Here’s a look back at my reading in 2010!
Total books read this year: 119
Fiction: 32
Nonfiction: 87
Further breakdown (the numbers don’t add up exactly because some books fit into more than one category):
Animals Nonfiction- 55
Nature- 4
Gardening/Food- 9
other Nonfiction- 9
Fiction (3 Historical)- 4
Animals Fiction – 9
YA- 3
Fantasy- 14
Graphic Novels (fantasy)- 2
Memoirs- 10
Short Stories- 2
Male authors- 68
Female authors- 43
Co-authored- 8
Abandoned books: 9
Re-reads: 9
Borrowed from the library: 50
from my own shelves: 69
review copies: 0
Favorite book?
So hard to choose! Looking back, there wasn’t any fiction that really wowed me. Which is kind of sad. (I keep thinking of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, but that one was read at the end of 2009). I read a lot of great non-fiction, though. Fatu-Hiva was a most intriguing, curious adventure story. All the Oliver Sacks books really had me thinking. And by far the most beautiful, for prose and gorgeous imagery, was The Galapagos. Wonderful books.
Most fun read: How to Train Your Dragon. It was delightfully clever and kept me laughing.
Most inspiring: Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Beautiful little book.
Least favorite?
The House on Mango Street. I just didn’t get why this book is so popular, I found it very dissatisfying.
Oldest titles:
Two Years Before the Mast– first published in 1840! The next-oldest book I read was A Treasury of Flower Fairies, from 1923. Then several books written in the forties, and on up to closer times.
Newest titles:
I read four books that were published in 2010. How Animals Work by David Burnie, Plenitude by Juliet Schor, Dewey’s Nine Lives by Vicki Myron and The Dog Who Couldn\’t Stop Loving by Jeffrey Moussaief Masson
Longest book I read was The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, 566 pages. A close second was The Amber Spyglass, 518 pages. Shortest were the juvenile non-fiction animal books I read with my daughter, especially Little Cats, 32 pages.
Most-read author of the year:
I can’t name a single one. Most authors I read only one or two books by them, but these three authors I read four of each: Stephen Budiansky, Cressida Cowell and Glenn Balch.
Countries visited during my reading year:
Afghanistan, Nepal, France, Kenya, Pakistan, England, Borneo, Siberia, Australia, Germany, Rwanda, the Galapagos Islands (part of Ecuador) and Greenland. Quite some armchair traveling!
Books read only because of a specific recommendation:
The Dancing Plague. I never even would have heard of this book were it not for C.B. James! (Who so kindly sent me his copy to read).
New authors I want to read more of: definitely Shaun Tan, Eva Hornung and Markus Zusak.
Compared to last year, I’ve continued my trend of reading more and more non-fiction. I used the library a lot more, but also read just as much off my own shelves. I didn’t abandon as many books, and went through more re-reads.
