of all it has to be re-readable and recommendable to a wide audience. The book also has to be entertaining and have a lasting impression upon readers. With those things in mind my pick for book of the year is… A Name of Her Own by Jane Kirkpatrick.
19. A Name of Her Own 4/18/10
