Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Reading 2013: The Long and Short of It



Total number of books:  137

Pages read:  43,366

Average # of pages per book:  316

Library books:  26

Kindle books: 74

Audio books:  3

Tree books: 59


Fiction:  75

Nonfiction:  62


Graphic Novels:  5


I read the book, I saw the movie, got the T-shirt

Les Miserables
Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang
Up the Junction


Shortest Book:  The Snowman - Alfred Castelli and Milo Manara (48 pages)

Longest Book:  Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (1,115  pages)

Newest Book:  Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell (September 10, 2013)

Oldest Book:  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass (1845)


You go back, Jack, do it again
(books I reread)
Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
Betsy In Spite of Herself - Maud Hart Lovelace
Nana - Emile Zola
Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang - Joyce Carol Oates
Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail - Louise Shivers


Chunky Monkeys (books with 500+  pages) :  15

Skinny Minnies (books with fewer than 100 pages) :  6



Translated Books: 18.  [I love Brian Nelson.  He makes Zola's characters jump from French to English and right off the page, right into your face.]


Funniest Book:  How To Be a Woman - Caitlin Moran

Freakiest Book:  The Beast Within - Emile Zola

Scariest Book:  Stitches - David Small
                     
Saddest Book:  The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank


Frustrated, Incorporated
(Unfavorite reads)
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka
Swamplandia! - Karen Russell
American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story - Cynthia True
My Mortal Enemy - Willa Cather
Zanuck: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Last Tycoon - Leonard Mosley
Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
What Maisie Knew - Henry James
Confessions of a Sociopath - M.E. Thomas
Anchored In Love - John Carter Cash
My Korean Deli - Ben Ryder Howe
Flowers in the Attic - V.C. Andrews
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets - Stephen Crane
The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards
If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly - Sun-Mi Hwang


Breaking up is hard to do 
(The DNF Files)
His Excellency, Eugene Rougon - Emile Zola
The Brothers K - David James Duncan
A Rage to Live - John O'Hara
Mirror Talk - Barbara Alfaro

Should I stay or should I go?
The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk (Page 220)
Flashman and the Redskins - George MacDonald Fraser (Page 158)






I remember finding out about you
(really good reads)
Confessions of a Prairie Bitch - Alison Arngrim
Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies - Hilary Mantel
How To Be A Woman - Caitlin Moran
Parnassus on Wheels - Christopher Morley
The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker
English Teacher X Guide to Teaching Abroad - English Teacher X
L'Assommoir - Emile Zola
Quiet - Susan Cain
One For the Money - Janet Evanovich
Finn - Jon Clinch
Moonwalking with Einstein - Joshua Foer
The Star Machine - Jeanine Basinger
117 Days Adrift - Maurice and Maralyn Bailey
It's Not Really About the Hair - Tabatha Coffey
Nana - Emile Zola
Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America - Amy Suntherland
Society's Child: My Autobiography - Janis Ian
Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell
Twelve Years a Slave - Solomon Northup
Shadow of the Moon - M.M. Kaye
Johnny Cash: The Life - Robert Hilburn
The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank
The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Wallace Stegner
Brother One Cell - Cullen Thomas

Teacher, Teacher Teach Me More 
(Books I found instructive):
Speaking Activities That Don't Suck - English Teacher X
The Thin Commandments - Stephen Gullo


I'll be reading you in all the old familiar places 
(Authors I read multiple times)
Emile Zola - 11
Joyce Carol Oates - 4
Rainbow Rowell - 3
Jeanine Basinger - 3
Betty McDonald - 3
Maud Hart Lovelace - 3
English Teacher X - 2
Hilary Mantel - 2
Janet Evanovich - 2
Wallace Stegner - 2


On the road again
(Author Birthplace)
Australia- 1
Canada- 2
England- 12
France- 13
Germany- 1
India- 2
Italy- 2
The Netherlands- 1
The Philippines- 1
Russia- 1
Ukraine- 1
Unknown- 2
USA- 85


Books written by male authors:  66
Books written by female authors: 65
Books written by an author whose gender I'm not sure about: 2
Books written by co-authors:  4


Books written before 1800: 0
Books written 1800-1899:  17
Books written 1900-1960:  16
Books written 1961-1999:  25
Books written 2000-2013:  79


Pulitzer prizewinners: 1


Happy discoveries:  Rainbow Rowell, Hilary Mantel, Zola's Rougon-Macquart series, Busan English Library!





Happy Book Year -- Time for some reading resolutions!


4 comments:

Nancie said...

What a great list, Susan. I started Les Mis this year, but haven't quite made it through!

Melwyk said...

Love the way you've analyzed your reading choices! Such fun categories, now I'm curious how my reading would fit into some of these... Some great reads this year, it looks like, and great photos to go along with them :)

Vasilly said...

Nice stats! I love the picture. Moonwalking with Einstein is one of my favorite "smart" reads. Happy New Year!

Unruly Reader said...

Holy Toledo! You had a remarkable year. I'm actually in awe.