My Year in Books

And now, the annual book round-up!

My haul from Book Expo America, back in June.

Books read: 52

Pages read: 16,585 (including only books I finished, not ones in progress at the end of the year. The number would be well over 17,000 if I included things in progress...but they'll count towards the 2013 stats!)

Fiction/nonfiction split: 25 fiction/27 nonfiction (Very unusual! I generally read WAY more nonfiction.)

Kindle/paper: 30 Kindle/22 paper

Ratings: 
5 stars: 14
4 stars: 26
3 stars: 10
2 stars: 1
1 star: 1 

My favorites of the year: Alice Bliss, Destiny of the Republic, The Night Circus, Mrs. Kennedy And Me.  Honorable mention: The Last Policeman.

Biggest disappointment: An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, which I just finished last night.  It's the lone 1-star ranking above.  It had such a great title, and such a quirky premise, and I SO wanted to like it.  But I cannot think of a single redeeming thing about it.  (Normally I wouldn't bother finishing a book like that -- hence my relative lack of low-ranked books -- but I kept hoping it would get better, and eventually I was far enough in where I wanted to see how it would end even though I knew there was no hope that I'd come to like it.)

Having just tallied up all of these stats, I'm shocked to see just how many books I read on the Kindle.  I knew that I was reading more because of it; I just didn't realize how much more!  I really do attribute my huge jump in reading (last year I read 41 books, but didn't even hit 10,000 pages) to the Kindle: I have it in my bag all the time, whereas I don't always have room for print books. And even when I do have room to carry a book, it takes more effort to remember to grab the one I'm reading, for some reason.  I used to flip through magazines on my lunch break at work; now instead I always have a book on hand.  Clearly it's paying off!

I'm quite pleased, too, to see my fiction/nonfiction numbers closer together this year.  I do love my nonfiction, but in recent years I've really been ignoring novels, and I guess I must have missed them.  I still blame Anita Shreve for turning me off them for some time.  Stupid A Wedding in December.  

My goal for the year was 52 books -- a book a week -- and I did it!  I had a few little slumps where I didn't read much of anything, but made up for it with several binges, like my Ian McEwan mini-marathon of several weeks ago, not to mention all the books I managed to read while on vacation.  Part of me wanted to set a higher goal for 2013, but the other part kept admonishing that first part to keep it reasonable. So 52 it is, once again.

One change coming up in my life this year: a commute, which is something I've never really had before!  So I may need to enter the world of audiobooks.  We'll see.  I've never been a huge fan of them, but I'll have an hour and a half in the car each day now.  NPR may not be enough amusement!

Comments

[Momma Hunt]

So jealous I think I average around 25ish for the year! Congrats on the 52

[Kim]

I'm glad to hear you liked "Mrs. Kennedy and Me." I've been interested in it from the beginning, but had read really mixed reviews. Yours I trust.

[Heather]

I liked 'The Last Policeman' a lot, too!

Happy new year to you!