50 Books in 2009

My goal for this year is to read 50 books. And not text books- real, enjoyable books. So, that's about a book a week, more or less. So far, I'm doing pretty good (I've read 3, and about 250 pages through the 4th), but I thought it might be fun to talk about the books as I go through them.

1) "Dragonfly in Amber", by Diana Gabaldon.
This is the second book in the "Outlander" series. It starts off a bit slow, but picks up greatly about halfway through, and is great from then on. I love Jamie! His character only becomes better and better as the books go on. I'm loving the Outlander series and would definitely recommend them!

2) "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by JK Rowling
Okay, I've read this before, but I'm also doing a Harry Potter read-along where we read a book a month until the 6th movie comes out in July. Plus, re-reads count for the 50 total (you just can't read the same book twice in one year). I hadn't read this since I originally started reading HP about a decade ago... and it was so great! I loved seeing all the small details I missed before that JK Rowling had already brilliantly planned for. It's not my favorite book in the series, because it definitely feels more like a kid's book, but it was still great.

3) "Dead Until Dark" by Charlaine Harris.
This is the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse Southern vampire series, on which the HBO show True Blood is based. I've never seen the show, although I'd kind of like to now. At first this book seemed a bit like a really cheesy book you'd pick up in the supermarket checkout, but it got progressively better. It doesn't seem to have quite the character development as "Twilight", but the vampire is still pretty sexy, and at least there's finally some vampire sexy time. I'll definitely keep reading the series!