I started thinking about December’s reads in November. Do you “read ahead of yourself” sometimes too?

But I knew there were books that I wanted to finish in 2010, so I cleared the proverbial decks to focus on those. Sometimes I just get tired of looking at the same books on the bedside table, need to shake up the bookishness a little, make room for fresh pages.

So even though it seemed, heading into it, that it might be a kinda lame reading month, it was a surprisingly satisfying one. Some re-reading (the Baum, but also the bits of the challenging books that I opted to read twice), some classic reading, some non-fiction, some just-cuz-I-wanna, some genre and some bookishness with The Heroine’s Bookshelf. And a more leisurely pace. (I’ve been reading voraciously this year.)

Both Ithimaera’s and Quick’s novels were chosen specifically to meet the requirements for the A-Z challenge, which I hadn’t planned to complete, but couldn’t resist chasing at the last minute (because I doubt I’ll take it that on again…at least not any time soon!), so they were kinda spontaneous deliberate choices. If that makes sense.

But Emma Donoghue’s Room and L. Frank Baum’s The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus were both pleasure picks, one brand new copy borrowed from the short-term loan shelves of the library (lucky find!), and the other my own worn childhood copy plucked from the shelf just because I wanted to read it again.

This is actually what I’m hoping for in the reading months to come, which makes me happy. Like December was a dress rehearsal, that actually ended up feeling like a great opening night,  and January’s playbill is looking good. More about that tomorrow as I reflect on my reading year and look ahead to the pages I’ll be turning in 2011.

Were you happy with your Reading December?

December 2010’s Books:
Elizabeth Vonarberg’s Reluctant Voyagers (1995)
Trans. from the French, Jane Brierley
Emma Donoghue’s Room (2010)
Erin Blakemore’s The Heroine’s Bookshelf (2010)
Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel (1997)
Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1865-67)
Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006)
Norman Doidge’s The Brain That Changes Itself (2007)
Raj Patel’s The Value of Nothing (2009)
Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891)
Witi Ihimaera’s The Whale Rider (1987)

Kidlit:
L. Frank Baum’s The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1902)
Matthew Quick’s Sorta Like a Rock Star (2010)

Are any of these on your reading list?