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I’m ecstatic to report that as of Monday, October 8, 2012, I turned the final page on my 50 Book Pledge. For those doing the math, that’s nine months, seven days, eleven hours and twenty-eight minutes.

I still can’t believe I did it because when I first set out I wasn’t entirely convinced I could. I considered fifty books in fifty-two weeks a tall order, especially since I’ve never read that many books in a single year before. My greatest fear could be summed up in a single word: Time.

What a fool I was. Time wasn’t a factor at all. In fact, my biggest dilemma ended up being what to read next. But, obviously, that didn’t last very long.

4     # of classics I read

2     # of series I started

3     # of poetry books I read

1     # of books I stopped reading

15   # of books I read by HarperCollins Canada

43   # of authors I read for the first time

The amazing part about participating in the pledge was how it turned me into a literary monster. With every book I finished, I found that my hunger for reading grew exponentially. I couldn’t get enough! In the words of George R.R. Martin the reader in me wanted to live “a thousand lives.” (Now I’ve only got 950 to go.) And that’s precisely why I’m going to continue reading and why I’ll be taking the pledge again next year.

Looking back it’s hard to pick a favourite because I read some truly phenomenal books. Instead, here’s just a small sampling of books that knocked my socks off:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Now that I had finished, the beauty of my dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart …

The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary by Andrew Westoll

Dignity begins when an animal feels that she is the chief instrument of change in her life.

100 Selected Poems by e.e. cummings

i like my body when it is with your body.

It is so quite new a thing.

Muscles better and nerves more.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.

It wants the truth.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Once, in my father’s bookshop, I heard a regular customer say that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later—no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget—we will return.

A huge thank you to The Savvy Reader for making 2012 the best reading year of my life!

On Friday, May 4, 2012, @HarperCollinsCa posted this tweet to its followers: “We’re heading into a planning meeting. Help us out, what makes you take a chance on a new author/book?” Obviously, the first things that come to mind are the cover and the title; however, neither one factors heavily for me. Instead, I rely on the tag line, synopsis and buzz in my decision-making process.

The tag line is an art form that’s incredibly difficult to master. Why? Because you have to sum up an entire novel in a phrase of no more then ten words. A single line that must illustrate the mood and tone flawlessly. A line that has to make you want to read. One of the best tag lines I’ve come across this year comes from This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel: The purest intentions can stir up the darkest obsessions. Dark and intense, just like the story of Victor Frankenstein and his Monster. Now that is a home run.

My next book is A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash. I chose this book because of the following line that appears as part of the book’s synopsis: “A Land More Kind Than Home is a modern masterwork of Southern fiction—one that is likely to be held in the same enduring esteem as such American classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and A Separate Peace.” To say that I adore Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is an understatement. In fact, Atticus Finch is the best literary character ever written. I’m inclined to read A Land More Kind Than Home just to see if it’s worthy of such a generous accolade.

Any author and publisher will tell you that reader buzz is invaluable when it comes to selling a book. Nothing trumps word-of-mouth. Earlier this year, readers were talking about The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary by Andrew Westoll. For weeks I heard praise after praise for this book that I knew nothing about. I finally decided to see what all the hype was about. I’m glad I did. Like I sa