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Seeing how I\u2019m only pages into the 1000+ page novel The Instructions<\/a> and likely won\u2019t be finished anytime soon, now seems like an appropriate time to review my year in reading. Again, discounting the many articles and chapter selections that have been thumbed, read, and annotated, here\u2019s a breakdown of what my reading time was spent with:<\/p>\n Books read in 2010: 108<\/p>\n Comics and graphic novels included in reading total: 17<\/p>\n Books of poetry included in reading total: \u20285<\/p>\n Books reread included in reading total: 3<\/p>\n Academic & Education related books included in reading total: 23<\/p>\n YA and Junior Fiction books included in reading total: 19<\/p><\/blockquote>\n A few thoughts and highlights (maybe you wan’t to compare them to last year’s<\/a>):<\/p>\n The single best short story collection I\u2019ve read in a long, long time is Stories of Your Life and Others<\/a> by Ted Chiang. If you take no other recommendations, I strongly recommend seeking this one out.<\/p>\n In terms of highlights, my year ended with a run of rather fantastic fiction that came out this year. In particular, Skippy Dies<\/a> and Room<\/a> were tremendously fun reads I can\u2019t imagine anyone disliking. Enough praise (and criticism) has been heaped on Freedom<\/a> to make anything else here seem like hyperbole. Be that as it may, I struggled getting through the first third or so of this book before it completely enveloped me and left me just awed by the end \u2013 the last sentence perhaps the apotheosis of a stellar text. Along the lines of popular novels, I am left wanting to know Larson\u2019s larger plot arc for the Millennium series<\/a>. As formulaic as the texts were, I\u2019ll admit to having been caught up in all three when reading them.<\/p>\n A fitting addition to the BSRAYDEKWTDWT<\/a> collection, Tree of Codes<\/a> is as beautiful as it is perplexing a read. The process of creation (both by the author and the publisher) is thrilling and the end result is as much art-ifact as it is poetic narrative. This post\u2019s title and image are representative of the lucid wakefulness that is evoked through the cobweb-like pages that stick and pull from each other.<\/p>\n I also spent a significant chunk of reading time on YA and junior fiction, which is probably one of the best tips I can give to newer teachers; having a handful of tomes you can book talk to the most wayward of readers will go miles in keeping reading sustained throughout the year. As much as I flew through popular works like the Hunger Games Trilogy<\/a>, I Am Number Four<\/a>*, and the Uglies<\/a>, I would point to Looking For Alaska<\/a> as the title I keep coming back to. Just a great read as a whole and I can\u2019t say that John Green\u2019s other works have disappointed both in the classroom and as leisure reading. Going Bovine<\/a> is also a quick read, despite its heft. For a slightly younger audience, Neil Armstrong is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me<\/a> is great. The ending felt telegraphed from the opening chapters and yet I still felt myself caught up emotionally in the way Marino pulls the plot together nicely in the concluding pages.<\/p>\n Essex County<\/a> is a great graphic novel \u2013 so different from Lemire’s current series, Sweet Tooth<\/a>. I recommend both as entry points for people that don\u2019t consider themselves comic book readers.<\/p>\n Oh, I\u2019m pretty sure that Stoner<\/a> is heaped with praise annually by anyone that encounters it. That being said, it is just incredible. If you don\u2019t believe me, the singer of the band that put out my favorite album of the year also agrees<\/a> [music of 2010 post to follow shortly].<\/p>\n