Favourite Books Read in 2009

For the past couple of years I have summed up my personal top 10 list of books read in previous years. If you're curious, here are my 2007 and 2008 blog posts on this subject.

In 2009 I managed to read 43 books -- no, it's not a lot, but I'm a pretty slow reader so hitting 40 is a pretty decent attempt for me. Of course, there's always a giant "to read" pile to tackle, so I'm forever trying to increase the number of books I read.

Here's my list of the top 10 books I read in 2008. (Disclaimer -- the books didn't have to come out in 2008, I just had to have read them in that year for them to make my top 10 list)

Nine Dragons - (Michael Connelly)

The latest Harry Bosch novel, as always, offers a tightly written story, great plot twists and a life-altering change to Bosch's life. I'd actually read 3 of Connelly's books in 2009 and was tempted to put at least one more here (The Scarecrow), but instead stuck with the last one I finished.



The Tipping Point - (Malcolm Gladwell)

I read Gladwell's Outliers this year, which I loved and which inspired me to pick up this earlier and equally compelling Gladwell book, which beautifully illustrates his ability to bring together facts in an interesting and intriging way. Not surprising that this book has been on and off bestseller lists for years.


Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince - (J.K. Rowling)

Finally got to this 6th book in the series so now I can see the movie. This one, more than the previous books in the series (which, though I liked, weren't as unique as this) kept me on the edge of my seat. It's the best book in the series so far, and I'm about the start the 7th which I suspect is as fun and suspenseful.


Trust Agents - (Chris Brogan & Julien Smith)

Brogan and Smith offer an excellent approach for marketing and establishing your business or services within the social networking space; it's not about blanketing these platforms with "sales pitches" but about offering value and becoming an agent of trust. Insightful and inspiring.


Crush It! - (Gary Vaynerchuk)

With a passion for his job and career that is absolutely contagious (it practically leaps off the page when you're reading it), Vaynerchuk sets a new example of the old maxim "do what you love and the money will follow." This seems to me to be a great book to put into the hands of a young person finishing school who isn't quite sure what path to take, or perhaps an older person who is bitter and hates their job and career.



Six Pixels of Separation - (Mitch Joel)

Joel's ability to convey to the layperson the social media landscape and what it has to offer for marketing at many levels is not only a fantastic introduction to social networking, but also a refresher in personal branding and connectedness. His style and ability to stick to the basics is as smooth and straightforward as his adaptation of the "six degrees of separation" concept into the digital realm.


Fear the Worst - (Linwood Barclay)

Barclay takes a common everyday fear of parents (in this case a missing child) and masterfully turns it into a very readable, compelling and thrilling story. Barclay has been on my "buy at first site" list for years for very good reason. Similar to my feelings about Michael Connelly, I also read another Barclay novel this year (Too Close To Home) and was tempted to include THAT here too.


Permission Marketing - (Seth Godin)

Ten years after it was first published, this book still hits home beautifully and illustrate's Godin's incredible ability to be thinking into the future and be where we'll all eventually get to. After reading this, I read Tribes (also a good book) then made a list of all his other books which I'll be reading.


The Book of Negroes - (Lawrence Hill)

This is not only a phenomenally touching and heart-wrenching story of a woman's life and struggles surviving the slave trade, but also illustrates Hill's incredibly fine ability to craft words. Hill grabbed me on the first page and wouldn't let go until the end. (FYI, in the US, this same novel is published as Someone Knows My Name)


Me Minus 173: From 328 Pounds to the Boston Marathon - (Alicia Snell)

Snell's incredible story is matched only by her enthusiasm, utter honesty and ability to inspire others. Here's a great example of the fact that, though I'm not a fan of reading biographies, this one grabbed me and held me spellbound. Snell proves that, if at age 40, she can turn her life around dramatically by making two simple changes, if you want to change things and improve yourself, then YOU can do it too.


Whittling my list down to 10 was difficult, especially because I quite enjoyed so many more books than are on this list. So, that being said, here are 4 more contenders who almost made the list.


Non-Fiction Contenders:

Pow! Right Between the Eyes: Profiting from the Power of Surprise - (Andy Nulman)

Not only a unique and interesting approach to marketing, and quite unlike any other business book I've ever read, but this book literally offers an incredible "three-dimensional" interaction with the author that does hit you between the eyes.


Free: The Future of a Radical Price - (Chris Anderson)

An intriguing and in-depth look at various different models of "Free" and how, over the decades, they have served business needs and led, sometimes intuitively, to great income opportunities.


Fiction Contenders:

The Gargoyle - (Andrew Davidson)

Davidson's compelling prose moved me through a story that normally wouldn't interest me and held me captive to the end. He hooked me on inspirational stories of love through the ages and ultimately moved me with his unique sense of dark humour and tale of tragic love.


Red Snow - (Michael Slade)

Slade writes with a relentless cut-throat approach and virtually no sense of character preservation. This heart-stopping thriller brings back a major recurring foe of the Special X team and concerns a "terrorist" attack taking place just before the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. The book seems well researched and certainly kept this read on the edge of his seat.



Well here's an interesting discovery I made about myself upon quick reflection about this list -- for the longest time, at least as far back as I can remember, I've ALWAYS been a fiction afictionado -- why, then, are 6 of my top 10 selections non-fiction books?

Am I possibly expanding what I'm reading?

Not necessarily.

I just went back and did a quick summary. Of the 43 books I read in 2009, 30 of them were fiction. I suppose it was just that the non-fiction titles I read this past year seemed to have had a greater effect on inspiring me.

What books that you read in 2009 had that effect on you?

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

At the beginning of the year in Jan 2009, I resolved to do a few writing related things:

And I quote:

1) Continue to keep between 3 and 5 stories in circulation at all times during the year.

2) Re-work the completed novel MORNING SON and get it back into circulation with publishers

3) Finish the novel A CANADIAN WEREWOLF IN NEW YORK (which has been on a back burner for way too long now) - Paula B from The Writing Show will be so proud of me if I can finally accomplish that. I'd finally have something really cool to reveal in the continuing interviews for her "Getting Published with Mark Leslie" reality series.

Let's see. In terms of 1, I believe I was successful in that pursuit for most of the year. I DID manage to keep at least 3 stories in play for most of the year, and continue to struggle with that pursuit.

Number 2 was a bit more challenging -- I did rework about 75% of Morning Son, having spent a good deal of time in the summer working on it. Of course, I ended up losing most of that work (in one of my "way too late" clean-up exercises in the den, I accidentally threw out the hand-written notes and updates I'd made on a printed version of the manuscript). So I had to re-start at the beginning of the novel one more time. A frustrating pursuit, but I'd already re-written and re-edited the book half a dozen times -- that's just part of the process. But in terms of getting the book BACK into publisher's hands, I was successful at that. I made two attempts in 2009. One in which it went into a seemingly bottomless slush pile never to return (ie, not even a "piss off" from the publisher, nor do I even ever expect a response) and another which I just sent out the week before Christmas to a market I spent a while researching to determine if it was a "proper" fit for Morning Son and I really do feel there's a good match between my novel and this publisher (so I have all my fingers and toes crossed on that one)

As for Number 3, what is this, a curse? I started writing A Canadian Werewolf in New York several years ago as part of a "public" challenge on Paula B's The Writing Show podcast. And, despite the humiliation of not having finished the novel, I continue to leave it on the back burner. Yes, I chipped away at the book a bit in 2009, but didn't make any significant progress on it. Nothing "newsworthy" to report to Paula.

I can make other excuses such as the fact that at least I was working on writing, had several stories published in 2009, including things I'd written in the past 12 months, was able to collect stories for and edit the book Campus Chills (which took a tremendous amount of my time and energy). I also wrote and had several non-fiction articles published and was invited to start submitting articles to The Mark News (A Canadian online forum for news, commentary and debate) -- But there's no escaping the fact that I failed to fulfill all 3 resolutions.

That being said, I received an email yesterday from Paula B telling me she had a listener contact her to find out what was going on with A Canadian Werewolf in New York. It seems this listener is sincerely curious. And it's just the kick-in-the-pants I need -- knowing that there's a potential reader out there who actually cares enough to take the time to ask the status of this book in progress.

That makes finishing the first draft of ACWINY my top resolution for 2010. So while I don't have a dramatic update for this interested party and Paula B, I do have a new-felt personal motivation to get this one completed.

So, that being said, here's what I resolve, writing-wise for 2010:

1) Finish the first draft of ACWINY and report that back to Paula B and The Writing Show listeners that care (I know there's at least one of them out there and THAT more than anything gives me a truly heart-felt desire to make the time to finish this project)

2) Continue to keep 3 to 5 stories into circulation at various short-fiction markets (after all, you can't get stuff published if you don't send your stuff out)

3) Try my hand at writing a non-fiction article on the topic of fatherhood and sending that to a "parenting" market (got to have a fresh goal, something I've never done before, you know, to reach beyond my normal comfort zone)

I have already started working on a "book" project with a fellow writer, and something that, if our pitch to publishers goes well, will keep me extremely busy in 2010 (can't really say anything about this, but it's an incredible project this fellow scribe, and someone whom I look up to invited me to work with them on). So if this project takes ahold, my writing time will be compromised -- but that should just be more motivation to keep at the 3 items on my list.

Let's see how I do this year, shall we?

Now that I've put my resolutions out there, do tell -- what do YOU resolve writing wise?

HNT - Favourite Post of 2009

The last HNT post of the year is typically reserved for re-posting your favourite from the past twelve months.

I think my favourite is the post entitled: I Left This Post in San Francisco. The main reason it's my favourite post is because it represents meeting a fellow HNTer in person and someone who inspired me to be more creative and to really have fun with the HNT concept -- that someone, was, of course, Marcel Nunis (who used to blog under the name Lecram Sinun -- so if I slip and call him Lecram once in a while, you'll understand). Marcel and I had a great time hanging out at a few different bars and literary haunts (like John's Grill in our picture below) and just kicking back and shooting the shit for several hours. It was great fun.


Here are some runners up in the category of favourite HNT posts.

Death of Free Time (Featuring a picture of my Halloween front yard tombstone)

Sing Me A Rush Lullaby, Dad (A flashback HNT showing a shot of Alexander and I having an afternoon nap back when he was just a little baby)

Boys of Chorus (A "Photoshopped" picture from the classic Bugs Bunny cartoon with my face and Alexander's face on two of the characters -- a classic moment of father and son being goofy together)

Pow! (Me goofing around with a great marketing/business book by Andy Nulman called Pow! Right Between The Eyes - and a contender for my top 10 read books in 2009 list -- blog post for that is forthcoming)

Canadian SF Works Database

For a few years now there has been a Wiki created and administered by Robert J. Sawyer and Marcel Gagné called the Canadian SF Works Database. It was meant to be a collaborative storehouse of knowledge about the world of professional Canadian speculative writing, publishing and art created to prevent the panicked scrambling that usually occurs at the end of each year to determine works eligible for such things as the Aurora Awards.

On Rob's blog, he recently sent a kick in the pants to creators who haven't added their own material to this listing.

You really should go and add your own work. Don't depend on someone else going to do it for you.

Sure, Rob and Marcel put it together and keep it up and running, but it's everyone's responsibility to keep it updated.

FYI, to the contributors to Campus Chills, I made sure everyone's stories in the anthology were listed. It makes sense, to me, that the editor of a Canadian anthology should make sure that their author's works get listed.

But if you're a Canadian writer you really should be making an effort to ensure your work from 2009 is represented, particularly at this "end of year" time when we're usually all making resolutions to "do more" towards our crafty pursuits.

Waiting For Santa

As all the sleepyheads and restless dreamers of all ages wait for Santa to come . . .

Merry Christmas to you and may peace, joy and happiness find a place in your lives!

Fun Christmas Song

I've always loved the wonderful spoof of Porky Pig singing Blue Christmas. In fact, every time the Elvis version of the song comes on the radio, I start singing THIS version for Francine instead.

She used to like this song (well, the original version of it, that is). I suppose I've ruined it for her now.

So, for your enjoyment, here is as performed by Seymour Swine and the Squealers back in 1978 here is "Blue Christmas"

(I found many different videos done to this song, but I liked this one posted by Mr. AntiSocial Guy because of the interesting trivia pop-ups in it)





Merry Christmas!

HNT - Three Wishes 2009

Every year at Christmas time, Osbasso suggests a theme of giving for HNT. The "three wishes" theme suggests that you pick 3 other HNTers (hopefully people you don't already know well), and endow them with "fantasy" gifts -- the idea is going to their site, checking out who they are and getting to know them and thinking of something that you believe they would like -- what a great way to get to know new people and participate in the spirit of giving without it costing you a dime. Over the years this has been a fun exercise for me, but as I often do with Osbasso's themes, I'm bending this one a little.

This year, in the spirit of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present & Future, I'd like to make three wishes for three types of HNTers out there:

1) For past HNT participants
There are many people who have HNT'd in the past, but no longer participate, for whatever reason. Perhaps they are among the pioneers who first started this blogging meme, or even those who gave it a single try. But for whatever reason you first gave HNT a whirl and for whatever reason you decided to no longer participate, you were still a part of something that extended far and wide, you took a risk, tried something new and perhaps different and hopefully you met some new people. For all past HNT participants, I offer a special gold watch. It's not just any gold watch, but one with a built in GPS that will, whenever you feel the need, guide you to the closest friend.


2) For current HNT participants
For those people who participate in HNT, and nomatter what your reason, do know that your venturesome spirit, your participation in this weekly ritual and what you are adding to the blogisphere is unique and interesting and might possibly be something studied by sociologists some day. You are a part of a community that is dynamic and wide-spread, and you're part of keeping this meme alive every time you participate. For all current HNT participants, I offer a magic portable digital camera, something you can wear and carry with you at all times as comfortably and unobtrusive as a ring on your finger, allowing you to quickly and easily take that HNT photo whenever or wherever the spirit catches you.

3) For future HNT participants
For those who have checked out HNT and are considering giving it a try, again, for whatever reason, please know that HNT, while a celebration of exposure, is not necessarily about taking naked shots of yourself. Yes, that can be how you interpret it, but the beauty and wonder of HNT to me over the years has been in the incredibly diverse and challenging ways that different people have participated. Some are bold and go for entirely "adult content" shots, some play with humour, some offer insight, depth and introspection, some expose something internal, some compose incredibly creative pursuits. So for those of you looking at HNT and wondering about trying it out, my gift to you is a chance to temporarily look into the future, and see what "the road not taken" might offer you.

And a gift to all (including non-HNTers) from the triad of the Leslie family . . . here's our HNT "Christmas Card" featuring our faces superimposed onto the new Snowmen blow-up decoration on our front lawn that our five year old insisted we must have.



So, from Mark, Francine and Alexander to you and yours -- Merry Christmas! (Or, if you prefer, translate that into whatever seasonal sentiment works best to make YOU feel loved)

My HNT Gift posts from the past include: 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005.

BNC Guest Post

I was recently invited by the wonderful Morgan Cowie from BookNet Canada to write a guest post doing a brief year in review for the Canadian book industry.

I'd been enjoying reading several previously published year in review posts by folks that I quite respect and have been following through social media, so was honoured to be asked to join in the fun.

You can read the guest post here.

Die Harder

I've always felt that Die Hard was a great Christmas movie. What can I say? A smart alec Bruce Willis in peril on Christmas Eve shooting it out with the bad guys while quipping like Spider-Man. Yeah, that's the stuff. Sure, Frank Capra pulled our heart strings with the tale of George Bailey, but give me John McClane putting bad guys in their place for a feel good Christmas movie any day.

I sought out and ready the book Die Hard was based on. (Roderick Thorp's Nothing Lasts Forever which was written in 1979) Having read the excellent book a couple of times and seen the movie close to a dozen, I'd have to say the movie closely followed the book's content (with the exception of changing the main character from Joe Leland, who appeared in an earlier Thorp novel into John McClane, as well as a few other specific details)

Die Hard 2 (which is being run on CHCH tonight) was also based on a novel -- though, inspired by the novel is more accurate. The premise is based on Walter Wager's novel 58 minutes, which I also read, but which I doubt I'll read again. It was a decent novel, but I wasn't a fan of the omnipotent narration and style of the novel and that kept putting me off throughout the reading of it.

But the movie, directed by Renny Harlin and written by Steve E. de Souza and Doug Richardson, beautifully continues the saga of John McClane, again, on Christmas Eve, fighting off a group of terrorist bad guys. This time, instead of taking over a skyscraper, they've taken over Dulles International Airport in Washington.

It's a great, fun movie -- and having just watched a bit of it on TV, I'm remembering why I liked it so much. Not only great casting, dialogue and action, but also great writing and direction.

The scene where McClane runs out onto the field to try to warn a plane of an impending crash (due to the terrorists hacking into tower and recalibrating ground level to be 200 feet below sea-level) is made much more powerful by a few brief yet powerful glimpses into the passengers aboard the doomed flight. The writers and director allow us to really feel for these passengers as well as the crew. So when McClane is unable to save them, you really feel for the incredible loss of so many lives.

It wasn't just a plane that went down and exploded in a big Hollywood movie explosion in an action film. It was a plane filled with real people with lives, with hopes, dreams, worries, plans, smiles, loved ones.

And of course, it makes the concern over McClane's wife Holly who is on a plane circling the airport with only 90 minutes of fuel left, that much more tense.

Powerful, well written, well directed. And a good example, in my mind, of a movie that was far better than the book it was based on.

And, as I mentioned, a great movie to watch again close to Christmas.

Solar Powered Christmas Lights

On the weekend, Alexander and I pulled out a few more strings of Christmas lights and added them to the existing ones on our house (and on his play structure in the back-yard -- Yes, there are almost as many lights on his play structure as there are on our house. Not only that, but there's also a small Christmas tree with lights on it inside)

While we were figuring out where to put up the new lights, I was reminded, again, how frustrating it could sometimes be to string lights in certain areas, and how great it might be to have a set of Christmas lights that didn't have to be plugged in, but, instead, relied on a solar cell of some sort.

For example, there's a tree on the other side of the sidewalk that we'd love to put lights on -- but we don't want to run a string across the sidewalk to do so.

Similarly, sometimes you want lights at point A and point C but not at point B in between. It'd be nice to be able to place them only where you need them and not need to use long extension cords; and that's not even mentioning the environmental and energy-saving benefits.

Of course, a Google search for solar powered Christmas lights reveals that they DO exist. (Here, for example, here, or here is more info about them) EcoGeekLiving has a set of 60 LED white solar powered lights listed for $34.99. Not a bad price, especially considering how much money you'll save on your electricity bill in the long run. I even found an online video on how to make solar powered Christmas lights.

And it's not that I looked too hard in retail stores this season for them, but in all honesty, I can't say I saw any available. Sure, they're easy to find online -- but I'm wondering when they're going to become more available, better working (I read some customer reviews of a particular set of NOMA solar lights on Canadian Tire's website and it looks like there are many improvements to be made) and more popular. I mean, it wasn't all that many years ago that LED Christmas lights were rare -- now, they're pretty much the standard. I imagine it'll be not long before the same thing happens with solar powered ones.

It Snowed

Okay, so there's not much snow around here yet. But there's a song that has been getting a lot of airtime on local radio stations that has certainly added to the wonderful feeling I normally get from a beautiful snowfall.

It's called "It Snowed" and is by Canadian singer/songwriter Meaghan Smith.

Francine, Alexander and I first heard it one evening last week while we were driving around looking at the beautiful Christmas lights.

The instant we heard it, Fran and I both fell in love with the song's playful sense and jazzy styling. The lyrics begins like this . . .

"It snowed, it snowed, it snowed last night
Everything is sparkling with diamond light.
The road is buried four feet high
Honey, let's play hooky 'cause it snowed last night"

I thought, at first that it was Feist -- partly because of the similar voice and partly because, "It Snowed" was an instantly addictive song in my mind, the same way I reacted to Feist's "1, 2, 3, 4"

Deciding I wanted to find the album this song was on and buy the CD for Francine for Christmas, I began my quest. Alas, I learned that the only available CD was being done as a giveaway at Meaghan Smith appearances at Barnes & Noble on her Dec 2009 tour.

But the good news was that the Holiday Sampler "Wish Upon A Star" which contains 4 songs by Meaghan, was available for purchase on iTunes -- so I bought it. Each song is similarly delightful. I'll be looking for Meaghan's other work to purchase as well.

Here's the video for Meaghan's version of "Silver Bells" which appears on the sampler.





There's also a clip of Meaghan singing her original song "It Snowed" at a benefit concert ("Feed Nova Scotia") back in November 2007, right here and here is a video with clips from the holiday sampler.

Careful. Her music is wonderfully addictive. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Heads In The Sand

I'm quite proud to be a bookseller, but I often shake my head at the simplistic nature that some of the top executives in my industry subscribe to.

The recent one that makes me shake my head are the delays that publishers are subscribing to with respect to e-books. (In response to the $9.99 pricing model that seems to be establishing itself, their response is delaying release of the ebook version, typically from 4 weeks to six months after the release of the hardcover).

Yes, in the print world, delaying publication of the trade paperback or mass market book for one year (ensuring your hardcover book went through one Christmas season helping ensure stronger sales), worked.

But I don't think that'll work for digital.

Haven't these really intelligent people learned anything from others' previous attempts to deny reality (like record executives trying to deny the proliferation of digital music, like the motion picture industry trying to deny the existence of the television, like television executives trying to deny the existence of the internet?) None of the burying their heads in the sand approaches nor attempts to fight the new technology really worked, now did they? But look at the industries I just mentioned? Is there still a motion picture industry? YES. Is there still a television industry? YES. Is there still a music industry? YES. Have they all evolved? YES. And some of them survived the evolution a little bit more intact than the others.

As for me, I'm seriously concerned at how some of the mega publishers are going to survive with out-dated approaches. Yes, I love my print books and though I embrace digital books and do buy some of my books in digital versions, I doubt my love of the printed book will ever fade. But I also buy CD's and DVD's too (and still have a small vinyl record collection I'm not getting rid of). I'm that type of person.

So while I honestly believe that print isn't going away, I recognize that neither is digital. And that while the market share for digital is minuscule now, it's growing exponentially and will continue to do so.

But rather than embrace the reality of what is happening and figure out a way to be PART of the game to maintain some sort of decent market share in the movement, publishers are trying to delay it and deny it, believing they'll make more money from a previously existing model.

Sigh.

Don't they realize that they're just making MORE excuses for people to create and distribute pirated content?

iTunes and the 99 cent song downloads proved that, while the margins aren't as high, there IS certainly demand for honest people who want to purchase digital content. Take away people's options and they'll create their own. It's easier and easy for people to do so. So WHY give them another excuse? Why not make it EASY, SIMPLE and AFFORDABLE for them to purchase your digital content?

Isn't a smaller margin better than no margin at all?

And, as much as I love print books, I seriously wonder how many of the major publishing houses who continue to think in terms of 1980 business models will be around in another 3 or 4 years.