2010 Recap - or, What the hell did I do with all my time this year?

In 2010 the number of books that I read dropped sharply.  You see, for the last 15 years or so I used to go every night to a local sports bar/restaurant, where I would drink coffee, smoke, and read for several hours.

Every night.

In 2008, for example, I read a total of 132 books.  At the beginning of 2009, however, smoking was outlawed in public establishments, and I stopped going to coffee and reading every night.  Consequently, in 2009 I only read 58 books.  Not too bad, really, still more than one a week, yet still less than half what I read in 2008.

In 2010, I quit smoking completely, but didn't get back into the habit of going to coffee and devoting two or three hours per night to nothing but reading.  The total number of books I read in 2010 dropped to only 41.  However, the 41 books that I read were mostly meatier and more substantial than (higher page counts!) than what I'd been reading in the previous two years.

So while I really don't do New Years' Resolutions, I am going to try to read more this year, and spend less time fooling around with things that aren't as important to me.  But we'll see how it goes!

And in case anyone is interested, here is the list of books completed in 2010.  The number before the title indicates the books' place in a series, and the date is the date I finished reading it.

4. The Charlemagne Pursuit	Steve Berry	1/8/2010
6. First Lord’s Fury	Jim Butcher	1/15/2010
1. The Innocent Mage	Karen Miller	1/28/2010
2. The Awakened Mage	Karen Miller	2/4/2010
1. Empress	Karen Miller	2/16/2010
2. The Riven Kingdom	Karen Miller	2/25/2010
3. Hammer of God	Karen Miller	3/7/2010
1. Foreigner	C.J. Cherryh	3/15/2010
4. The Sunrise Lands	S M Stirling	3/25/2010
10. Small Favor	Jim Butcher	4/2/2010
11. Turn Coat	Jim Butcher	4/8/2010
Your Heart Belongs to Me	Dean Koontz	4/16/2010
Breathless	Dean Koontz	4/20/2010
A Magic of Dawn	S L Farrell	5/6/2010
7. Tragic Magic	Laura Childs	5/11/2010
6. The King’s Buccaneer	Raymond E Feist	5/12/2010
7. Shadow of a Dark Queen	Raymond E Feist	5/21/2010
8. Rise of a Merchant Prince	Raymond E Feist	5/31/2010
3. Eclipse	Stephanie Meyer	6/7/2010
9. Rage of a Demon King	Raymond E Feist	6/17/2010
10. Shards of a Broken Crown	Raymond E Feist	6/25/2010
Cold Fall (James Bond)	John Gardner	7/7/2010
3. The Infinity Gate	Sara Douglass	7/15/2010
10lb Penalty	Dick Francis	7/19/2010
Zorro	Isabel Allende	7/29/2010
5. The Paris Vendetta	Steve Berry	8/9/2010
6. Aloha, Candy Hearts	Anthony Bidulka	8/12/2010
16. Sweet Poison	Ellen Hart	8/25/2010
17. The Mirror and the Mask	Ellen Hart	8/31/2010
1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo	Stieg Larsson	9/7/2010
2. The Girl who Played with Fire	Stieg Larsson	9/23/2010
3. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest	Stieg Larsson	10/6/2010
2. The Moses Stone	James Becker	10/12/2010
4. Vieux Carre Voodoo	Greg Herren	10/19/2010
1. Soulless	Gail Carriger	10/25/2010
2. Changeless	Gail Carriger	11/2/2010
3. Blameless	Gail Carriger	11/22/2010
13. Towers of Midnight	Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson	12/9/2010
The Dying Earth	Jack Vance	12/13/2010
Here Abide Monsters	Andre Norton	12/19/2010
Cross Fire	James Patterson	12/27/2010

Happy New Year, everyone - and Happy Reading!!