2010 Reading Statistics or How We've Been Reading

This is always one of the most fun parts of the year for me.  I love looking through what I've read and remembering the good and the bad, seeing how well I achieved loose goals and deciding what I want the next year of reading to look like.

I'm finishing up my last book of the year right now and so, after this one, I will have finished 125 books totalling 38102 pages.  That's an average of 104 pages a day.  That's down from 125 pages a day last year.  This makes sense because I am spending more time volunteering at the school than last year and also more time at the gym.  I also spend more time helping with homework and satisfying the strange demands of a six year old.  I don't have any goals for how many books I want to read next year but 100 is a nice number to pass!

Last year I read six non-fiction books and set an informal goal of reading twelve this year.  Well, I ended up only reading 7 non-fiction titles for the year.  Not as good as I had hoped but at least it didn't go down!  I will set the same loose goal of twelve for next year.  I have some great titles on my shelves that I need/want to read.  I think that if I get through Peter Ackroyd's London: The Biography, though, it should count for more than one (832 pages)!

I marked 10 books as "definitely would not read again".  That's half the number from last year which makes me very happy!  As I am being more selective in my review copies and reading more books from my own shelves, I'm hoping this number will be even lower next year.

45 of my books were borrowed from the library.  That's 36 percent, or just over one-third.  I anticipate it being lower in the coming year as I will be trying to choose mainly from the reads already in my house.

One thing I started tracking last year was how many authors I read for the first time.  It appears to be 71 authors of novels plus an unknown number from two short story collections.  This isn't far from last year's number and means I'm being fairly good about trying out new authors.

This year I decided to start tracking the year of publication on the books I read.  The oldest books I read were Sense and Sensibility (1811) and The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838).  71 percent of my reads were published in the 2000's.  I hope this will change next year when I read more from my shelves.  I would like to have it be closer to 50 percent.

Next year I think I will also record if a book is translated.  I think that 11 of my reads from this year were originally written in another language including French, Spanish, Swedish, Hebrew and Japanese.

One way my reading drastically changed this year was that I only read two books over 600 pages long (Outlander and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle).  This is quite surprising now that I look back and I definitely intend to change it going forward.  I love "chunksters" and think I passed them up for the sake of the blog this year.  I'm not sure how many I have on my shelves but I'm sure it's in the dozens so I just need to pick them up!

I had 6 re-reads this year -- three from Tolkien, two from Diana Wynne Jones and one from J.K. Rowling.

32 of my reads were ARCs or review copies and 16 of my reads were for read-alongs, group discussions or special events (like DWJ Week and NYRB Spotlight Month).  I don't think I'll sign up for any challenges this year (except for RIP, of course, and DWJ Week if it's now an annual event ... which it had better be) but instead I'll choose things to participate in reading events as they come up.  I still might make some reading lists for challenges that I'm interested in.

A personal challenge I set up for myself this year was to read books and plays that inspired my favorite classic movies.  I got to four of them this year--The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Sabrina Fair, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House and Laura--and happily they all made me love my favorite movies even more!  In the coming year I hope to read Strangers on a Train and The African Queen among others.

As you may have noticed, Z's reading calendar fell by the wayside about halfway through the year.  It was hard to keep up with and he lost interest in it.  Not to mention the fact that I physically lost it.  It ended up stashed somewhere and I haven't seen it for a while now.  We'll have to see if we can't think of another way to record what he is reading in the coming year.

So that's it!  I'm looking forward to 2011 and all of the books it holds in store for us.  If you have any reading suggestions or requests about the blog, please let us know any time!

Happy New Year,
K and Z

Best of 2010 & A Look Forward

I had some great reads in 2010.  For a list of all non-picture-book reviews of the year, click on the tab above or here.  Instead of listing all of the reviews again, I thought I would just point you to a few favorites.  Tomorrow I will also hopefully have some statistics put together for 2010.

In January, I enjoyed The Glass Room by Simon Mawer.  I appreciated the level of detail in the story and the complex characters.  I got a kick out of Sorcery & Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, a novel written back and forth as letters by two authors, Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer.  The spunky characters, Victorian setting and magical events were a perfect combination for fun!  And an entirely different read but equally enjoyable was The Housekeeper and The Professor by Yoko Ogawa.  It was one of a couple Japanese reads for the year and possibly my favorite.

February was the month of the shocking and compelling Brodeck by Philippe Claudel, translated from French.  I had the Not the TV Book Group to thank for this read.  The other standout in the month was Jasper Fforde's new series starter, Shades of Grey.  The world building in the book was exceptional and the story built to an exciting high.

I started March with a very good YA read -- The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee.  Dealing with issues of race and gender in Victorian society against the backdrop of a mystery, this was one of the standout reads of the year.  I will be starting the sequel soon.  I also enjoyed becoming reacquainted with Flavia de Luce in Alan Bradley's second novel featuring this cheeky young poisoner -- The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag.  You will see below that I don't have to wait long to spend time with her again.

Through March, April and May I participated in a group read of Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.  I loved the first book and the second book but was less satisfied with the third.  It was an amazingly constructed book with some resolution but other plot lines that remained mysteries.

April was also a banner month for me as I finally read I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.  "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink" is one of my favorite first lines in literature.  This will definitely be one that I re-read over the years.  Cassandra Mortmain is a great character with a unique voice.

Starting in April, I devoured Linda Buckley-Archer's youth time travel trilogy -- The Time Travelers, The Time Thief and The Time Quake.  Comprising a single large story, this was a fantastic series with so many things that I find enjoyable in children's fantasy.

June was a month for great reads, both new releases and classics.  A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer and The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley were page-turners that also held great historical and cultural insight.  I loved reading Boy: Tales of Childhood, the first volume of Roald Dahl's memoir writing.  And of course I enjoyed the newest release by Diana Wynne Jones -- Enchanted Glass.  It's one of my favorite DWJ books already!  I'm still deciding which version to buy though.

The highlight of August was Jenny's Diana Wynne Jones Week.  Fire and Hemlock was just as amazing as I hoped it would be.  I also loved reading more new-to-me titles and a couple of old favorites.

In September I started my RIP Challenge reads and there were two standouts that month -- The Gates by John Connolly and The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters.  Though incredibly different, these titles both grabbed my interest from the start and never let go.

October also featured two great reads though only one was for the challenge.  The Domino Men by Jonathan Barnes was a little bit sci-fi, a little horror and a little funny.  It came together into one disturbingly funny read.  I also enjoyed The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise by Julia Stuart, a mix of history lesson, quirky ensemble piece and serious relationship story.

I wrapped the year with two more strong reads, A Razor Wrapped in Silk by R.N. Morris and The Sherlockian by Graham Moore.  Morris' book showed the skill and polish of an established author and Moore's showed the promise of someone on his way to success.

Now for what I'm looking forward to in 2011.

In February, the next Flavia de Luce book will be released.  A Red Herring Without Mustard should be another strong showing for the series.

In March, I'll be buying One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde and The School of Night by Louis Bayard.  I feel fortunate that two of my very favorite authors are putting out books this year!

R.N. Morris' The Cleansing Flames will also be out in the spring and should be another strong novel from him.

And I will continue to make an effort to read more from my TBR shelves in the coming year.  I'm looking forward to A Stranger in Mayfair by Charles Finch, The Agency 2: The Body at the Tower by Y.S. Lee, War on the Margins by Libby Cone, The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton and many more of the novels I already own.

Thank you for reading our blog through another year and we hope to bring many more great reads to your attention in 2011!

Looking back, looking forward,
K

Merry Christmas!

Though there are many Christmas classics out there, my very favorite Christmas film scene comes from Disney's The Swiss Family Robinson (1960). I tear up every time when the pipe organ fails, the mother begins crying and then, miracle!, they hear the voices of their two sons in the distance singing O Christmas Tree and they come walking up with a zebra and a girl!  Enjoy!



Best wishes to all of our blog readers and friends,K and Z

Can the weather be welmish?

Jenners has inspired me with her post about the Save the Words organization.  She had become a regular jobbler and I'm very proud of her!  Since this is a cost-free commitment (unless you want to buy a t-shirt), I have taken it upon myself to save TWO words --

The first is welmish, an adjective meaning "of a pale or sickly colour".  Being in the Pacific Northwest, land of the pale and sickly-coloured, I feel I can give this word a good home in my winter vocabulary.  There is also a welmish Etsy store with some pale-coloured items along with icons of the saints.

My second word is speustic, another adjective meaning "made or baked in haste".  This will apply to many of my dinners and most of my blog posts!  I'm sure you've deduced that this is one of those speustic posts.

So now please excuse me as I whip up some cookies in my normal speustic manner and try to get outside to combat my welmishness.

Saviour of the words,
K

New Release: Sapphique

I'm not a huge reader of dystopian fiction but was intrigued by Catherine Fisher's Incarceron earlier this year and found that there were elements that made it a decent fit for me.  Next week the sequel, Sapphique, will be released and I think this pair of YA novels are well worth reading.  Together they are a complete story of hope, endurance and discovery.  (Note: Sapphique is not a stand-alone novel.  You will be very confused if you try and read it on its own.)

These two books tell the story of two places -- the prison Incarceron and the world Outside.  Finn has grown up inside the prison but never seems to entirely fit in.  He has seizures and strange visions of another place but doesn't know what he is seeing.  Claudia has grown up Outside as the prison warden's daughter.  She is brash and confident and engaged to a real boor.  When Claudia starts becoming suspicious that things in the prison aren't as they've always been told, she starts on a journey that leads her to Finn.  Together they must save everyone in both worlds from a prison that is sentient, vindictive and lonely.

These stories are part fantasy, part steampunk and are definitely YA.  There is a very pleasant resolution at the end of Sapphique and I was caught up in many of the issues that it explored.  I thought the worlds were well constructed and I will be looking into Fisher's previous novels as well.

Peering into other worlds,
K


Support our site and buy Incarceron and Sapphique on Amazon or find them at your local library.  We received an advance reading copy of this book.

New Release: 13 Words

I've seen very mixed reviews online for 13 Words, the new picture book by Lemony Snicket and illustrated by Maira Kalman.  Some readers thought it was too weird or awkward.  Others thought it was a work of imagination and genius.  Z and I are of the opinion that this is a fantastic book!

Beginning with a list of 13 words, Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler) created a story that is fun and silly and that contains just a little bit of learning.  The thirteen words are these:

1. Bird
2. Despondent
3. Cake
4. Dog
5. Busy
6. Convertible
7. Goat
8. Hat
9. Haberdashery
10. Scarlet
11. Baby
12. Panache
13. Mezzo-Soprano

As you can see, some are easy, everyday words and some need to be defined within the story for the young readers that are enjoying the story.  I thought it was very well executed and Z now knows what a convertible and a mezzo-soprano are!  We also loved the artwork of Maira Kalman.  I've already enjoyed her New York Times pieces in the past and, though I wouldn't have thought of her as a picture book illustrator, her simple and colorful drawings are just the thing to bring this story to life.

One of the things I immediately thought of with this book was the opportunity for teachers and librarians to use this as a launching point for a student activity.  By giving the kids a list of words, some known and some unknown, you could allow them to write their own stories and learn how to research words that are new to them.  In fact, I thought it would be fun to do this at home with Z.  So, here is Z's version of 13 Words with the words I gave him in bold.  He composed and typed it all by himself and we had a browser window open to dictionary.com which he used to look up the words that he didn't know.

There once was a boy named Earl.
Suddenly, Earl met a monkey.
Earl and the monkey rode a bicycle.
All the monkeys think Earl is carefree.
Earl and the monkey splashed into a puddle.
“I’m so distracted!” said the monkey.
Earl and the monkey rode the bicycle into a grotto.
There was a popsicle shop in the grotto.
There was an alligator for a cashier.
The monkey went to her mother.
The monkey gave her mother a genuine popsicle.
“I’m tired.” said the monkey.
Earl was grateful for his family.

The End

Not bad for a six year old, right?  And he actually used grateful in a sentence the next day!  If you decide to try this activity with your kids or students, leave us a link or paste your story in the comments.  And this is one of the few times that I will recommend that you watch the book trailer.  It's hilarious and features the very silly Lemony Snicket and a real live mezzo-soprano!




Genuinely grateful for good picture books,
K and Z


Support our site and buy 13 Words on Amazon or find it at your local library.  We borrowed our copy from the library and helped Z's school library get a copy.

Celebrate Jane Austen's Birthday Today with Sourcebooks

Today, December 16th is the 235th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth!  It's hard to believe that someone born that long ago wrote books that are so readable today.  She was truly a masterful author.

Sourcebooks is doing something wonderful today and offering free e-books of all of her novels and also some of the modern re-tellings and spin-offs.  This is a one day only deal so go download them from your e-bookstore of choice today!

From Sourcebooks:

Sourcebooks, the world’s leading publisher of Jane Austen fiction, is offering a unique deal to readers who want to celebrate Jane by reading special editions of all six of Austen’s beloved novels in a 21^st century format.


Special e-book editions of Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion and Mansfield Park will be available for free for one day only. These celebratory editions include the full novels, plus the legendary color illustrations of the Brock brothers, originally created to accompany the books in 1898.


In addition to the Jane Austen classics, readers can also enjoy these bestselling Austen-inspired novels. The following bestselling e-books will be free on December 16th in honor of her birthday:

Eliza’s Daughter by Joan Aiken

The Darcys & the Bingleys by Marsha Altman

Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll

What Would Jane Austen Do? by Laurie Brown

The Pemberley Chronicles by Rebecca Ann Collins

The Other Mr. Darcy by Monica Fairview

Mr. Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange

Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Two Shall Become One by Sharon Lathan

Lydia Bennet’s Story by Jane Odiwe

Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy by Abigail Reynolds

Available wherever eBooks are sold.

Happy Birthday, Auntie Jane,
K

Discussion: Filling in the Gaps

We all have books that we somehow missed reading at the appropriate age. Whether the cover art wasn't appealing, the book wasn't at our local library or we just had a misconception about the story, we all have certain gaps in our reading tapestries.

One of the glaring omissions from my reading history was Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. As far as I can remember, I think I had the wrong impression of what kind of story it was. In my mind it was lumped with the Little House books (which I have never wanted to read). Of course, this book is completely different and I was wrong. I'm very happy now to have read this bright and touching story and, as you can guess, I regret not having read it sooner. I think it might have made a difference at a certain point in my life when I had some tough decisions to make.

Do you like to fill in your reading history by reading books you missed as a child or do you feel that ship has sailed? What are the books you've chosen to read late? Do you have others that you still plan to read? I have two books here that I plan to read in the coming year--Treasure Island and The Swiss Family Robinson--and now I'm actually thinking of creating a list of other childhood classics that I don't want to miss! I look forward to filling in the gaps.

Mending the tapestry,
K

"On an island so far north that it snowed from September to April, a boy named Frederik kept himself warm by keeping a secret."

This book is one that I've been saving for almost a year to read this Christmas -- Matchless by Gregory Maguire, subtitled An Illumination of Hans Christian Andersen's Classic "The Little Match Girl".  This is a small little volume that takes the story of The Little Match Girl, moves it from New Year's Eve to Christmas Eve and adds a surrounding story to it to give it a context that will move even the most cynical reader.  It was originally read aloud on NPR by the author in 2008.

I hadn't read Andersen's original story (read it online) in many years and couldn't remember much of how it was told except for the tragic ending.  It begins like this --

It was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year, and the snow was falling fast. In the cold and the darkness, a poor little girl, with bare head and naked feet, roamed through the streets. It is true she had on a pair of slippers when she left home, but they were not of much use. They were very large, so large, indeed, that they had belonged to her mother, and the poor little creature had lost them in running across the street to avoid two carriages that were rolling along at a terrible rate. One of the slippers she could not find, and a boy seized upon the other and ran away with it, saying that he could use it as a cradle, when he had children of his own.

Matchless adds the story of that boy -- the one who took the lost slipper home.  He is named Frederik and he lives out on an island in the harbor of a northern town.  The island is connected to the land by a stone walkway.  Frederik lives there with his mother and they are poor but surviving.  Frederik has a secret miniature town in the attic which he collects bits and pieces around the real town to create.  This is why he is anxious to get the slipper when he finds it in the street.

The nameless Match Girl's fate remains the same in her portion of this story but it is sandwiched between Frederik's story, one of hope and purpose even after devastating loss.  This is a bittersweet story that reminds readers to remember those less fortunate than they and to temper their indulgences with gratitude and charity. It is a story that I'm sure I will find myself reading each year as the holidays approach.

Lifting head and heart,
K


Support our site and buy Matchless: A Christmas Story on Amazon or find it at your local library.  We bought our own copy.

New Release: The Sherlockian

Graham Moore's first novel, The Sherlockian, is a well-researched and imaginative journey into a brief period in the life of Arthur Conan Doyle and also into the modern community that worships his most well-known creation, Sherlock Holmes.

This novel alternates chapters between the present and the past.  The present day story is that of Harold White, a twenty-nine year old researcher who is inducted into the prestigious Baker Street Irregulars at their annual meeting in New York City.  His dedication to Conan Doyle and deep knowledge of Sherlock Holmes is quickly put to the test when a fellow scholar is found dead after announcing he has found the single missing volume of Conan Doyle's journal.  Is White up to the task of finding the now missing-again journal and identifying Alex Cale's murderer?

The story in the past is the account of what happened to Arthur Conan Doyle (and his friend Bram Stoker) in August 1893, when Doyle killed-off the beloved Holmes, and then from October through December of 1900, the period covered in the missing journal.  What happened to the author during this time that led him to join forces with Scotland Yard and eventually resurrect Sherlock Holmes?

As is the case many times with dual setting novels, one of the narratives in this book is stronger than the other.  The Victorian one is quite wonderful and I plan on picking up Daniel Stashower's biography of Conan Doyle to fill in the gaps in my knowledge.  Moore did a wonderful job with the Victorian voice and the story that unfolds is really well done.  It explores Conan Doyle's ambivalent feelings about his creation, his personal life and that of his friend and fellow (but unappreciated) author, Stoker, and the women's suffrage movement of the time.  It also touches on the workings of Scotland Yard at the time -- a subject that really fascinates me.

And luckily, though not quite as good as the past narrative, the present one gains momentum as the story moves forward and I found myself strongly invested in Harold's plight as well.  He is a sympathetic but odd character and you really hope that things work out for him.  I think that Moore has a fantastic career ahead of him if he only improves from the high bar that has been set by The Sherlockian.

Elementary, my dear readers,
K


Support our site and buy The Sherlockian on Amazon or find it at your local library.  We received an advance reading copy from the publisher.

Starred Saturdays: week of November 28

I'm getting really bad about putting together these Starred Saturdays posts.  You see, I used to sit on the couch on Friday night, catching up with some tv watching and getting my Google Reader to zero.  Then I would have a great set of things that caught my eye to share with all of you.  And then the laptop decided to become a desktop and I have to sit in another room at a desk in a folding chair and it just doesn't seem like the most fun activity for a Friday night any more!  So, I apologize for my spotty posting but I'm hoping for a new laptop in the next month or so and then blogging will be easier again.

I forgot to include this in my post on A Razor Wrapped in Silk this week but here is a reading from the author, Roger Morris.  It's not a professional setting, just an author in his work space.  But if you weren't sure about the novel, this might convince you that it's worth picking up!

These post-it notes shaped like gingko leaves are beautiful.  I would have to buy a hundred stacks because I would put them everywhere!

I love this --

It's a compilation of multiple photos by Jim Kazanjian.  I just can't stop looking at it because I see something new every time.  Like, I didn't even notice that guy on the street for the longest time!  And I'm sure you DWJ fans might be thinking what I'm thinking that house looks like. (Flavorwire has more pictures that are equally awesome.)

The husband and I agree that there is possibly nothing cuter in this world than a baby dolphin.

The best billboard ever might just be the one that isn't really there.

Remember my obsession with the Aurora Borealis?  Yeah, I could watch this video forever.

And when I think that I might just be a decent photographer, I see these photos that were submitted to National Geographic and I stop deluding myself.

If you're a big Bill Murray/Wes Anderson fan, you'll love these.

And I'll leave you today with The Ghost King who resides in Fengdu, the City of Ghosts, in China.

Sharing is caring,
K

Discussion: Choosing Your Own Ending

As I was finishing my latest read a few hours ago, I got to the point where things were starting to be revealed.  And, as happens quite often for me, I contemplated shutting the book and leaving it.  There are many times toward the end of a gripping novel that I have to close the book at each chapter end and take a short break.  I just get so anxious that things aren't going to turn out the way I want them to.  Especially if a tragic end seems inevitable, I'll admit that I have considered, just for a moment, walking away from the story and leaving things unrevealed.  I've never actually stopped at that point but what I want to know is if I'm alone in deliberating if I really want to know how the author ends the story.

Have you ever considered quitting a book right before the end?  Should I become an end-first reader so that I can get rid of the anxiety?  Has there ever been an ending to a book that you wish you could unread?

Taking my stories seriously,
K

New Release: A Razor Wrapped in Silk

I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that I'm a big fan of R.N. Morris' Russian historical mystery novels.  I read his first Porfiry Petrovich book, The Gentle Axe (also known as A Gentle Axe), before I started blogging but you can read my thoughts on the second, A Vengeful Longing, here.  While in the first book, we suffered through a bleak winter in St. Petersburg and in the second we choked through the unbearable summer, this new novel, A Razor Wrapped in Silk, leads us through a foggy autumn in the city of the Tsar.

Porfiry Petrovich, the famed detective from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, is an investigating magistrate who is well known for his unique mannerisms and unparalleled success in solving crimes.  In this outing, he is working on two seemingly unrelated crimes -- the disappearance of child factory workers and the murder of a society mistress.  Porfiry is determined to solve the crimes in his own way despite the interference of the special police, an infiltrator in his home, a surly companion and even the wishes of the Tsar himself.

I was most impressed while reading this novel by the way that it explored Porfiry's aging mind and body.  Unlike Agatha Christie's never-wavering Poirot, Porfiry begins to feel the pressures of age.  Failing eyesight, achy bones and a wandering mind are just a few of the things he believes are starting to affect his work.  And yet, he remains brilliant and professional and his handling of the cases presented to him is masterful.  His relationship with his young assistant, Pavel Pavlovich, is also tested in a touching and believable way.  Pavel is losing faith in his aging mentor and yet still sees him as a virile competitor when it comes to the affections of a young woman.  I almost felt the mysteries to be a subplot to the much more interesting character studies that were happening in this novel.  Morris' prose is a pleasure to read and I am disappointed that his next novel will not be (correction follows) there will only be one more novel in this series.  However, I am hoping that his next project is the beginning of something just as brilliant.

Searching through the fog,
K


Support our site and buy A Razor Wrapped in Silk on Amazon or find it at your local library.  We received a copy for review from the author.