Where my last 20 reviewed books came from (4)

I'm a bit late with this - these are all books read last year.

Generation A by Douglas Coupland - Amazon Vine
When She Flew by Jennie Shortridge - Provided by author as part of TLC blog tour
The Naughty List by Suzanne Young - Picked up at Frankfurt Book Fair
The Natural Beauty Book by Anne Akers Johnson - Sent by publisher (unsolicited) for review
Dork Diaries by Rachel R. Russell - Provided by author after I accepted author query
Candor by Pam Bachorz - Won at the Teen Author Carnival at the NYC public library in May
Gone by Lisa McMann - Picked up at Frankfurt Book Fair
The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti - Requested via Shelf Awareness
The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan - Won via Library Thing Early Reviewer Program
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky - Own, used to be my mother's
Crossed Wires by Rosy Thornton - Provided by author after I accepted author query
Boyology by Sarah Burningham - Provided by author after I accepted author query
The Help by Kathryn Stockett - Requested via Shelf Awareness
A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve - Sent to me by the fabulous Nicole (thanks again!)
The Mark by Jen Nadol - Traded with Ka-Yam
Notes from My Travels by Angelina Jolie - Borrowed from the "hotel" library in Lamu, Kenya
Fodor's The Complete African Safari Planner - Requested via Shelf Awareness
Footprint's Kenya Handbook - Picked up at Frankfurt Book Fair
Lonely Planet's Watching Wildlife East Africa - Picked up at Frankfurt Book Fair
How to Buy a Love of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson - Provided by publisher after I accepted publicist query

So quite the variety this review period, though most were still review copies. I'm hoping to get a better balance between review copies and bought/owned/library books as I read more deliberately in 2010. I'm sure review copies will still dominate at least the first half of the year though as I whittle down the pile.

I am officially giving myself permission to abandon books that I am just not into, and I will begin to list those in these FTC Disclosure posts as well as a separate list. There is only so much reading time, and I want to start spending mine reading worthwhile books. I went through my list of books read in 2009 and realized that if I hadn't been such a stickler for reading books to the bitter end last year, there are at least 20 (!) I would have abandoned after a few chapters. That's about 2 months of just so-so reading. But I do want to stress that just because a book isn't for me, doesn't mean YOU won't enjoy it, so take my future DNFs with a grain of salt.