2009 wasn’t a stellar year for reading, but was certainly stellar in other ways. The big highlight for me was the International Year of Astronomy (reviewed here). I’m still basking in the glow of quasars, supernovae, and the Big Bang, and I think that will continue for a good long while. The other major highlight was moving to Blogger. It was a bit tricky, but completely worth it. Except for the small issue of <p> tags (Blogger is allergic to them), I have been thoroughly happy in my new blog home.
This year I also finished building (and quickly filled) new bookshelves, went to the travelling British Museum exhibit, and discovered virtual volunteering. I joined Distributed Proofreaders, which prepares e-books for Project Gutenberg, and have edited 750 pages so far. Here are some other stats for 2009:
Number of posts: 96
Number of comments: 595 (so far)
Special observances: International Year of Astronomy; Blog Action Day; International Literacy Day; World Book and Copyright Day
Books read: 32
Fiction: 16
Poetry: 2
Nonfiction: 14
Biography: 3
Audio: 12
Library/Librivox: 23Books reviewed: 10
Fave books: Born to Run; Say Everything; Decoding the Heavens; Cosmology; Middlemarch; War & Peace (read in 2008 but blogged in 2009)
Fave featured art: Measure of Time; Water by George Kirkpatrick
Fave featured music: Music of the Spheres
Fave online discoveries: Orbis Pictus; Stellarium
365 Days of Astronomy (“stuff that’s far”) podcasts heard: 182
I bought myself a fabulous 120 GB Zune earlier in the year and started downloading audiobooks like crazy. I listened to quite a bit of Dickens as well as all of the Anne of Green Gables books I could find. Middlemarch was definitely my favourite audiobook of the year, though, with The Enchanted April an enjoyable second.
This was also the year I discovered Twitter, and I choose to blame my lack of progress in serious reading on the many many interesting links shared by the good people on Twitter. More links is really the last thing I need, but I’ve gotten to like my tweeple to much that I couldn’t think of leaving. It’s just another lane in the information superhighway that I have to learn to cross without getting smushed by a semi full of books and art and history and all the other things I like.
I am very much looking forward to 2010. As I announced yesterday, it is the International Year of Biodiversity, and I will be posting the details of a Biodiversity Reading Challenge tomorrow. I plan to finish those books that have been languishing in my sidebar for an embarrassingly long time, and also to start experimenting with taking reading notes electronically. But what I look forward to the most on this dreary and drizzly December 31st is reading outside in the sunshine again with the birds singing and the breeze mischievously trying to turn the page before I’m finished.
Happy 2010 everyone!
