• Another Life by Andrew Vachss
• Hellboy: Oddest Jobs edited by Christopher Golden

(Excellent collection, and not just because of the Joe R. Lansdale story. Besides the stories from the authors I know and trust to deliver, there were pleasant surprises, such as the Barbara Hambly story. )

• Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy by S.D. Perry

(don't judge me!)

• The Further Adventures of Batman: Volume 2, The Penguin edited by Martin H. Greenberg
• The Further Adventures of Batman: Volume 3, Catwoman edited by Martin H. Greenberg

(at this point I'm really OK with you judging me)

• Justice League of America - Batman: The Stone King by Alan Grant

(really, really OK)

• Batman: No Man's Land by Greg Rucka
• Batman: Knightfall by Dennis O'Neil

(I'm not apologizing for NML. The rest? Well, as this coincides with the end of January I'm just going to consider this something I got out of my system. I'm starting off February with Dickens. On a related note, Stanza is one great app.)

January: 8 books, 3 graphic novels

February: OK, so much for my grand plan. I started reading David Copperfield but I got distracted. There were numerous graphic novels, including the entire collection of Gotham Central ... and then I started re-reading Dragonlance books. First were the two Ravenloft books featuring Lord Soth, Knight of the Black Rose and Spectre of the Black Rose. Then for some reason I felt the need to re-read the Elven Nations trilogy, then the Tales II trilogy. Plus I suspect I may be getting new Dragonlance books soon.

February: 8 books, 6 graphic novels

• The Dark Water by David Pirie
• Dead Man's Hand by Nancy A. Collins
• Dead Roses for a Blue Lady by Nancy A. Collins
• Sunglasses After Dark by Nancy A. Collins
• Into the Dreamlands edited by Jason Andrew and Michael Dyer
• A is for Alien by Caitlin R. Kiernan
• In the Blood by Nancy A. Collins
• Paint it Black by Nancy A. Collins
• A Dozen Black Roses by Nancy A. Collins
• Darkest Heart by Nancy A. Collins

March: 10 books, 1 graphic novel

Of the 26 books I've read so far this year, only 6 were ones I was reading for the first time.

• Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon
• The Cage by Jason Brannon

(I just haven't been having much luck with the smaller publishers recently. Into the Dreamlands and The Cage were both disappointing.)

• V: The Second Generation by Some Guy Who Is Apparently Too Much of a Prima Donna For Editorial Input because there is rampant Capitalization and Italics abuse

(besides that I'm such a fan of V that I couldn't help but love it a bit)

• Lord of the Night by Simon Spurrier. A Warhammer 40K book. I have to admit there's a certain appeal to this 'verse.
• Turn Coat by Jim Butcher. Besides my grammarian rage at the title it was pretty good as Dresden Files books go. A lot of major changes that were unsettling when all the dust settled, but that's pretty much what life is like too. I tend to consider these books mostly fluff, but I do appreciate Butcher's willingness to make the readers unhappy for the sake of reasonable character/story development.
• The Patient's Eyes by David Pirie. This was the last of Pirie's Doyle & Bell mysteries (though the first one written, silly me) and I'm so depressed that there aren't any more, woe!

April: 6 books, 1 graphic novel

• The Midnight Road by Tom Piccirilli (I must admit I'm a little surprised I've never read anything by him before. Somewhere between Thomas Perry and John Connolly with just a smidge of Ken Bruen)
• The Long Last Call by John Skipp. WOO HOOOOO! Back to the house that splatterpunk built!
• November Mourns by Tom Piccirilli

Is this all I read in May? It's possible, because this is when I replaced my TV that died the day before Thanksgiving.

May: 3 books, 2 graphic novels

• Faith & Fire by James Swallow. A Warhammer 40K book. I probably read 90% of it in May and it took me more than two weeks in June to read the last 10%. See above about the TV.
• Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski. Duuude. Think of an episode of Alias crossed with a game of Laser Tag filmed by Quentin Tarantino. Frickin' brilliant.
• The Fever Kill by Tom Piccirilli

June: 3 books, 3 graphic novels

OK, time to get cracking.

Um, July ... yeah, I'm not sure what happened there. Though Guild Wars probably had something to do with it.

July: 5 graphic novels

OK, it's almost the end of 2009 and as you can see I gave up on the month-by-month tracking - mostly because it was too depressing. So I'll just note what I've read in the last (groan) five months, not necessarily in order.

• The Devil You Know by Poppy Z. Brite
• Triage a collection of three novellas by Richard Laymon, Ed Lee and Jack Ketchum
• The Shallow End of the Pool by Adam-Troy Castro
• Frayed by Tom Piccirilli
• Hellboy: The Fire Wolves by Tim Lebbon

At least 11 graphic novels.