I’m taking this to mean the best books which I have read for the first time since the start of 2010. This is where my LibraryThing cataloguing is useful – I see that I have awarded five stars to the following:
Non-fiction
The Language of the Night, by Ursula Le Guin
Dreams From My Father, by Barack Obama
The Bloody Sunday report
Non-genre fiction
Njal’s Saga
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
The Dubliners, by James Joyce
A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute
A Farewell To Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
sf and fantasy
The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett
The Turing Test, by Chris Beckett
Lavinia, by Ursula Le Guin
Another reading of the question would be my favourite book published this year. The only book on the above list in that category is the Bloody Sunday report, but other books of 2010 which I have enjoyed include:
Non-fiction
Triumph of a Time Lord by Matt Hills, a very approachable academic treatment of Doctor Who;
A Fortunate Life: The Autobiography of Paddy Ashdown
sf and fantasy (non-Who)
The Restoration Game by Ken MacLeod, which I read in proof last year and thought was fantastic;
The Hundred-Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Doctor Who
Dead Air by James Goss, the final Tenth Doctor audio
Day 02 – A book that you wish more people had read
Day 03 – Your favorite recent book
Day 04 – Your favorite book ever
Day 05 – A book you hate
Day 06 – Your favourite writer
Day 07 – A writer you don’t like
Day 08 – Your favourite work in translation
Day 09 – Best scene ever
Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 – A book that disappointed you
Day 12 – An book you’ve read more than twice
Day 13 – Favorite childhood book
Day 14 – Favorite male character
Day 15 – Favorite female character
Day 16 – Your guilty pleasure book
Day 17 – Favorite trilogy or tetralogy
Day 18 – Favorite book cover
Day 19 – Best ensemble of characters in a book
Day 20 – Favorite kiss or love scene
Day 21 – Favorite fictional romantic relationship
Day 22 – Favorite ending/climax
Day 23 – Most annoying character
Day 24 – Best quote
Day 25 – A book you plan on reading
Day 26 – OMG WTF? plot
Day 27 – Favourite non-mainstream writer
Day 28 – First book obsession
Day 29 – Current book obsession
Day 30 – Saddest character death
Whilst most of this argument is talking excellent sense, there are two points it doesn’t address:
1) I’m not convinced Assange _is_ rational about this; certainly many of his supporters are not. There is a lot of paranoia involved here – his motivation may well be ‘the crazy talk I am surrounded with / my own innate paranoia has convinced me that Sweden is dangerous due to my political position’ rather than ‘I want to avoid my punishment for what I actually did’.
2) I’m also not convinced the complaints of the women would have been taken any further if there had not been politics involved – it might not be ‘attempt to extradite him to the US’ politics, which as you say is essentially crazy talk, but (from admittedly a relatively ill-informed position – I’ve mostly been following blog chatter and newspaper articles rather than looking for my own numbers) it appears that similar accusations against non high profile perpetrators are rarely taken this seriously by the same authorities.