Dewey‘s trying to get a headstart on the year-end book wrap-up with Weekly Geeks #19:

I want to have Weekly Geeks come up with one big Best of 2008 list. Here’s how I see it working.

First, this week, your WG theme is to list your top books published in 2008.

I’m not asking for any specific number of favorite books, because some people don’t read many brand new books. If you’ve only read two 2008 books this year and hated one of them, then just mention the one you liked. Please limit your list to 10 books, though, if you read a lot of new books. You don’t have to put them in any certain order, either.

If you like, you can separate out your favorites. You can make a list of your top YA books, your top sci-fi books, etc.

Depending on how long it takes to compile everyone’s lists, a later WG theme will be to vote on the year’s best. I’ll make a list of books mentioned more than once, and those will be our finalists. If there are 76,594 books mentioned more than once, maybe I’ll use only books mentioned three times. We’ll see how it goes.

And then, at some point by the end of the year, I’ll post a list of what you all decided were the top 10 books of the year! It’ll be interesting, I think, to see a list of what book bloggers choose as their favorite books rather than what a newspaper decides or what the top sellers were.

I’m not really used to reading books during the year they’re published. Since I prefer to buy my books and paperbacks are definitely easier on the budget, I tend to wait for them, which usually puts me about a year behind. However, this was the year I discovered one of the great perks of book blogging – getting free books for review! I’ve read my first ARCs (Advance Reading Copies) this year, as well as some just-published hardcovers that I was offered by publicists and authors. As a result, I’ve done much more current reading than has been my habit, but the tradeoff is that the books in TBR Purgatory keep getting older.

My point is that before this year, I probably wouldn’t have been able to participate in this Weekly Geeks theme, or Dewey’s planned follow-ups, since a 2008 paperback edition – and I’ve still got plenty of those, believe me – is not the same things as a 2008 new publication. However, since I can, I will. Here’s my list of the 2008 books I’ve given the highest-rated reviews this year, with links to the reviews themselves.

Fiction
No One You Know, by Michelle Richmond
The Ten-Year Nap, by Meg Wolitzer
Don’t You Forget About Me, by Jancee Dunn

Nonfiction
Girls Like Us, by Sheila Weller

There may be a couple of additions to these lists before the end of the year, but here’s where they stand as of the third quarter. Have you thought about which new books are your favorites this year?
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I won’t be able to participate because I already have plans for that weekend, but if your calendar is open for Saturday/Sunday, October 18-19, how about joining in the Fall 2008 Edition of the 24-Hour Read-a-Thon?

Hosted by Dewey at The Hidden Side of a Leaf (with cohosts Nymeth from Things Mean a Lot, Hannah of Word Lily, and Trish from Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?), the Read-a-Thon will begin at 12 noon GMT on October 18 – you can find out what that converts to in your time zone, as well as all the other important info, at the Read-a-Thon FAQ page, and then sign up here as a participant (Reader or Cheerleader).

This is a semi-annual event, and maybe I’ll be able to join the Spring 2009 one – meanwhile, for those of you who sign up this time, good luck and have fun!

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