While I didn’t receive books for Christmas (actually I did get one I already own so I’ll be exchanging it) I did manage to get a lot of bookish goodies. My sweet husband and girlfriends really know me well. Here is some of the loot I got:

• Two cute t-shirts. One says “So Many Books, So Little Time” and the other one says “Addicted to Books.” I’m going to be making quite the fashion statement – books are the new black!
• A Moleskine journal, cool pencil and some Stabilo pens. Yay, more stuff for journaling.
• A little handmade book which will be perfect for jotting down titles and any other bookish information. It’s already in my purse.
• The Nancy Pearl Librarian Action Figure – I’ve been wanting this for ages!
• The Reading Woman calendar. Pretty pictures and good book quotes.
• German day-to-day calendar. I think this is my husband’s not-so-subtle hint that I need to learn more German.
• Peace Love Books mug. Ah, what a great way to enjoy my morning coffee.

There were lots of other presents and I definitely felt very spoiled. Thank you to my loved ones.

I feel like there is so much stuff to catch up on since I’ve been on break. I still have a couple of good books I need to mention that I read towards the end of last year, and I’ve already read a couple of challenge books so stay tuned for those reviews.

Happy New Year everyone! I’m back from the blog break and wish I could tell you that I read so many books while I was on break but alas I didn’t read as much as I hoped. I did visit bookstores quite a bit so you’ll be hearing about my book purchases soon.

But first let’s talk about the year in review:

* Total books read in 2007: 91 (same as last year – weird)
* Books by women: 67
* Books by men: 24
* Fiction: 38
* Mystery: 32
* Classics: 1
* Non-fiction & memoirs: 8
* Young Adult: 8
* Sci-Fi: 4
* Books in translation: 5
* Books borrowed from library: 14

The biggest surprise for me was reading a few YA novels and actually seeing the Sci-Fi genre make my list. I owe the Sci-Fi books to the Once Upon a Time Challenge. Other things that I thought were odd were the few books in translation I read. Half of the books I read aren’t by American authors but I guess they are mainly coming from British authors.

My reading goals last year were quite simple – read more non-fiction, read five classics and make a dent in the reading stacks. Well, the TBR stacks are still out of control despite reading more from my stacks and sadly I only read one classic, but I did manage to read a few more non-fiction books than what I typically read so a good effort.

What do I want for this year, aside from a lot of good books? Well, I liked reading a wider variety of genres and I’d like to continue with this trend. Actually, I just found out about Kate’s Short Story Challenge and am probably going to join in as I always complain about not reading short stories and how I’d like to change that.

I hope there will be more classics and more poetry on my list and I plan to continue working away at my reading stacks. Most of all I want to enjoy the reading challenges (whether I finish them or not) and continue to participate in my book groups.

Here’s hoping everyone has a great reading year ahead!