This was the year I finally read Ulysses, which was enough of an accomplishment to mark this year down as an extraordinary one for reading no matter what else I encountered. And I encountered a lot of good ones.
Maybe one of these years I'll get better about blogging about them!
I completed 101 books this year, same as I did in 2009. In case you read offblog and never see my sidebar, you can find a list of all the books I've read here. And I read a total of 113 short stories, which you'll find listed here. I'd hoped to read 210, but failed to keep up the necessary pace to do so.
What I'm doing differently this year with my stats is providing, when available, stats for the last five or six years. I'm not trying to make any sense out of the stats yet (I'm still too feverish for that), but at least they're all nice and handy for me if I want to attempt an analysis later.
Books Total 101 / 101 / 78 / 81 / 74 / 77
Nonfiction 16 / 15 / 13 / 8 / 14 / 13
Novels 78 / 79 / 62 / 62 / 50 / 47
Short Story Collections 7 / 7 / 3 /4 / 1 / 8
Library Books 26 / 48 / 27 / 14 / 31
Newly Acquired/Read 23 / 32 /32 / 31 / 24
Newly Acquired/Stockpiled 113 / 140 / 88 /141+ / 75+
E-texts Read 17 / 10 / 12
Free E-texts Read 9 / 5 / 7
Just-published books 36 / 55 / 41 /34 / 33
Classics 21 / 10 / 8 / 23 / 12
Pre-20th Century 9 / 7 / 4 / 12 / 11
Written by women 46 / 55 / 42 / 33 / 28
Authors with multiple books read: George Gissing (3), Anthony Trollope (3), Scarlett Thomas (2), Doris Lessing (2), Jonathan Franzen (2), Laura Lippman (2)
Rereads: Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle; James Thurber's My Life and Hard Times; Clyde Edgerton's Raney; Olive Ann Burns's Cold Sassy Tree; Anne Tyler's Ladder of Years; and Charles Portis's True Grit.
My favorites this year, in the order that I read them:
Can You Forgive Her? Anthony Trollope
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Rebecca Skloot
Cassandra at the Wedding. Dorothy Baker
In the Year of Jubilee. George Gissing
The Sweetest Dream. Doris Lessing
Ulysses. James Joyce
Our Tragic Universe. Scarlett Thomas
Miracle Boy and Other Stories. Pinckney Benedict
Composed. Rosanne Cash
Freedom. Jonathan Franzen
To the End of the Land. David Grossman
The Invisible Bridge. Julie Orringer
In Utopia. J. C. Hallman
I'm so glad Ulysses made it to your best of list since I'm going to undertake it in 2011. Love that you included stats from years past. I also think it is very brave of you to keep track of how many books you've stockpiled!
ReplyDeleteI'm trying so hard to guilt myself into another book buying moratorium!
ReplyDeleteI really do need to read Anthony Trollope--I have a feeling he's someone I would love. And I want to read that Cassandra Baker book, too. I have the same edition--thanks for the reminder. Someday I'm going to hit 100 books. It may be when I'm retired, but some day. And hopefully next year I'll read more classics, too. Have a great 2011!
ReplyDeleteI refuse to read Ulysses, but I do like Trollope. I plan to read The Way We Live Now sometime in the next month or two.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see Cassandra at the Wedding on your list. I read it a few years ago, found it on the remainder table somewhere, and enjoyed it. I always felt it deserved a much wider audience.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year.
Very impressive stats, you are a voracious reader.
ReplyDeleteI try to spend nearly all of my free time reading, and still I have only read half as many books as you have this past year.
Your list of favorites looks so tantalizing -- even though I haven't read any of these I have been very interested in the Grossman book and also the new Franzen. Your endorsement of them may send me to the cash register soon, with these under my arm.
Happy New Year!
Great picks!
ReplyDeleteI read 95 books, not bad, considering I was in a reading slump for more than four months.
Happy New Year to you and your family. Have a great reading year in 2011!!!
Here are my Best Reads of 2010.