WoooHooo...made it!

So, this year I gave myself a pretty ambitious goal of reading 30 books by December.  I thought this would be a stretch but achievable, so away I went and I am gratified to say that I made it!  Yes, with only a few weeks left, I made it...with the caveat that 9 out of the 30 books were fiction.  Which is a little more than I like, but hey, those pesky Hunger Games books were hard to put down.

I finally took the plunge into e-reading this year since Amazon offered all the Hunger Games as $.99 downloads when the first movie came out.  I must say it was pretty weird reading a book in hardback, on my iPhone, and my iPad...yes I was that hooked I actually squinted at my iPhone while sitting in a doctor's office.  ANNND, sorry I am still pretty much a Luddite when it comes to books, I like the feel, the turning of the pages, flipping to the maps and illustrations...at some point, I could see carrying around the complete JD Robb collection on my iPad...(hmmmm), but history books...not so much.

If I had to rate the fiction, I would have to say I enjoyed the Monster Hunter book the most...of course I love all the Monster Hunter books....the new Vince Flynn was really good...and of course, JD Robb never disappoints.

Of the non-fiction, they were all good, although I must say I enjoyed the Citino books the most.  Nearly all of the recent World War II history has been from the Allied point of view, and his books were a refreshing new look at the Wehrmacht as a fighting organization during some pivotal years of World War II.  In particular his look at the fighting in 1943, a year under examined by historians, offered some fascinating insights into how the Germans were able to keep fighting after the war was clearly strategically lost.

The most surprising book was the Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution.  Given the turmoil in politics the past four years, most of it caused by ignorant politicians of both parties that would not recognize the Constitution if it bit them in their very wide butts, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I learned and how well the book explained the context and background of how our Constitution was created and truly what the Founding Fathers INTENDED each part of each clause to say and mean.  Unfortunately, it became clear that although our Founding Fathers all clearly understood what they were trying to do, they did not take into account the stupidity and scheming of their progeny.  The Commerce Clause and other little known, but key provisions in the Constitution, which are continually used and abused by Progressive Liberals to ram through things like Obamacare are simply and clearly explained.  An excellent little book that should be required reading in our public schools, but alas, I guess it's more important to read Heather Has Two Mommies instead.

So, I will rack up 2012 as a successful year...now on to 2013.