Best and worst of 2010-a rambling pastiche

So, I actually thought to make a "2010" shelf on Goodreads this year thus I am able to correctly assess my reading. Wow, I read more mysteries than I thought. Here are some of the high and lowlights:

Worst read of the year: White Noise. Well, thanks to Don DeLillo, I don't have to pick a book that was just ok but dull and unfinishable (Judgement Calls) or amateurish and sloppy (Slipknot). I could pick one that was fuck you awful. Smarmy satire about academia that was a smarmily pretentious as the behavior it sought to mock. Hated. It.

Best discovery of the year: I have never been inclined to pick favorite authors because I gravitate more towards individual books. (Well, there was that time in 8th grade when I discovered romance novels and I told the local librarian that famed romance hack Janet Dailey was my favorite writer. I wish I could look her up and tell her I grew out of that.)

Anyways, John Steinbeck is officially my favorite writer after I devoured Cannery Row, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Moon is Down last year. I struggle to pick my favorite among them but I think it's Cannery Row. Still don't get the poison cream puff thing that Ed Ricketts' wife likened the book too. I read The Pearl back in 8th grade and didn't really like it. I read East of Eden in college and loved it although other than reading Of Mice and Men a year or two ago, I hadn't really picked him up since.

Best mystery: This is a tie between Polar Star by Martin Cruz Smith and Garnethill by Denise Mina.

Best scifi: Again, I'm torn between The City and The City by China Mieville and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin. I liked but didn't love Cat's Cradle.

Best short story collection: well, I didn't read that many but the winner is easily Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom which left me feeling everyone on the planet should read it.

Best memoir: Spider Eaters by Rae Yang. I would say it's the most visceral memoir of the Cultural Revolution but who am I kidding? It's the only memoir of the Cultural Revolution I've read. Still, it's rare because she admits to being in a group that beat a (possibly mentally ill) man to death after accusing him of attempted rape on flimsy evidence.

I am happy to have overcome my literary prejudice toward graphic novels. Not sure why this was. I didn't really like Watchmen that much (which makes me unique on this planet I realize) but that's not the reason. I certainly loved comics as a kid-mainly Archie and The Fantastic 4. Anyways, Ghost World cured me. In fact, I have Volume 1 of The Walking Dead waiting in the car right now.

My favorite TV show is impossible to pick but at the moment, I'm obsessed with Breaking Bad. I even have the elements picked out that would show up in the opening credits were I in the cast (vanadium and nickel...)

I don't really have a least favorite show as I just turn shit off if I don't like it but Gretchen winning Project Runway was probably the worst tv moment of the year for a show I used to love. Granny panties and pleather? Really?