See You Later, 2015

Where did this year go? I can't believe that we're one day away from a new one! There's just enough time left to look over my spreadsheet and see how my reading year was.

These were the goals that I set on January 1 and managed to accomplish --

REREADS

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
To Say Nothing of the Dog
Un Lun Dun
some DWJs (The Islands of Chaldea, The Time of the Ghost, Aunt Maria, Conrad's Fate, The Pinhoe Egg, Howl's Moving Castle),
and a few rereads for the 100 Chapter Books project: The Golden Compass, The Little Prince, My Father's Dragon, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The BFG and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Rereads that weren't on my list that I got to were The Mysterious Benedict Society, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Jackaby.

The only rereads I wanted to do but didn't get to were Josephine Tey's books so I will add them to next year's reread list. My favorite reread of the year was probably To Kill a Mockingbird because I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. I read it the first time in high school so this was an entirely different experience. Jackaby was also a lot of fun to revisit!

NEW-TO-ME AUTHORS

I finally read books from Jo Walton, Kate Milford, and Peter S. Beagle and loved each one. I also was happy to "meet" Bryan Lee O'Malley, Ben Tripp, Noelle Stevenson, Jean Craighead George, Kage Baker, and Zen Cho.

I wanted to read Patrick Rothfuss and Anthony Trollope but didn't get to them. Maybe in 2016 ...

THE NUMBERS

I wanted to read at least 50 books from my TBR, more books in translation (10+), and more non-fiction (8+).

Pages read: 38451 (or so!)
Books read (or listened to): 128 ... with 3 unfinished ones on the nightstand
Books from my TBR: 48

Re-reads: 15
Non-fictions read: 14
Books in translation: 9 (Japan x2, Italy x2, France x3, Spain, Germany)
Most read author: Diana Wynne Jones (7)
Longest book: The Crimson Petal and the White (895)
Oldest book: The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins (1875)

NEW RELEASES

Finally, I was looking forward to seven new releases and got to read five of them this year!

As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust - Alan Bradley
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances - Neil Gaiman
Get In Trouble: Stories - Kelly Link
The Last Bookaneer - Matthew Pearl
Two Years, Eight Months and 28 Days - Salman Rushdie

I didn't read The Boy Who Lost Fairyland (Catherynne M. Valente) yet because I want to do a series reread with it and, even though I got an ARC of the new Kate Morton (The Lake House), I wasn't able to get into it when I tried reading it. I'll try again later though, I'm sure!

But now, looking ahead --

I have only one goal for 2016 -- Read My Own Damn Books (head over to Estella's Revenge if you want to learn more!). I set a goal of 80 books from Z and my shelves which seems lofty but those will be reads *and* rereads. I have lots of books in translation and non-fiction titles on my TBR so I'll hopefully pick them up just as often as those rereads that I want to get to.

Well, that's it for 2015. Which books am I starting 2016 with? Two from my TBR, of course!


What is your first read of 2016?

Looking forward to achieving lofty goals,

K