The Year in Reading

So, my year in reading is over.  From 12 Nov 2006 to 12 Nov 2007, I read (or listened to) 211 books.  That's a slight increase from the reading year before--up to 211 from 203.  I can only surmise that the increased number of hours I've been reading at work added to that.  I didn't count the number of audiobooks last year, but this year it was a healthy 17, which doesn't seem crazy.  I probably listened to fewer last reading year, but the number had to be at least 10.  So I've definitely increased consumption of those, but I'm absolutely sure that has everything to do with the increased amount of commute hours I log.  Between the start of this whole thing (12 Nov 2004) and now, I've read (or listened to) 657 books.  Keep in mind, that number doesn't include anything I've started and not finished (The Fortress of Solitude, A Problem from Hell, the audiobook of Fellowship of the Rings--and I got 11 discs into that baby--among them).  In fact, just yesterday I abandoned a book, though I only got about 40 pages in before I junked it.  All this is to say that I take in a remarkable amount of language a year.  It's astonishing even to me.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.

After the jump, I've posted a list of everything I read (or listened to) from November 12, 2006 to November 12, 2007.  I don't keep track of authors, so there are none listed, but if you're really curious, I'm sure an Amazon search will bring them up.  I'm considering adding author to my list for this next year, but it's going to be a pain in the ass to do so, because I keep one continuous spreadsheet of these, which means I have to modify my existing spreadsheet.  I may do so as sort of a project for the holiday week this year.  I'm undecided.  Right now, my spreadsheet keeps track of month I read a book (so I have precise numbers for every month of the year, though I didn't break things down like that for the purpose of this entry), the category of the book--so, was it from the library?  did I buy it?  is it an audiobook?  did someone lend it to me?  was it a gift?--and the title.  (Just another note about what appears after the jump--I've added in the audio in parentheses, just so you know.  That's not how the designation appears on my own list.)

Some notes on the list:  I happen to love alternative history, so books like Farthing and Fatherland were books I raced through.  I think it's interesting that I started the year with Farthing, and almost ended it with Ha'Penny, the second in Jo Walton's little series about a different WWII world.  Very good, highly recommended if you like those sorts of things.  I also really enjoyed the reading I did about animals--both Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation, and Jon Katz's books about his dogs (A Dog Year, A Good Dog, Dog Days).  You can tell I like something when it shows up all over the list.  Quite a few Time 100 books show up in the first few months of the year, but I've pretty much abandoned those for now, and about the only one I liked was Slaughterhouse-Five.  Mid-year, I read a LOT of football literature, and highly recommend Next Man Up if you're looking for something new and interesting about the subject.  I also read a lot of music books; I've talked about many of the Beatles books here, but it's worth mentioning that I really enjoyed Positively Fifth Street as well.  I read a couple of interesting history books, both concentrating on the Vietnam Era--They Marched into Sunlight (EXCELLENT) and 1968.   I highly enjoyed Penny Vincenzi's trilogy, No Angel, Something Dangerous, and Into Temptation.  They appear one after another in the list, so you can tell I ripped through them with nothing in between.  All in all, I could probably recommend comfortably at least half the books on this list.  Want an autobiography?  Gimp or The Year of Magical Thinking.  Looking for romance?  The Leopard Prince and the other books in that trilogy were great.  YA?  An Abundance of Katherines and Empress of the World.  The point is, I could go on like this forever, but I won't.  If you have questions, ask them.  Otherwise, here it is, in all its glory:

Farthing
Can't Wait to Get to Heaven
Body Piercing Saved My Life
Rise and Shine (audio)
Notebook Girls, The
Confessions of a Super-Mom
Heat Wave
Protector's War, The
Fatherland
Oracle Bones
Her Highness, My Wife
Rules of Survival, The
Brunelleschi's Dome
Lost and Found (audio)
In Search of London
Tripping the Prom Queen
iWoz
Memory Keeper's Daughter
Vince and Joy
An Abundance Of Katherines
Perfect Thing, The
Two For the Road
Secrets of Peaches, The
Ghost Map, The
Year of Magical Thinking, The
Heat
Here, There and Everywhere
Wide Awake
Queen of Swords
Layla and Other Love Songs
Good, Good Pig, The
One Good Turn
Kate
Forever in Blue
Life, Death and Bialys
Dog Year
Animals in Translation
Pompeii
Hammer of the Gods
Sportswriter, The
Cult of iPod, The
Heart Mate
Watchmen
Female Brain, The
My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding
Darker than the Deepest Sea
American Pastoral (audio)
Culture of Fear
Ill Wind
Slaughterhouse-Five
Don't Get Too Comfortable
1968
For a Few Demons More
Next Man Up
Shielder
Dream-Hunter, The
America's Game
Good Dog, A
Moneyball
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer
What Price Love?
Queen of Fashion
Led Zeppelin IV--Zoso
Last Dance
Natural Born Charmer
Look Both Ways
Empress of the World
Gimp
Death by Darjeeling
George and Sam
Heat Stroke
Brainiac
Namath
About Alice
Serious Pig
Lady's Maid
Tailgating, Sacks and Salary Caps
Sweet and Low
Super Mom Saves the World
Positively Fifth Street
Cross-X
Friday Night Lights
Juiced
Queen of Broken Hearts
Nigger
Holy Cow
Thyme of Death
They Marched Into Sunlight
Ten Days in the Hills (audio)
Man in the Middle
Raven Prince
Secrets of My Hollywood Life
Shopaholic and Sister (audio)
Flower Confidential
Leopard Prince
Mermaid Chair
Almanac of Girls
Laramie Project
Strip City
Righteous
Born on a Blue Day
Blink
Murder 101
Girls, The
Fool Moon
Storm Front
Kitty Takes a Holiday
Draft, The
Marriage Market, The
Same Sweet Girls, The
Rubicon
Letter to a Christian Nation
Nineteen Minutes (audio)
Still Life with Husband
Happy Birthday or Whatever
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Full Frontal Feminism
Thunderstruck
Horse God Built
All Together Dead
Wright 3
Men's Guide to the Woman's Bathroom
Maxed Out
No Angel
Something Dangerous
Into Temptation
Reasonable People
She's No Princess
Leni
Hindi-Bindi Club
Dangerous Beauty
Kings of New York
Dedication
Everything Conceivable
Children of Men
Luncheon of the Boating Party
Waiting for Daisy
New Yorkers (audio)
Yiddish Policemen's Union
One Perfect Day
Unhooked Generation
Other Woman, The
40 days and 40 Nights
Beautiful Miscellaneous
Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever
God of Animals (audio)
Not by a Long Shot
Dream When You're Feeling Blue
Bigger Deal
The Big Oyster
Whitethorn Woods
Free Food for Millionaires (audio)
On Royalty
Second Chance
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Dishwasher
God is not Great
Lean Mean 13
Karma Girl
Thursday Next: First Among Sequels
Rethinking Thin
Bidding for Love
Rises the Night
Tangled Up In You
What Would Barbra Do?
Julia Child
Altared
Widdershins
Middlesex (audio)
No Humans Allowed
Dante Club
Devil May Cry
Dixieland Delight
Captive of my Desires
Turn Left at the Daffodils (audio)
Annie on my Mind
Summer of My German Soldier
Serpent Prince
World he Created
Honey Baby Sweetheart
Keeping the House (audio)
Loving Rachel
Rachel in the World
Fantasies of a Bollywood Love Thief
Agnes and the Hitman
Meeting at Corvallis
Feeding the Monster
How to Talk to a Widower
She Is Me (audio)
View from Mount Joy
Innocent Traitor (audio)
World Without Us
Saturday Rules
Giver
Mad Dash
Ha'Penny
A Year without Made in China
Family Acts
Plenty
Dog Days
Wonderful Tonight
Not Much Just Chillin'
Beyond Seduction
Postville
Terror Dream (audio)
Year of Eating Dangerously
And Then We Came to the End
Inside the Helmet
Love Walked In (audio)
Parts Per Million
Realityland

Comments

[Mavis]

You put my 52 books for the year to shame. TO SHAME! Well done you!

[Alto2]

I thought I was an avid reader, but I look like a functional illiterate compared to you! Congratulations on your awesome accomplishment of the year's reading. Greetings from another NaBloPoMo blogger. In addition to posting daily, I'm stopping by someone else's blog and leaving a comment. Stop by The Zone and say hi.