Books 2006.

I'll be changing the Rooster Spice template in a couple of days, and though I doubt it'll be anything Sooper Exciting, it will mean that my Books Read in 2006 list will change to Books Read in 2007. So, look at the list now if it interests you.

What are my impressions of said list?

Well, first of all, I read 45 books this year, assuming I accounted it correctly. This leads me to believe that when President Bush said he had read 60 books by August, he was lying. What a surprise! Look, let's put this another way. I'm known as a fast reader. Most people would call me unemployed (they would be wrong, but that's what they'd call me). And I managed to read 45 books in the entire year. Meanwhile, the President says he read sixty books in eight months? When does he find time to do his job?

The surprise of the year was probably World War Z by Max Brooks, an entertaining yet surprisingly serious examination of what would happen if, well, zombies happened, told as an oral history. Several major characters are, shall we say, loosely based on major political figures of our time, including a certain medical doctor from New England, who comes off as one of the most sympathetic people in the book.

Nonfiction-wise, two must-reads were Fiasco by Thomas Ricks and The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley. You owe it to yourself to pick them up.

My wife would want me to also mention The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon, a novel set in a near-future where autism can be cured before birth; the protagonist is a member of the last generation of autists. It's beautifully written and hits very close to home for our family.

Terry Pratchett is an old favorite, of course, and I continue to hotly anticipate Kage Baker's Company novels.

I should also mention the countless children's books I read at bedtime. Maybe that's how the President got to sixty.