So I'd also like to do some decade-wide roundups before we move on from the roundups. (I like roundups!) Now, some might argue that a new decade doesn't start until NEXT year and all, but it's still ten years since MOST people were doing decade (century/millennium) round-ups so we'll go by that count, for one thing. And for another thing it's been exactly ten years (ten years and a couple weeks) since I started dating this new, somewhat dorky and obnoxious but at least not BORING, guy, and when you look back at the beginning of that to today, you realize exactly what an interesting span of time that is. Who knew me giving that dorky guy a chance would result in two completely new human beings existing by the end of that decade?

So to start off, I have taken that Year-In-Review survey and edited all the questions, as best as possible, to make it a Decade-in-Review survey instead. This is how my answers change:
( The DECADE in Review. Still cheesy, but bigger. )
I do believe that's much more interesting over the course of a decade rather than a year-- it's much more dramatic to see how things develop. Can you imagine if I rounded up the 1990s that way? Or the 80s? It reminds me of when we went to Meadville when I was 14 and I saw a girl on the sidewalk and knew I knew her, then a moment later my mom pointed out that she was the older sister of a boy I'd been friends with in preschool, and it seemed SO INCREDIBLE that I had recognized someone I'd not seen in 9 years. But now it's been nearly ten years since I've seen most of the people I went to college with, but it seems like nothing ago. The difference between 32 and 22 is nothing like 14 and 5....

Anyway, while I was gathering book titles I'd read this year I also decided to do a Best of the Decade list as well. I'm not prepared to stake my life on the results, but I did make a rather nice list if you count that I counted all series as one title, so as not to monopolize the lists (though Terry Pratchett snuck on there twice, seeing as the one wasn't a series book). i think I've decided, then I see things I'd move around or that I've forgotten, so what the heck, here's something:
( My Top Books of the Decade )

I found the Billboard charts and thought of going through them to make commentary on the songs that charted in the past year and/or decade, to make up for me being unable to do that off the top of my head, but I don't feel like doing that now. I still might sometime soon. We'll get to that.

Lots of the questions are dumb for me, true, but what's a turning of the year without the annual year-in-review survey?

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Oddly enough I believe this was the first I've ever changed a girl's diaper. Honestly, I think I'd only ever changed boys before AT ALL before then.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't really believe in new years' resolutions, but I didn't keep most of the no-particular-occasion resolutions I made in the past year, either.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Besides, you know, um... ME? Megan I guess. Think that's, shockingly, it.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
I'm thinking not, but that seems incredible.

5. What countries did you visit?
Imaginary ones

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
Organizational skills.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
April 19
, dur.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Surviving? I know-- squeezing in time for myself. Not saying I USED that time wisely, but I definitely made a point of taking it occasionally.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Keeping my house clean. And by "Clean" I mean "able to be walked through without tripping on junk," not "spotlessly scrubbed." Sheez, I KNOW I'd never be able to pull THAT off!

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
My usual post-partum abdominal malfunctions.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Major Grey's Chutney. Well, I don't know if that was the VERY best thing I bought, but it was the best thing I'd never bought BEFORE.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Sam. He's a good kid.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Maddie. NO no, I'm kidding! Just the usual, your hypocrites and haters 'n 'at.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Into the Money Merge Account, that's how it works. It's all very mysterious.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Bruce Coville not hating Billy 'Arrison.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
I don't know. My Darling Madeleine Clementine, maybe

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? ehhh... maybe happier. It varies.
b) thinner or fatter? Definitely thinner! Though maybe more definite this time two weeks ago... Christmas does that to ones junk food access...
c) richer or poorer? even. Maybe a bit poorer, if you factor in my not working this summer and various surprise expenses

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
writing

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
wandering around and/or staring into space trying to figure out what I ought to be doing instead

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Cheerfully, except that I already spent it and all. I spend it every day of my life, thanks!

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Yes. It's terrible, though, I give and give and all she does is scream at me and demand food. She's even pulling my hair right now. That smile gets me every time though.

22. How many one-night stands?
How many people have an answer for this?

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Word Girl. It's on PBS in the afternoons. Sam will come down from his nap and turn on the TV which is still set on PBS from the toddler-preschooler shows he was watching in the morning and I'll come in all, "You had enough TV already Sam, turn of...oh wait this is funny."

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Aside from my tendency not to hate anyway, I can't think of anyone new I particularly dislike, either.

25. What was the best book you read?
If I did indeed read Nation in January rather than last december, then, that. Best 2009 book, eh, one a deez.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That Maddie likes to sing already.

27. What did you want and get?
A PIANO.

28. What did you want and not get?
Organized.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
I can't think of any movies I have watched from ANY year this year.

30. What did you do on your birthday?
I can't remember. Did I do anything for my birthday at all? Oh, I looked it up, people made me food.

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Probably organization again. Also, no car accidents for Jason.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Continue wearing maternity clothes because they're the nicest newest clothes I own.

33. What kept you sane?
Reading while nursing.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Peeta Mellark, if fictional celebrities count. I also like Chris on Sesame Street a lot, though I'm not sure I'd go so far to say I fancied him.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Making the two "sides" in politics be nice to each other.

36. Who did you miss?
My family. The one I came from, rather than the one I made, I see THEM quite enough.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Maddie!

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
A baby will ALWAYS find the one object on the floor you missed that she most shouldn't put in her mouth.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"Another one bites the dust."

I've been working on these in bits and pieces and just might post it BEFORE 2009 ends (in some time zone)! I have a books of the decade list too-- I'll get to that one soon too. Be patient.

It would be nice if I could do songs of the year/decade as well, but I can't think of any that really stand out (and that I know the actual titles of). I'm not sure I even know the names of the songs I HATE, though that list is probably more interesting. No, much as I do have that "rockin'" in my username, the "librarian" part is the only one I've really kept up with, which is why you're stuck reading about my taste in books YET AGAIN. Because I'm typing this paragraph last, I can say that, it's funny, I tend to actually INFORM you about what the book is ABOUT more consistently at the TOP of this list, but dwindle away to just going on about my OPINIONS on the books the farther down this list (and back in time) you get. I think I'm interesting the whole way through, but that's me. Let's begin:

Okay, I thought I read a lot more new books this year than I did. What actually HAPPENED, I think, was I read a lot of 2008 books very early in 2009, at which point they were still "new books," but now I really don't know where I can properly draw the line. When I pulled out all the book titles I read that I figured might make a Top Books I Read List, then pulled out all the 2009 titles, I had less than 10! And I only (going back to the original list) read like 12 or 13 2009 books, total! So, I'm not doing a top ten. I'm doing several separate Favorites of The Year lists instead.

So, Favorite 2009 Books Read in 2009! In author order, because not only can't I get ten of them, I can't decide how I want to rank them, either.
( Read more... )

So, to fix the whole "I read a lot of new books but they were really from last year" problem, here is my Top Ten(ish) 2008 Books Read In 2009:
( Read more... )

Finally, I will do the Best Stuff From Years BEFORE 2008 that I Read in 2009, except that if I truly did that, about 2/3s of the list would be by Diana Wynne Jones. So I'll try my best to do a no-particular order overview of a variety of titles instead. Many of which are by Diana Wynne Jones.
( Read more... )

SOOO, there's 30-some books I've read this year that I've liked a lot, I'm sure you'll find something YOU like here, too....