Don't Hate Me Because I Love to Read

On the first day of computer class in high school we had to stand up and tell the class our name and what we like to do. I stood up and said, "My name is Tia and I like to read." I promptly sat down halfway on my chair and ended up falling on the floor.

My brothers love that story. It illustrates both my nerdiness, but also how I've loved reading forever. I've loved it since my mom took me to the Longview library and I found treasures bound in creamy white bindings with little black stickers stuck inside. I've loved it since my grandma gave me my own copy of Beatrix Potter's Mrs. Tittlemouse and my mom read it to me on her lap as I leaned on her and felt the vibration of her voice against me. I've loved it since college when I almost had an anxiety attack searching for the fiction books in the UO library. I plan to keep loving it.

In 2007 I started keeping a list of the books that I read each year. It's fun to look back on my favorites, and interestingly I have read more books each year. This year I started listing those books on the right of my blog's sidebar but since it's nearly a new year and time to start a new list for 2010, I wanted to recommend the books I ingested this year that were my favorites before they get wiped away:

The Help
Little Giant of Aberdeen County
Middle Place
Sing Them Home
A Homemade Life
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
The Whole World Over

The Help, Sing Them Home, The Whole World Over and The Little Giant of Aberdeen County were all kind of epic type books I sunk my teeth into and did not want to end but the others mentioned were entertaining favorites as well.

In 2008 my favorites included Water for Elephants, Among Other Things I've Taken Up Smoking, Love Walked In, Belong to Me, The English American, and the Tale of Edward Sawtelle.

In 2007 I read a lot of ho hum books. My favorite book was probably On Beauty.

Feel free to share your favorites in the comments! I always love a good recommendation. Happy reading in 2010!