Each year flies by faster and faster. Yes, everyone says that, but it’s odd to experience it and find that it isn’t just an expression, but a reality. I’m still not used to writing 2009 on my checks (on the few checks I write anymore; it’s all computerized these days, isn’t it?), and we’re already halfway through the year.

It’s been a grand year for reading for me. In the first six months of the year I completed 72 books, of which I reviewed 43 here and four elsewhere. (Many of the reviews here were short; for example, my “book a day” experience for February resulted in 29 short reviews.) Of the 72 books I read, exactly half were SF/F/H: 36, including 20 graphic novels. In an odd turn of events for me, I’ve read only three mysteries; they used to comprise the bulk of my reading diet. I also read three non-fiction books, rather more than usual (I’ve gone entire years reading only one book of non-fiction). I read ten books of mainstream/literary/mimetic fiction – I hate choosing a label for this sort of book, for reasons rather well detailed in a recent discussion over on Ecstatic Days. Of all the books I read, seven were works in translation, considerably up from any previous year. I haven’t really checked to see how many of the books I read were first published in 2009, but I’m know for certain it’s fewer than half of my total reading.

I’ve been lucky to have read a considerable number of really good books. As is my habit, I do not restrict this “best” list to what was published in 2009, but only to what I read this year that I consider to be outstanding. In no particular order, they are:

Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente. Valente uses language so beautifully that reading her work is like eating crème brulee, rich and sweet. But it’s also sharp and tangy at the same time, and there’s no food metaphor that works here. Palimpsest is the story of four people who travel to a different world when they dream after sex with an initiate into that world, and their attempts to migrate to that world altogether. It is an amazing world still suffering from the aftermath of a terrible war, but the terrors are not like those of this world. Palimpsest probably falls between the cracks of genres – call it what you will, whether it’s New Weird, slipstream, interstitial fiction – it defies categorization. You really must read this book.

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I reviewed this book here just the other day, and so won’t go into any detail again. I will say, though, that this book about a writer in early 20th century Barcelona gets my highest recommendation, both because it is beautifully written and because it tells a compelling story.

Gone Tomorrow by P.F. Kluge. One of the best academic novels I’ve ever read, reviewed in full here. This book made me very sentimental for my own college days. It even made me once again visit my continuing regret that I opted for a legal career rather than an academic one. It’s a lovely book about one writer’s love for his college, his students, and his work.

Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Ellen Datlow. I can’t think of an Ellen Datlow anthology I wouldn’t recommend, but this one is especially good (I reviewed it for SF Signal here). These stories, all original to this anthology, were inspired by one Poe story or another in celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth. There are some stories that stand out as particularly wonderful, including John Langan’s, which is why you won’t be surprised about the next entry on this list.

Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters by John Langan. This first collection by this relatively new horror writer gave me plenty of chills. Langan isn’t much for graphic scenes of gross-out horror, but relies instead on the psychological scare. In other words, he plays with your mind, and that’s plenty frightening. I reviewed the book in full here.

Lamentation (The Psalms of Isaak) by Ken Scholes. This is one of the few 2009 publications on this list. While this book has been marketed principally as fantasy, I’m of the opinion that it’s actually far future science fiction. But that’s labeling, not criticism or even review. Whatever you want to call this book, you’ll call it good. This story of a world in turmoil after the bombing of the equivalent of the Vatican is full of adventure, romance, and good writing. I reviewed the book more completely here.

The Resurrectionist by Jack O’Connell. This book is so odd that I’m still thinking about it long after reading it, hoping to write a review that untangles it. It’s the story of a man and his brain-damaged son and their sojourn at a clinic for those in deep comas. And it’s the story of how that man becomes involved in a sort of cult built around the patients at the clinic, though the patients are not members of the cult (how could they be? They’re all in comas). There’s a parallel story based on a fictional comic book series about mutants, which somehow seems to affect events in the real world to some extent. The Resurrectionist is a deeply weird book, quite wonderful.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. This young adult novel about a nascent colony on a planet far from Earth (reviewed here) is extraordinarily well-plotted and well-written. I’m eagerly awaiting The Ask and the Answer, the sequel to The Knife of Never Letting Go , because I really want to know what happens to those characters next. You can read my more detailed review here.

12 Collections and The Teashop by Zoran Zivkovic. I discovered Zivkovic last year, and am now trying to read as much of his work as I can. This book, consisting of 12 stories and one novella that seems related to those stories, is fantasy of the best kind. I loved the way Zivkovic wove everything together, and the matter-of-fact magic of the collections. Of the three books by Zivkovic I’ve read so far, this is my favorite.

Gears of the City by Felix Gilman. I reviewed this book for SF Signal here. It’s a follow-up to Gilman’s debut in Thunderer, which I also liked very much, but darker and stranger. Gilman’s protagonist has made it to the mountain, but what he finds there isn’t exactly what he expected. You’ll find not only Gilman’s strange city here, but also characters who are unstuck in time, villains who change personalities and purposes, and many, many gods.

Muse of Fire by Dan Simmons. This novella originally appeared in The New Space Opera, edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan. It is an excellent story about a troupe of Shakespearean actors in an age when the human race has become enslaved by an apparently superior race – which is itself enslaved by a superior race, which itself is in thrall to yet another so-called superior race. Shakespeare is apparently not only eternal, but also genuinely universal.

Enchanted Night: A Novella by Steven Millhauser. This novella, about a single spring night in a small town, is charming. I’m at a point where I’ll read anything Millhauser cares to write, because he’s that good.

Silk by Alessandro Baricco. This little love story about a man who visits China in a by-gone age in order to buy silkworms and their eggs is beautifully told. Kudos not only to the author, but to his translator.

Borges and the Eternal Orangutans by Luis Fernando Verissimo. What a book! This short novel, translated from the Portuguese, is a mystery, a fantasy and a piece of mainstream fiction all in one. Where else can you get a book in which Borges is a character who is trying to solve a murder mystery by analyzing the crime as if it were a fiction, using techniques of literary criticism to try to figure it all out? I was fascinated from cover to cover. If you think there’s something up in Spanish and Portuguese literature lately, I agree with you. The weird and the strange – the Borgesian, if you will – seems to have reached the heights of literary stardom, all to our benefit. I hope we get more and more translations, because I love this stuff.

So that was the first half of my year. Now I’ve commenced on my “works in translation” project. The piles are high and rather daunting, but I’m eager to dive in to works by Kobo Abe, Roberto Bolano, Orhan Pamuk and Ngugi wa Thiong’d, among others. Never a dull moment around here!