If it’s December, it must be time for bloggers everywhere to unveil end-of-year best-of and worst-of posts about movies, books, and whatever catches their fancy. Since I’m not likely to finish any more books this year, here’s a quick $0.02 on what I read in 2007.

Let’s begin with the disappointments. I can’t really compile a ‘worst-of’ list, for the simple reason that I read books I like, and only books I like. My ‘to-read’ pile is about as tall as I am, yet I continue to lust for and purchase new books. I will undoubtedly die with unread books scattered about me. I do not have time to read something I’m not enjoying. (Unless it’s for a specific purpose, such as grad school. Plenty of bad books to be read for grad school.) However I do read the occasional disappointment, books that for whatever reason do not live up to my preconceptions or expectations. I still enjoy them, just not as much as expected.

The first disappointment this year was The Devil in the White City. It was a decent read - the story of the World’s Fair was completely new to me, and the serial killer bit made for an interesting twist. But for the life of me I can’t understand the encomiums showered on this title. To me, The Devil in the White City was a solid non-fiction read, no more, no less.

Also not quite the thing - The 47th Samurai. When not acting as the Washington Post’s movie critic, Stephen Hunter pens reliably first-rate thrillers, but I found his latest effort not up to snuff. The problem stems from the fact the Hunter sends Bob Lee Swagger, the avatar of American gun culture into a situation centered around the Japanese warrior code of bushido, to the detriment of both elements. Hunter attempts to portray Swagger as an American samurai, which in my opinion is an oxymoron.

Now for my favorite reads of 2007. Last year I read Three Days to Never and quickly came to wonder how in a lifetime filled with reading speculative fiction I’d never read a Tim Powers book before. Since then I’ve been moving to correct this omission and earlier this year I read Declare and liked it even more than Three Days to Never. Declare is a fabulous mash-up of a book, containing all sorts of bits and pieces - djin, Mt. Ararat, Kim Philby, the S.O.E. - and tossed into a deliriously fun read. I’m looking forward to the next two Powers books on my list.

Another favorite title from 2007 is Julius Winsome, which I previously described as “a short, sharp novel about love, loss, grief, and man’s cruelty to his fellow man.”  Trust me when I tell you to go forth and read this book - you won’t regret it. And then you can come back and talk to me about the ending.