I just missed making my goal of reading 56 books in 2009. If you check the Booknerd page, you’ll see I came in at 53 books. Not too shabby. I’d feel worse about failing if, while pondering RP2010, I didn’t take into account the seven books that I’ve read over 50 pages of and never finished. Or the five short stories I read every week during my writing class.

That’s a lot of fucking reading, people.

Here’s what I discovered this year.

1. The more you ask me to read a book, the less likely I am to read it.
I don’t know what it is. Maybe deep down I’m a rebellious teenager who will not do what you want me to, just because you ask. Maybe I’m a persnickety bitch, but I get really resentful when someone tries to control my reading habits. The more resentment I build toward the book the less likely I am to enjoy it.

2. It’s really easy to write a bad book about Rock & Roll.
For the past two years I’ve tried to dedicate the month of June to reading books about rock and roll. Holy shit has this been an exercise in fortitude. I had no idea it was so easy to write and publish a crappy, boring book about something as awesome, sexy, and powerful as Rock & Roll. I’ve long maintained that writing about music is tough and when you find someone who is good at it, it’s a rare and beautiful thing. All the crappy, boring books about Rock & Roll I’ve attempted to read have proven that point beyond a shadow of a doubt. Also, it seems women don’t write about Rock & Roll and their relationship to the music. Or at least that’s the way it seems because all the books published are by men.

3. Self-publishing is a long way from being like indie music or, don’t mess with crazy cow ladies.
For a few months in 2009 Sister #2 and I had a battle raging on the issue of self-publishing. She thought I was being a lit snob by not reading self-published novels sent to MN Reads for review consideration. I told her she had no idea what she was talking about and self-publishing was nothing at all like indie music.

I explained that self-publishers seem to have no faith in the goodness of their own writing. That instead of putting it up for criticism and review by the editorial process of a publishing house, they publish it themselves. Writers who go this route want to be reviewed, sure, but they don’t want to be critiqued. Also, often times the books from these self-publishing places look and feel shoddy and amateurish, and seems reflective of the writing contained inside. While I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, I will judge you for a cover that’s not in focus.

She still claimed I was a snob

Then came the crazy cow ladies. After my brother-in-law Ben gave a slightly less than favorable review of a self-published book of cow tales, the crazy came home to roost. Ben and I were inundated with e-mails and snarky comments from the editor and contributors to this anthology. Most of them claimed that we should be nicer since it’s self-published, and assumed we had a personal vendetta against them and/or cows.

See?

4. No matter how much you read, you’ll always feel guilty for not reading one more book.
It’s the truth. I try to cram as many reviews as possible on MN Reads and I still feel guilty for not getting to all the books. I’m sorry.