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| photo by k |
As for the wrap-up, I liked the stats that I pulled last year so I'm looking at most of the same ones this year. Overall, I think it was a good year except for being a little bit short on the actual blogging!
Pages Read: 31367
Last year I read 24914+ pages (I wasn't recording bedtime chapter books with Z yet). This year does include them but it's obvious that I read more of my own books as well.
Books Read: 104
This year was on track as an average year. I am happiest when I read right around 100 books -- any less and I don't feel like I read enough, too many more and I feel like I neglected other important things.
Non-US/UK Authors: 11
Books in Translation: 6
Original Languages: Japanese, Icelandic, Spanish (3), Norwegian
Last year it was only 4 books in translation so I think this is a nice improvement. And last year it was 9 non-US/UK authors, regardless of language. I would still like these numbers to be higher but I'm satisfied in the variety that I chose this year.
New-to-Me Authors: 39
Most Read Author: Diana Wynne Jones -- 15 books
I think this is a pretty good number of new authors, especially since I obviously focused on re-reads this year. I had no idea that I had read 15 books by DWJ!
Oldest Book Read: The Diamond Lens and Other Stories by Fitz-James O'Brien - 1858
Longest Book Read: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson - 763
Books Over 500 Pages: 10
Blackout by Connie Willis (491, close enough)
All Clear by Connie Willis (641)
Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare (508)
Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones (517)
Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (537)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon (636)
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton (560)
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (763)
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (724)
The Map of the Sky by Félix J. Palma (591)
These 10 books were almost 20 percent of the pages I read! I plan to tackle more chunksters next year too. Even though it's harder to keep a schedule on the blog, it's more satisfying to read longer stories once in a while.
Non-Fiction: 4
I am actually shocked that this number is so low. I really thought it was more than this. This is the one number that I really see as a failure. Luckily, I have some fantastic non-fiction titles in my TBR stacks for the coming year.
Books From My Shelves: 59
New: 40
Re-Reads: 19
Books From the Library: 20
Review Books/ARCs: 26
My goal was 50 books from my shelves so I call this a success! I started using the library a bit more for read-alongs but 20 is still keeping it nicely in check. As for review books, this is still over two a month which I might decrease a bit more in the coming year.
DNFs: 1
Would Not Read Again: 9 maybe nots
These are definitely numbers I can live with! Besides the DNF, there were no books that I would absolutely not read again. I chose well this year.
Best New-to-Me Reads of the Year:
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley
Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis
The Solitary House by Lynn Shepherd
The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon
The Order of Odd-Fish by James Kennedy
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling by Michael Boccacino
The Infernals by John Connolly
The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde
Speaking From Among the Bones by Alan Bradley (review in January)
Best Re-Reads of the Year:
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones
Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones
The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynne Jones
Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
I have a couple more reviews to finish before I can close the book, so to speak, on this year -- The Map of the Sky, The Woman in Black and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. Look for those reviews in the coming weeks.
How was your reading this year? Did you get to read as much as you planned to or wanted to? What was your favorite book of 2012?
Tying up loose ends,
K
I love this time of year, too, and am sad that the days are quickly dwindling away, though a fresh new start in a new year is always nice, too. It looks as though you had a really great reading year--so many pages read! And what a lot of chunksters--I wonder how many I read with that many pages--not so many I think. I wish I could have read through the last books on my nightstand to start the new year with a clean slate, but oh well. My favorite read was As the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie Macdonald. And I have lots of plans for next year. More reading time is my wish! :) Happy New Year and best wishes for 2013!
ReplyDeleteI definitely hope to read this many chunksters again next year -- especially because they're already on my shelves and I need to get through those books. ;)
DeleteI think it would be amusing to keep track of my DNFs this next year. I probably DNFed more books than I actually read in 2012. Does it count as not finishing if you only read the first few paragraphs? First few pages? :D
ReplyDeleteBecause I'm reading from my shelves so much, the DNFs are low. They're books I already knew I wanted to read because, well, I spent money on them. I don't count DNFs until I get about a third or so in and then decide that I really don't care what happens in the rest. The one that I DNFed this year was a review book I got, btw.
DeleteI was at exactly 100 books and that feels about the right pace … allowing for some slow points and chunksters.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that! You see those people with 150-300 books and you just wonder if they do anything else but read. (They sure aren't mothers though, are they?)
Deletegreat titles!
ReplyDeleteyou will find my list in this post, for about as many books as yours:
http://wordsandpeace.com/2013/01/03/year-of-reading-2012/
I'll head over and take a look!
DeleteStill have to put together my stats post and I'm really curious about how I didn't when it comes to translations. I also meant to read more books in their original language and did manage to do well with Portuguese and French, but didn't pick up anything in Spanish, which is a bit disappointing.
ReplyDeleteI would love to read more than a dozen translated works a year but need to work through my TBR first and there just aren't that many in there. As for original language, I think my Spanish is rusty enough now that I couldn't do it. But maybe that should be a goal -- to improve my Spanish well enough to read one of my favorite authors, like Carlos Ruiz Zafón, in the original!
DeleteWhat a great year of reading!! Congrats to you!
ReplyDeleteI didn't get quite as much reading as I would have liked, but I had unexpected events that effected my reading (though I told myself for the longest time that it didn't). I am excited for a new year of reading! It's going to be a great year!
I think that any year we're able to get reading done, it's a great year. It may not be as much as we want but, well, I guess there are other things that have to get done sometimes. ;)
Delete