As one year shuffles aside to make way for another.

Time for a new year stocktake.

2009 has been tiring. It seems that at any one time in the second half of the year at least one member of our family was sick. This is obviously not a big deal in the scheme of things and I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining. I have two adorable kids and an amazing wife who mean the world to me.

Last time I posted here was at the end of October as I set about writing a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. For the record I wrote just a touch over 2,000 words in the first week, then decided to quit while I was behind. The previous year I finished November with something like 16,000 words. That would-be novel has slowly crept up to almost 30,000. I’m still proud of it. I think that is a lot of words to have written regardless of what happens to them fro here. Even this years 2,000 words I am proud of. There is a long way to go, but I really like the story idea. I am getting ever closer to 40 years old and think that if I don’t manage to finish a full draft of a novel in my lifetime I will regret it. So I’ll continue to plod along and be inspired by the books I read and the writers I connect with on Twitter and elsewhere.

I also want to keep blogging in some form or another. I am hoping to build some momentum on aboutthebooks.blogspot.com, which I maintain as part of my job. This means I will post my children’s and YA book reviews there along with reviews from other staff and young people. I expect that on bookboy.net I will link to any of my own reviews posted there. This makes bookboy.net a little redundant unless I do something more with it. I have considered making it a bit more of a personal blog, but I’m not sure if I’m that sort of guy. Mind you, I’d then be free to talk about bikes and woodwork and my shed and Canadian holiday plans as well as books. I have also wondered whether I should give it a library focus. I’m not sure. On a technical level, a couple of times I’ve come very close to shifting it to Posterous for the ease of posting via email or bookmarklet and its nice integration with Twitter. Maybe I will. Maybe I won’t. I flirted with getting readinghacks.com going again in November and December and gave it a little redesign. Maybe I’ll try that again.

A lot of maybe in that paragraph.

I have a great job. Sure, there are days I’d rather be doing something else. But seriously, how many people get paid to read picture books?

Speaking of reading, I did a bit of that in 2009 too. According to my librarything records I read 48 books in 2009 (this doesn’t include picture books of course). This is not many by some people’s standards and a lot by others. It’s probably about average for me over the last few years since I started working with kids & YA books. I have only reviewed about half of them. This bothers me. Not sure if I’ll have the time to catch up on all the reviews so I may just focus on may favourites.

For the record, at a quick glance my favourite reads of 2009 (not necessarily published in 2009) are:

• The adoration of Jenna Fox, by Mary Pearson.
• The astonishing life of Octavian Nothing, traitor to the nation, volume 2: the kingdom on the waves, by M.T. Anderson.
• The forrest of hands and teeth, by Carrie Ryan.
• Into white silence, by Anthony Eaton.
• Little brother, by Cory Doctorow.
• Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
• Paper towns, by John Green.
• Vulture’s gate, by Kirsty Murray.
• Angel fish, by Lili Wilkinson.
• Genesis, by Bernard Beckett.

In other literary highlights I attended the splendid Reading Matters conference where I listened to a bunch of great writers and met some of them. Including a few from the list above. My signed book collection welcomed additions from MT Anderson, James Roy, John Green, and Bernard Beckett. I am kicking myself for not getting Anthony Eaton to sign a copy of Into white silence for me. His talk about visiting Antarctica was wonderful and the book actually made me shiver while curled up under my doona.

So what’s in stall for 2010?

• Going by recent years, I will probably end up reading in the vicinity of 50 books.
• I will try to write 250 words a day. Most of the time.
• Bookboy.net will continue in some form. Probably.
• You will often be able to find me on twitter.
• I will escape to my shed or on my bike every now and then.
• I will make the most of being a husband and a dad.
• I will try to get enough sleep.

Goodnight for now.