I had to do a bit of research as to what books I’ve read this year. I did reread the first 11 books in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan in anticipation of book 12, The Gathering Storm, being released in November. Robert Jordan (a pen name), died last year without being able to complete the series. Jordan’s widow (and editor of the previous books) hired Brandon Sanderson to complete the series. Finishing the series requires three more books of which The Gathering Storm is the first and follow-on books will come in November 2010 and November 2011 (if all happens as planned).

I finished Jordan’s book 11 and immediately started on Sanderson’s book 12. Yesterday I put it down in disgust on page 362 at the end of chapter 23. I was furious at the direction the story had taken. My first thought was, “Jordan would not have written this into the story line!” Since then I’ve remembered that Jordan had a fairly detailed outline of the story all the way to the end, had written much of this book already, and had dictated a whole bunch more into a voice recorder. It probably is the direction he would have gone. Nevertheless, I’m not happy with it and the book will sit for a while before I pick it up again.

So, at the moment, The Gathering Storm is NOT a candidate for the “best book”.

I’ve also read a couple of other books this year that seemed to have potential. I’ve always liked Arthur C. Clarke’s science fiction. I’ve also enjoyed Frederick Pohl’s work as well. When I saw that they had collaborated on a “New York Times Best Seller,” The Last Theorem, I bought the book to read. I finished it with great difficulty, only to be able to say I read it all the way through. It is science fiction fluff. Another non-candidate for the “best book”.

Clayton Christensen’s best seller The Innovator’s Dilemma was another of the non-fiction books I read this year, along with Brian Greene’s The Fabric of the Cosmos. Both were excellent books, although the Cosmos book was deep reading in places and I had to take it slow, occasionally re-reading whole chapters to make sure I understood what was there. While neither are bedside reading, they were excellent and I learned a lot from both of them. Both of these books could qualify for “best book”.

I’ve also plowed through a couple of computer books, primarily to help with some of the web work I’ve been doing. Because of their nature, I don’t consider them to be candidates for “best book”.

In October I decided to get my ham radio license. That also required some reading, all of which is documented in another blog getmyhamradiolicense.com. Those books were successful in that I passed the licensing exams.

My wife Nina is a voracious reader. She usually has two or three books going at a time (I’m not able to do that) and probably has a long list of favorite books for this past year.

So, do I have a “best book” for 2009? The answer is “No.”  None really “rocked my boat.” Maybe next year!

Ta ta for now!