Assuming I finish reading The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje by midnight on New Year’s Eve, which seems likely, I’ll have achieved my goal of completing A to Z challenges for both titles and authors in 2012. Not all of the books were long or serious, but I’m good with that. I read mostly to escape to a world unlike my own, a sort of vacation without having to pack or endure security theater. Some of these books I would have read anyway, but when it gets to be later in the year and I have to search for titles and authors to fill out the letters I’m lacking, I end up picking up books I’d probably never otherwise see, which is all to the good. For most of the year, I keep reading the books I would have anyway as well, which means, if I counted right, I’ve read 75 books in 2012, with one more to go. For me, that’s a lot. When I started this journal in 2002, I was reading so few books that I set a goal of one a month. Looks like that worked.

For the record, here are the lists (titles first, authors second); what I thought about them can be found on my Books I’ve Read page:

A—Archangel’s Consort (Nalini Singh)
B—Bunnicula (Deborah Howe & James Howe)
C—(The) Celery Stalks at Midnight (James Howe)
D—Dreams of a Dark Warrior (Kresley Cole)
E—Easily Amused (Karen McQuestion)
F—Fiction Ruined My Family (Jeanne Darst)
G—Growing Up Amish (Ira Wagler)
H—Howliday Inn (James Howe)
I—I’m Feeling Lucky (Douglas Edwards)
J—Just Ask (Mia Downing)
K—Kaffe Fassett’s Quilts in Sweden (Kaffe Fassett)
L—Lothaire (Kresley Cole)
M—Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)
N—Noah (Jacquelyn Frank)
O—On the Edge (Ilona Andrews)
P—Play of Passion (Nalini Singh)
Q—Quilting Line and Color: Techniques and Designs for Abstract Quilts (Yoshiko Jinzenji)
R—Rock & Roll (Deliza Rafferty)
S—Someone Else’s Twin (Nancy L. Segal)
T—Taste of Midnight (Lara Adrian)
U—Until the Next Time (Kevin Fox)
V—Viking: The Long Cold Fire (Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra)
W—Would It Kill You to Stop Doing That? (Henry Alford)
X—Agent X (Noah Boyd)
Y—Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned (Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra)
Z—Zane’s Tale: A Succubus Diaries Short (Jill Myles)

A—Andrews, Ilona (Bayou Moon)
B—Beaton, Kate (Hark! A Vagrant)
C—Callahan, Cathy (Vintage Craft Workshop)
D—Doyle, Larry (Deliriously Happy)
E—Eden, Cynthia (Deadly Fear)
F—Fields-Meyer, Tom (Following Ezra)
G—Gillman, Rayna (Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts)
H—Harris, Charlaine (Deadlocked)
I—Innerebner, Buck (Five Years on the Appalachian Trail)
J—Johnson, Adam (The Orphan Master’s Son)
K—Knight, Angela and Kantra, Virginia, along with Singh, Nalini and Brook, Meljean (Burning Up)
L—Lord, Walter (A Night to Remember)
M—MacAlister, Katie (Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang)
N—Naughton, Elisabeth (Marked)
O
P—Pampiloff, Mimi Jean (Accidentally in Love with … a God?)
Q—Quiana (Fallen)
R—Ronson, Jon (The Psychopath Test)
S—St. John, Tina (Heart of the Hunter)
T—Thomas, Abigail (Three Dog Life)
U—Urbanski, Julie (The Trail Life)
V—Vaughan, Brian (X: The Last Man, Vol. 2: Cycles)
W—Worsley, Harriet (100 Ideas That Changed Fashion)
X—Xanakas, Xara X. and Piper Vaughan (The Party Boy’s Guide to Dating a Geek)
Y—Yu, Charles (How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe)
Z—Zola, Émile (The Fortune of the Rougons)

On this date in 2011: Sock Monkey Celebrates Christmas & King of the Snow Pile
2010: Sock Monkey Drowns His Sorrows
2009: Slacking
2008: Still Sweet
2007: Super & Out with the Old
2006: Quilt Labels
2005: We Have a Winner
2004: Mantel Arrangements and Other Stuff
2003: No entry.
2002: Is it time to go home yet?