Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011's Whole Damn Shootin' Match

A few from Bybee's Class of 2011


Total number of books:
112


Pages read:
29,797


Average # of pages per book:
266 pages


Library books:
 9


Kindle/Nook books:  (New category this year!)
19


Fiction:
61


Nonfiction:
 42


Poetry:
 2


Audiobooks:
1


Graphic Novels:
 6


Book/Movie Experiences:
5 (I meant to have so many more)


Shortest Book:
I Have to Go! - Robert Munsch  (23 pages)


Longest Book:
A Prologue to Love - Taylor Caldwell  (725 pages)


Newest Book:
The Misanthrope's Guide to Life - Meghan Rowland and Chris Turner-Neal (September 18, 2011)


Oldest Book:
An Old-Fashioned Girl - Louisa May Alcott (1870)


Hit Me Baby One More Time (books I reread):
True Grit - Charles Portis
Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
A Prologue to Love - Taylor Caldwell
Carrie - Stephen King


Chunky Monkeys (books with 500+  pages) :
4


Skinny Minnies (books with fewer than 100 pages) :
15


Funniest Book:  
Me Write Book:  It Bigfoot Memoir - Graham Romineau


Saddest Book:
Nothing to Envy:  Ordinary Lives in North Korea - Barbara Demick


New Miserable Experience
(books I finished but didn't really care for) :
Rhett Butler's People - Donald McCaig
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter - Simone De Beauvoir
Little Men - Louisa May Alcott
Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay
Please Don't Shoot My Dog - Jackie Cooper
Joshua Then and Now - Mordecai Richler
The Piano Tuner - Daniel Mason
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery


Book I feel guilty for not liking:
The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch


There's Good in Goodbye (The DNF Files):
Three Generations - Yom Sang-Seop
The Criminal - Jim Thompson
A Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s - Ann Douglas
Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American Jesuits - Peter McDonough and Eugene C. Bianchi


I'll Tumble 4 Ya  (books I really liked):
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Hitch-22 - Christopher Hitchens
Winter's Bone - Daniel Woodrell
The Custom of the Country - Edith Wharton
The Cariboo Horses - Al Purdy
The Tenderness of Wolves - Stef Penney
Room - Emma Donoghue
American Bee - James Maguire
Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand
The Wilder Life - Wendy McClure
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot
A Stolen Life - Jaycee Dugard
My Thoughts Be Bloody - Nora Titone
Are You Really Going to Eat That? - Robb Walsh
The Jump-Off Creek - Molly Gloss
The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt
Joe - Larry Brown
Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father - John Matteson


You From Around Here? (Author Nationality):
Belgium - 1
Canada - 16
England - 7
France - 3
Ireland - 1
Russia - 2
Scotland - 1
South Africa - 1
South Korea - 1
United States - 77


Male authors: 59
Female authors: 51
Co-authors: 2


Books written before 1800:  0
Books written 1800-1899:  4
Books written 1900-1960: 22
Books written 1961-1999: 29
Books written 2000-2011:  46


Pulitzer prizewinners:
4 (3 fiction, 1 biography)


Happy discoveries:
Wendy McClure, Patrick DeWitt, Meghan Rowland and Chris Turner-Neal and The Sheila Variations


2011 Challenges completed:
Paris in July
The Western Readalong
The Foodies Challenge
Edith Wharton Readalong
100+ Challenge

Canada Try:
4th Canadian Book Challenge 11/13.
Sigh.  No real maple syrup down the front of my Habs jersey.


Happy Book Year -- Time for some reading resolutions!

10 comments:

raidergirl3 said...

bybee! I read 114 books this year. That is almost identical! As far as I'm concerned, you're an honourary Canadian. (I put the u in for you)

Awesome list. Even better categories. I've got a few I'm planning to read that are on your Culture Club list.
Happy Reading!

Val said...

I love the comprehensive breakdown and impressive number read. You have inspired me to start a book log, which I will add to my blog/web site.

Thanks for all the great books you have lent me in 2011.

Bybee said...

raidergirl3,
Thanks so much! I love that fresh almost-Canadian feeling. Thanks also for the "u".

Val,
Well, thanks for giving me some of your writing to read and add to my 2011 list. I'll be expecting you to do the same next year (hint, hint).

Charles Montgomery said...

What the heck happened in March?^^

Suggestions from Korea..

Kim Young-ha's "I Have the Right To Destroy Myself" which is sort of alienated and existential. Also brief.^^ http://www.amazon.com/Right-Destroy-Myself-Harvest-Original/dp/0156030802/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325413382&sr=1-1

Ch'oe Yun's "There a Petal Silently Falls." Way better than Shin Kyung-sook. http://www.amazon.com/There-Petal-Silently-Falls-Weatherhead/dp/023114296X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1325413339&sr=8-2

Care said...

Awesome.

Bybee said...

Charles,
I read Kim Young-Ha's book. Will be on the lookout for Ch'oe Yun's. Thanks!

Unruly Reader said...

Wow! Impressive stuff.

My favorite category names are "New Miserable Experience" and "There's Good in Goodbye (the DNF Files)." Well put.

Kathleen said...

I love how you have shared all of your stats. I always say I am going to do a year-end wrap up and then I don't. Maybe in 2012?

Eva said...

Go you! What an awesome year of reading, and your post is hilarious.

Care said...

I read 4 Pulitzers, too! Very happy with that and I didn't even try.