2009 Overview & Book of the Year

So here it is the summary of the 2009 ratings.

Horrible-1
Bad-1
Okay-7
Good-11
Awesome-7
Total=27 Books

I also read 10 manga/ graphic novels. And new this year we kept track of the movies we watched, and seasons of television we finished which came out to 89 titles. The Big D read 9 books, and listened to 30 books on CD. He also had a James Bond Mega Movie Marathon in which he watched 23 James Bond movies in a row. I managed to get in on 7 of those. (JBMMM titles are not included in the movies/television we watched.)

For the choice of Book of the Year (books with an awesome rating) 2 books are automatically out of the running for being previously read. One of the books is out for being too Juvenile. That leaves me with Second Variety, Ender’s Shadow, Speaker for the Dead, and Uglies. Again this year I am faced with a bunch of Science Fiction choices. I would prefer to choose a book of the year has has a wide appeal, or was at least something that resonated deeply.

Some years the choice has been obvious as with Wuthering Heights or Fahrenheit 451. Last year I struggled with picking a book of the year, and this year I’m struggling again.

I like P.K. Dick, but not every story in Second Variety. The Ender/ Bean books really appeal to only a certain kind of person, and I like my book of the year books to be something I can recommend. Besides that Ender’s Shadow, my favorite so far really has to be read in concert with Ender’s Game to get full effectiveness.

That leaves me with Uglies, and as I thought about it I realized that Uglies would make a very good book of the year. It came to me highly recommended, and I would also highly recommend it. Sure it’s a sci-fi story, but like Fahrenheit 451 serves as a good allegory or warning about the course of pop culture if left unchecked. It dug into what beauty is, and what beauty should be. As well as touching on a lot of things that adolescents face; being part of the in-crowd, expectations, the reason for living, the “cost” of a good time, choices, and betrayal.

With that said Uglies is my choice for Book of the Year 2009.

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be some kind of library.” — Jorge Luis Borges

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