TopDragon Awards 2009!

This is always difficult for me.  I tend to like most books that I read and very few are not pleasurable reading experiences in one way or another.  Still, some are a cut above the rest and so I present these annual awards.  There are no qualifications to be entered into this award program other than I must have read the book during the calendar year.  Doesn't matter when it was published or even if it's still in print.  I don't judge by what a critic might say or by how much publicity it may have received or whether or not my friends liked it.  Simply, I judge by how much I enjoyed reading it.  FYI, the "Sleeper" award is for a book I didn't really expect to be all that good but it turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable.  Also, to be eligible for the Grand Prize, the book must have won in one of the lower levels.  So, without further ado...here are the 2009 TopDragon Awards:

Best Nonfiction: American Caesar, Douglas MacArthur
 byWilliam Manchester

Best Classic Fiction: The Fountainhead
 by Ayn Rand

Best Historical Fiction: River God
by Wilbur Smith

Best Mystery: The Cat Who Tailed a Thief
by Lilian Jackson Braun

Best Adventure: Conspiracies, (Repairman Jack #3)
by F. Paul Wilson

Best Western Fiction: The Cherokee Trail
by Louis L'Amour

Best General Fiction: The Carpetbaggers
by Harold Robbins

Best Young Adult Novel: Starlight (Warriors, The New Prophecy #4)
by Erin Hunter

Best Horror: Sandman Slim
by Richard Kadrey

Best Science Fiction: The Psi Corps Trilogy
by J. Gregory Keyes

Best Fantasy: The Name of the Wind
by Patrick Rothfuss

Best Short Story: Survivor Type
by Stephen King

Best Audio Book: Night Over Water
by Ken Follett

Sleeper Award: Top Producer
by Norb Vonnegut

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Grand Award Winner: The Name of the Wind
by Patrick Rothfuss

Runner up: River God
by Wilbur Smith

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A few notes on my reading year:  I read 98 books this year, 11 of which were audio books.  That equals almost 36,000 pages (not counting audio books of course).  I also read 49 short stories making that, by far, the most competitive category for an award.

Happy New Year to all!