Favorite Books of 2008

Hi all,

My favorite fiction book of 2008, was the last one I completed in 2008 - Imperium. It was well written, with an engaging voice about a subject I knew very little about. Yes, I knew Cicero was a great orator but that was all I knew. The voice, pacing and subject matter kept me engaged from beginning to end and kept me wanting more.

My favorite non-fiction book of 2008 was 1812 The War That Forged a Nation. Again, it was a book written about a subject matter that I knew the gist of, but not in depth. The author kept the novel engaging, setting up battles and important moments as scenes in a good novel.

(See my earlier posts on reviews for both books.)

For 2009, I've already completed two novels: Watchmen and World War Z.

Watchmen is a graphic novel - meaning comic book style - and has a movie coming out in a month. I'm not sure how they're going to make a two hour movie out of it, unless they cut out loads of back story. And some of it can be trimmed. Also, some of the material is pretty horrific, so I imagine they'll have to tone down some scenes. But I was glad I finished the book. It wrapped up very nicely, and the characters were all done very well.

World War Z is a zombie novel. I say this because in general I do not like zombie movies or books. What attracted me to the novel - aside from my brother's insistence that I give it a try - was that it took place after the "zombie wars" and discussed specific countries responses to the zombies, how they spread and people's moral failings. It said a lot about people and society in general. I enjoyed it.

Here's to reading many great books in 2009!