First off, hot damn, did I ever meet my goal of 100 books for 2008.

I did a couple of things differently this year - first, because my son is now super into having me read him chapter books - which have ranged from classics like The Wizard of Oz to insipid Transformers tie-ins, I started tracking those separately, instead of counting substantive classics that I might actually choose to read on my own as part of my own count (as I did with things like Roald Dahl last year. The second is that I gave myself permission to not read things that I wasn't enjoying. Which means that rather than having my "couldn't finish" list consist of one book that actively revolted me, if a book didn't engage me and I didn't care about picking it up again, I just didn't. It was kind of a lovely feeling, and I actually wonder if it contributed to my longer reading list, since I wasn't forcing myself back to things that didn't capture my attention. The third change was how I listed - going in order of reading, as opposed to alphabetically by author. I like all of these changes and plan to keep them for 2009.

Anyway, my totals:

117 books read entirely in 2008

2 started in 2007, finished on 2008

62 books read with the boy

6 books in progress (one of which I finished just this morning)

2 books in progress with R

9 books kicked to the curb

An interesting thing about those last 9, too - 5 of them were by authors that I've read before and liked and of those, I read and enjoyed books by 4 of them just this year. Three were books in series were I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, but just couldn't get into the second. Three of the 9 were books in well regarded YA series. Another was a television tie in for a show I enjoy.

Of the books in progress, one I've already finished, two are books of short stories or essays that I fully expect to finish in 2009. I suppose I should make finishing the other three part of my reading resolutions for this year, in addition to reading another 100 books in their entirety.

The reading with my son doesn't really take too long to look at - most were series books, most were at least mildly educational, either by design or by virtue of being classics.

Now, the meat.

Breaking down the 117 that I read entirely in 2008:

* 108 were new to me, 9 were re-reads (if you count the fact that I had already read the text of Stardust)

* 20 were children's/ya books (I didn't count some things are are sometimes shelved as YA in the library, such as some of the manga/graphic novels which were not specifically aimed at these age groups, S. Myers "The Host" or the Juliet Marillier books, which while certainly appropriate to a YA audience don't struck me as being marketed as YA - so, this could potentially be about 10 higher)

* 22 were graphic novels, 1 of which was a GN version of a book I've read several times, another of which was related to a book series)

* 2 were non-fiction (1 book of essays, 1 true crime)

* 10 were books of short fiction

* 83 were installments of various series, of which 13 were YA, 17 were graphic novels,

* I read 13 new authors, accounting for 37 of books read

* there are 47 unique authors represented

I am rediculously pleased that I read way more than my 100 book goal - I want to read more of substance next year, though.