2007: look back without anger

A very good reading year, 2007 -- I've never tracked my reading as closely before, so I don't know whether this year's 53 completions since March is a lot for me. I think I read more in grad school, but less variedly, and with less room for self-expression in the choices; I know I've read less than this in the previous few years. We'll see how 2008 goes.

In no particular order, here are the year's favourites in the modes of nonfiction, poetry, and fiction, with a single winner at the bottom of the list.

Favourite nonfiction:

• Terry Glavin, The Last Great Sea
• Thomas King, The Truth About Stories
• Alisa Smith & J.B. MacKinnon, The 100-Mile Diet
• Wallace Stegner, Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs
• Nancy J. Turner, The Earth's Blanket

Favourite poetry:

• Jamie Dopp, The Birdhouse, Or
• Don McKay, Strike/Slip

Favourite fiction:

• Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair
• Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
• Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
• Craig Thompson, Blankets

Best in show:

Clearly, for me this was the year for Terry Glavin, whose 2003 The Last Great Sea was my favourite read of 2007. A couple of the other books on the year’s list give him credit for inspiration and/or advice, his blog has become a regular stop for me, and I keep bumping up against his name wherever I go.

We’ll see what 2008 brings, but I'm off to a good start with Harold Rhenisch's Tom Thomson's Shack underway, along with Giuseppe Pontiggia's Born Twice. Plus Douglas Coupland's JPod is staring at me from the ottoman, so I can without guilt watch the CBC series based on the novel....