Hey, I had Christmas almost 2 weeks late – can’t I be late with my 2011 Book Review? Heh.

2011 was one of my worst years on record for reading books. I’ve been keeping track of my books read since 2001, and from 2006 on, I’ve managed to read over 50 books in a year. 2008 was my highest with 65. This year, I only finished 51. World of Warcrack was mostly to blame, because in April & May, I only finished 1 book and instead was heavily into the game. I can also blame A Song of Ice and Fire for being such long books…

This was the year I finally purchased an eBook reader. Though I’ve been reading books on my phone for awhile (since 2008), I decided to buy a BeBook Neo reader. And the reason I bought it was a bit, um, unusual. Many of my friends were excited about The Game of Thrones coming to HBO and so I decided to try reading the series. The waitlist from my library was long, but the eBook wait wasn’t as big. So I decided I’d finally break down & buy an ereader. (redstarrobot‘s reviews helped me decide what I wanted.)

The Neo went on sale at just the right time, so I ordered it, put in the request for the 4-book set from my library (they didn’t have individual eBooks, alas). And after the BeBook arrived, I was in love. I loaded it full of free eBooks and bought a couple of eBooks and checked out books from the library. There’s just something nifty about sitting at home in your comfy chair and ordering a book from the library – and reading it minutes later!

I managed to get the first two books read before the time ran out, so I got myself on the waiting list again, only to be too impatient and buy the 4-book set online. Heh. A Dance with Dragons, OTOH, I’ve only eborrowed from the library. (When it’s cheaper, I’ll get it.)

Thanks to recommendations from gregmce, I bought a few eBooks from a small press publisher, Small Beer Press. And discovered the Armitage family (down, judiang!) in The Serial Garden by Joan Aiken. I found her stories about this somewhat magical family delightful. Many were funny, some were quite sad, all were entertaining. I also bought a couple of eBooks from A Book Apart, which focuses on short books about web development. Here’s hoping I can support more small book publishers in 2012.

This was the year when Ben Aaronovitch got his first two non-Doctor Who books published (Midnight Riot/Rivers of London and Moon over Soho), and I enjoyed them. Looking forward to book 3 (and beyond). There were some new Pratchett books this year and some new books by my favorite webcomic artists. I even finally read the Albert Campion novels I never got around to reading. (Just have the ones by Allingham’s husband to read. And probably rereading the short story collections in case I missed any of those.)

So, although it wasn’t my best reading year by far, I’d say it was a success. Many more hits than misses, which is always a good thing. Discovered a few new (to me) authors which I’ll revisit in the future. And this year is already off to a good start with 4 books read already (though two were VERY short books). Arriving tomorrow should be 2 new children’s books (well, they’re 40+ years old, but new to me) along with CDs of Sylvester McCoy reading them. Plus I received quite a few books for Christmas. So the future is bright when it comes to books!