Since I do so many book reviews here on the blog, I thought I would take a brief look back at my year in books:

Number of books I read: 53. I think this is down a little from 2008. I’m hoping to read at least 75 books in 2010. On the flip side, I wrote four books and heavily revised another one, which I think is up from 2008. It all evens out in the end.

Genres I read: All types of fantasy and romance, spy thrillers, action-adventure books, westerns … pretty much everything but non-fiction and science fiction (I’m not a huge fan of those genres).

Authors: I read lots of my old favorite authors (Donald E. Westlake, Robert B. Parker, Kresley Cole, Jeaniene Frost, Lee Child, etc.) and several new people too (Scott Lynch, Alex Bledsoe, Kristan Higgins, etc.). I’ll try anybody once.

Best reads of the year: I absolutely loved Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas; Graceling by Kristin Cashore; and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Those are all books that I wish that I had written — they’re just that good. Honorable mentions go to The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch and The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe, two epic fantasy novels that kept me turning the pages (and surfing Amazon to find out when the sequels come out).

Saddest read of the year: Get Real by Donald E. Westlake because he passed away in 2008 and there probably won’t be any more books by him (unless he had something in the works prior to his death). I’ll miss Westlake and his clever sense of humor. Ditto for his alter ego writing as Richard Stark. But luckily, he left me a lot of great books to re-read over the years.

Most frustrating read of the year: The Professional by Robert B. Parker. As much as I like the Spenser series, I’m getting a little tired of seeing the same character over and over again — namely, the psycho, nympho woman who uses sex to get what she wants and isn’t too smart about it.

YA mania: I’d forgotten how good young adult books could be. But with everyone buzzing about titles like Graceling by Kristin Cashore; The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins; and Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, I read several YA titles in 2009 — and some of them were among my top reads of the year. I’ll be reading more YA in 2010 — and maybe writing one myself.

So there you have it. Some of my thoughts about the books I read in 2009.

What about you guys? What were some of your top reads in 2009? Share in the comments. And happy reading in 2010!