Wot I have read this year

We're half-way through the year so I'm going to look back at books I've read and see if there's any trend developing, or not.
So in no particular order:
1. The Winter King, Enemy of God and Excalibur. Bernard Cornwell's take on the Arthur legend. Cornwell is still THE MAN.
2. S**t My Dad Says. Hysterical and strangely moving.
3. Path of the Warrior by Gav Thorpe. Some of you may know I'm into my WH40K and especially eldar (space elves, basically). This is so cool and I wish they'd made it into a trilogy, rather than a very condensed single novel.
4. The new Darren Shan about Crepsley. Managed to get an ARC of this one and Shan's story is very readable BUT it's the beginning of another long series so not a huge amount happens.
5. The Thin Executioner by Shan. Brilliant and a self-contained book. Shan ventures into Middle Eastern fantasy and a story about a boy finding his purpose in life. Which is to chop off heads, or not.
6. Carter Beats the Devil. Fantastic story sent in 1920's America about a stage magician.
7. Demon Covenant and the first Morganville Vampires book. You know what, they're the ONLY YA books I've read this year!
8. Skeleton Key, Furnace, Witchfinder, Curse of the Gloamglozer, Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth, PJ and the Last Olympian, Double or Die, Eagle Strike, Warrior Heir, Mortlock. Basically I went through a burst of mid-grade fantasy books to get me in the zone for writing my India book. Very helpful and very confusing. I've an issue re: YA v. mid-grade division and might discuss this later. In a nutshell I think it makes no real sense at all.
9. Build a New Kingdom. Templars, nuff said.
10. Let the Right One In. Now that's a vampire book.
11. The Gladiator by Scarrow. I love historical fiction and Scarrow's Roman series staring Canto and Macro is great fun.
If there is a trend it's defined by ACTION. Nothing too high-brow or literary and certainly no soppy romances in that bundle, is there? Maybe as the evenings draw in I might move into cosy tales of forbidden love and lingering looks and the such, but I doubt it.