For asome reason, I spent unusually much time this year with reading books that I didn't think were really that good...

Only a few expections and many dissapointments. One of them was by Nick Hornby, who could expect that? (It was "How to be good", none of the main characters seemed to make much sense in a plot that was kickstarted by a deus ex machina that didn't even appear... maybe he didn't know how to write the main male character without explaining this sudden and radical change, so he wrote the story from the wife's pov, and that didn't work out.)

However, while 2008 was a good reading year, somthing messed up my choosing process in 2009. I feel like I read about four or five books that stuck with me, and the rest can be forgotten.

How do you choose?

I used to read, or regularly glance at a blog written by an indie book store owner. Those were really good recommendations, although he was US based and consequently lacking Middle and Eastern European literature, but I got those tips elsewhere. After a hard disk crash and exchange I can't find it anymore. Any tips as too good literature blogs?

"Hoher Sinn liegt oft im kindischen Spiel." (Friedrich Schiller)