Looking back on 2009, it appears that it was the “year of indulgent reading” for me. After spending years giving up most of my reading time to kids books and books about affiliate marketing and SEO, I spent almost all of this year reading what made me happy. Here’s a list of what I read this year, as close as I can remember. I know I read a few others that I gave away in our book night swap and a few that I checked out from the library and don’t  remember anymore. But this should be most of them.

Obviously my tendencies this year were toward chick lit, young adult, and supernatural. Prior to this year, I read mainly legal thrillers and chick lit. I can’t believe that the only business book that I read this year was Trust Agents! And more than business, Trust Agents was about life and connections. So I don’t think it even counts as totally a business book.

46 books total. That’s about a book a week! I think 4 of them were actually over Spring Break alone. And the Harry Potter books took more than a week each. There was only 1 book that I didn’t finish completely (I really, really tried but just couldn’t get more than halfway). I’m in the middle of 2 right now but won’t finish either by tomorrow. I guess they will be the start of my 2010 list!

Walt Disney: An American Original (Bob Thomas)
*Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (J.K. Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (J.K. Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J.K. Rowling)
*Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling)
The Tales of Beetle the Bard (J.K. Rowling)
A Walk to Remember (Nicholas Sparks)
Message in a Bottle (Nicholas Sparks)
-Losing It (Valerie Bertinelli)
Change of Heart (Jodi Picoult)
There’s No Place Like Here (Cecelia Ahern)
Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination (Helen Fielding)
Julie & Julie (Julie Powell)
-Tale of Edward Sawtelle (until I gave up)
*Dead Until Dark (Charlaine Harris)
*Living Dead in Dallas (Charlaine Harris)
*Club Dead (Charlaine Harris)
*Dead to the World (Charlaine Harris)
*Dead as a Doornail (Charlaine Harris)
*Definitely Dead (Charlaine Harris)
*All Together Dead (Charlaine Harris)
*From Dead to Worse (Charlaine Harris)
*Dead and Gone (Charlaine Harris)
The Undomestic Goddess (Sophie Kinsella)
Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married (Marian Keyes)
-A Minor Indiscretion (Carole Matthews)
A Touch of Dead (Charlaine Harris)
Trust Agents (Chris Brogan and Julien Smith)
Remember Me? (Sophie Kinsella)
The Kingdom Keepers (Ridley Pearson)
*Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
*Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)
*Marked (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
*Betrayed (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
*Chosen (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
*Untamed (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
*Hunted (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
*Tempted (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
*Burned (P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast)
Vampire Diaries I (L.J. Smith)
Vampire Diaries II (L.J. Smith)
The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
*Beautiful Creatures (Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl)

Stars denote the books that you couldn’t pry out of my hands while I was reading them. I would recommend pretty much everything else that I read this year as well except for the ones with minus signs. If you are a fan of  books similar to the ones I read this year, I would be anxious to hear what else you recommend for me.

If you asked me what relaxes me more than anything else, I would have to say a good book. An enticing book will take my mind away to another world and allow me to focus on something besides working, the kids, the house, or my other responsibilities. The only down side to really good books is that if I get taken away too far, I don’t want to do anything else!

I’m not against reading business books, biographies, or even self-help books. I like learning in general. I’ve read everything from books about how not to be co-dependent to a history of the Conner Family in Indiana. They do say that variety is the spice of life (or at least I think I read that somewhere).

Despite all of that, I still find myself wanting to get lost in fiction. In the last year, I’ve even gravitated toward what they call “young adult” books, something that I would have never imagined. But after 4 Twilight books, 7 Harry Potter, 10 Sookie Stackhouse, 2 Hunger Games, 2 Vampire Diaries, and 6 House of Night books, I’m beginning to gravitate more and more toward the fantasy genre. After years of “chick lit” and legal thrillers, I have found my true escape.

This weekend I read a brand new YA fantasy called “Beautiful Creatures” by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. While I was first getting into it, I read it off and on when I didn’t have anything better to do. By the halfway point, I was reading on every commercial of the Steelers game because I literally didn’t want to put the book down. Although the book is about high school students (and witches!), I was captivated by that feeling of danger mixed with the purity of first love that you only find in YA books.

Something else that I have discovered is that I am particularly drawn to the series books. I think it’s because I never want a good book to end. When you find a good series and can keep reading week after week after week, it’s like you really become a part of the world the author has created. Now I anxiously await not only the next Sookie Stackhouse novel, House of Night novel, and the final book of the Hunger Games trilogy (all coming this year) but also the remaining 5 books of the Beautiful Creatures series.

If you have any interest at all, I recommend checking out some of the books listed above. Even if you think to yourself “I don’t read kid books,” you might be surprised at how entertained and relaxed you will be when you enter the world of wizards, witches, vampires, or werewolves. If you are already a fan, let me know what I might be missing!

(**Note that the Sookie Stackhouse novels are NOT Young Adult like the others. They are similar to Twilight but with a lot more sizzle!)

Harry Potter versus Twilight. A rivalry of epic proportions, literally. Or is it?

Because I own a Twilight merchandise website, I have set up a number of different Twilight Google Alerts. For the last few days, those alerts have been dominated with links to sites debating the upcoming Harry Potter movie versus the Twilight movie coming out in November. Everyone wants to know who “wins.”

The odd thing to me is that it really isn’t a competition. Yes, you can figure out which will have more ticket pre-sales through Fandango. And yes, you can figure out which generates more revenue. But the bulk of the articles and forum posts are not about actual numbers. They are about putting Harry Potter as a whole and Twilight as a whole up against each other in some weird contest.

I read Twilight first. Read the whole series on recommendation of Janet and her Book Nook. I read it so fast and was so taken by it that I scoured the Internet for more sites to let me still live in the “Twilight” world. It was a little obsessive. I was so upset that it was over that I couldn’t even imagine reading anything else and liking it as much. Friends kept telling me to read Harry Potter, so I eventually gave in. I actually became more obsessed with HP than I was with Twilight!

Now that I have had time to reflect on both (including watching the first Twilight movie and the first 5 Harry Potter movies), I can say with certainty that there isn’t a competition between them. The only thing that ties them together is that they are both fantasies and there are multiple books. The themes are different, the audiences are different, the writing styles are different.

Harry Potter and Twilight can co-exist. Everyone will have their favorites. Wear your Harry Potter shirt on Monday and your Team Edward shirt on Tuesday. See Half Blood Prince in July and New Moon in November. There is room for everyone to love both in different ways and at different times.