Recap for 2007

So 2007 was a year of adaptation. I was learning alot at my job since I was required to be licensed by summer. I took my Series 6 license in March and passed my 63 license in May. I also started to work with Pensions in October... so looking back on 2007, my career definitely moved forward.

My daughter spent her first full summer in Texas while doing her Marketing internship. It had been a long time since we spent the full summer together and it was very nice. Now she is back to school completing her junior year and getting ready to go to Japan this summer.

Looking back I can see that Summer was definietly the most challenging time for my reading but I still kept a good pace and I made a dent on my TBR pile. Let's take a closer look....

I read a total of 128 books this year, Higher than last but lower than the previous 3 years. I think this was a good pace for me and I feel I have found my rhythm.

I discovered 29 new authors! My favorite first reads were from Authors suggested on my Reading group through the Author of the Month program. Jo Goodman wow'd me with A Season to be Sinful and Diane Perkins was a jewel in The Improper Wife. I also discovered Jonathan Stroud's YA series called Bartimaeus and although I really loved his work, the ending of the series stopped me from naming him among my great discoveries for 2007.

This was not a good year for series, but I did discover one that made me pickup all the books and read them within a few weeks, Gaelan Foley's Knight Miscellany. The lowest grade any of them got was a B which was Jacinda's story. I did make a dent on a few other series I had already started. Ward's Brotherhood series is still the best series I have read. They have all passed into my keeper pile and I don't foresee tiring of them. I read three more books from the Carpathian series so now I have the first four under my belt. I really hope I don't tire of them since I have all the books. They have to be read in small doses, though, not like Ward's Brotherhood or Kenyon's Dark Hunters, which I also attacked this year, reading 3 more of them as well as a few of the short stories from the anthologies.

Talking about Anthologies... I still dislike them. I didn't meet my goal of reading 1 a month. I read 6 anthologies (less than last year) and of those only two got higher than a C (Wish List and Midnight Pleasures). I have found that I don't have too many of them left in my TBR pile so I'm keeping that particular goal off of my 2008 resolutions.

Favorite Authors for 2007 were Gaelan Foley (as mentioned above) who consistently delivered on her promise for excellence. J.R. Ward gave me two new Brotherhood books and a few other stories as Jessica Bird. Lisa Scottoline, Linda Fairstein, Laura Lee Guhrke, Philip Pullman, Christine Feehan and Sherrilyn Kenyon round off the favorites for this year.

Now on with some stats...
I read 6 Ebooks & 20 Audiobooks.
I reread 2 books (Navin's Meet Me at Midnight & Maxwell's The Marriage Contract)
My best reading month: December with 16 reads
Worse Reading Month: July with just 7
I read a total of 44,667 pages in the year for an average of 349 pages per book.

This year I read many more historicals than last year. 49.2% of my reading were historicals, 36.7% were Regency era. I read 30.5% Contemporaries and 19.5% Alt. Reality/Fut/Fantasy.

The majority of my readings came from publishings in the last 5 years with the most being published in 2006, closely followed by new releases in 2007.

For 2008 I would like to read just as many books as I read this year. It was a good amount without it taking away from other activities. I don't have any real goals for this year, maybe post more on my blog.. at least once a month with the AOM reading. Other than that... pickup less new books than those that I have read.

Happy Reading in 2008!!!