Meditation on my 2013 Year in Reading

It's hard to believe that this is the fifth year I've done a post like this. I feel like I've done a good job taking control of my reading, at least in terms of tracking what happens, which has made it easier to compile stats. And who doesn't love stats? Don't answer that.


Read: 121 (including 24 audiobooks and 15 ebooks), about the same number as 2012. Goodreads says this is slightly over 40,000 pages. The longest book by far was Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings, which clocked in at 1,007 pages. More than half of the books I read were romances, so I'm going to break that down into more categories this year.

Romance, general: 18
Romance, historical: 17
Romance, lesbian: 17
Romance, erotic: 14
Fantasy: 21
Young Adult: 9 (4 Fantasy, 5 Science Fiction)
Manga/Graphic Novels: 6
Nonfiction: 4
Mystery/Suspense: 4
Middle Grade: 3
Science Fiction: 3
Historical Fiction: 2
General Fiction: 2
Picture books read to Little G: still ∞

My goal for 2013 was to read 125 books, and I didn't quite make it there, despite spending November reading furiously. I would have easily reached my goal if not for the siren call of fanfiction, which reappeared in my life at the end of 2013 after a long absence. In any case, I think 125 is the outer limit of what I can read in one year--not surprising, since it requires reading at a rate of more than two books a week. For the first time in many years, I didn't read any Young Adult books with LGBTQ emphasis. I'm not sure why, but nothing seemed to grab my attention. Some of the YA books I read refused to address LGBTQ issues at all. Last year was very light on nonfiction as well.

Compared to 2012, the number of audiobooks went down slightly, from 29 to 24, and the number of ebooks went up from 10 to 15. This is at least partially due to the fact that I chose the audio format to plow through some long works, such as the aforementioned Way of Kings. It takes a long time to get through 36 CDs, even with a half hour commute. On this front, I'm pleased to announce that I picked up an assignment, mid-year, as an audiobook reviewer for Library Journal. So far it's been very enjoyable!

My Fifty Shades of Grey readalike project (recap forthcoming) was the primary reason that I read so many erotic romances, and my Reading Roulette project (recap also forthcoming) led to reading several entire series--mostly fantasy and romance. This year I decided to look at the breakdown between male and female authors among the books I read, and the outcome was very heavily skewed toward female authors. I read 98 books by women, 22 books by men, and one book, Freedom & Necessity, that was co-written by a man and woman. I am completely on board with this trend and hope it continues in 2014. I'm not rejecting books written by men out of hand, but there tend to be more female characters in books written by women, and I'm past the point of wanting to read so much about dudes.

Looking forward, I am going to continue my Reading Roulette project into the new year. It's really expanded my horizons in terms of making me read things I would never choose on my own, which can only help me when it comes time for Reader's Advisory. I'm also going to try to participate in the Year in Reading, kicking off in January with a book from the year I was born. Some of the likely candidates so far: The Silmarillion (*sigh*), The Thorn Birds, and Agatha Christie: An Autobiography. I took my reading goal down to a more reasonable 100 books, as I am hoping to write some as well as read this year.

What were your favorite reads of 2013? What's your plan for 2014?


My favorite reads of the year:

Beautiful Bastard, Christina Lauren
Deep Deception, Cathy Pegau
Etiquette & Espionage and Curtsies & Conspiracies, Gail Carriger
For Darkness Shows the Stars and Across a Star-Swept Sea, Diana Peterfreund
Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh
The Kat Series (Kat, Incorrigible, Renegade Magic, Stolen Magic), Stephanie Burgis
The Luckiest Lady in London, Sherry Thomas
A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Marie Brennan
The Republic of Thieves, Scott Lynch
The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion
A Woman Entangled, Cecilia Grant


Meditation on my 2012 Year in Reading (117 books)
Meditation on my 2011 Year in Reading (62 books)
Meditation on my 2010 Year in Reading (51 books)
Meditation on my 2009 Year in Reading (87 books)

Meditation Index

Meditation on my 2012 Year in Reading

This year, I challenged myself to read 100 books (since I easily exceeded last year's goal of 50), and--to my surprise--met that goal by the end of November. My other goal was to read as much nonfiction as fiction, which . . . emphatically did not happen, although I did read five times more than last year, thanks to my participation in an ALA panel on nonfiction readalikes. On to the stats!

Read: 117 (including 29 audiobooks and 10 ebooks), almost twice as many as 2011. Goodreads says this is almost 40,000 pages. Interesting.

Romance of the non-lesbian variety: 25
Nonfiction: 20
Lesbian romance: 21
Fantasy: 16
Young Adult: 13 (7 LGBT, 4 historical, 1 paranormal, 1 contemporary)
Science Fiction: 10
Mystery/Suspense: 4
Historical Fiction: 1
General Fiction ("literary" or otherwise): 3
Manga/Graphic Novels: 2
Picture books read to my son: ∞
Difficult to categorize: The Rook, Timeless

The number of ebooks I read this year held steady, and the increase in the number of audiobooks is largely due to the fact that my library consortium has all of Lois McMaster Bujold's books available for download in audio format. I read 14 of her works in 2012, and many of those I devoured in both audio and print, whichever was most convenient at the time. She alone was responsible for more than 10% of my reading for the year. Henceforth it shall be known as the Year of Lois.

I really stepped up my romance consumption this year; lesbian romances, historical romances, and contemporary sports romances accounted for almost 40% of my total. I was pleased to discover several new (to me) authors, including Sherry Thomas and Cecilia Grant, who will be on my TBR list in the future. I also took several hints and read some Jennifer Crusie books, which was a great idea.

I read several books, such as the Fifty Shades trilogy and Gone Girl, simply because they were "buzz" books and I wanted to get a handle on them for myself and my patrons. I probably would have gotten around to them eventually, but in this case the publicity nudged me into reading them in 2012. For a full list of books I read in 2012, visit my Goodreads page. I continued my trend of not writing long reviews--in favor of reading more--but I did rate and review things there.

As for 2013, I am embarking on a project in which I randomly select books off of my To Be Read list. I am going to make a few exceptions for books that are already on my holds list (such as A Memory of Light, which I have essentially been waiting for since the early 90s), but my overall goal is to broaden my horizons. My list is now stocked with more than 350 books that have cluttered up my list for many years, been recommended to me, or looked interesting when I was ordering books for the library. Let the randomization begin!

My favorite reads of the year:

Historical Fiction: The Game of Kings, Dorothy Dunnett
General Awesomeness: The Rook, Daniel O'Malley
Fantasy: Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold
Lesbian Romance: Jericho, Ann McMan (featuring a lesbian librarian!)
Romance: Bet Me, Jennifer Crusie
YA: The Miseducation of Cameron Post, emily m. danforth & Unspoken, Sarah Rees Brennan

What were your favorites?


Meditation on my 2011 Year in Reading (62 books)
Meditation on my 2010 Year in Reading (51 books)

Meditation Index

Meditation on My 2011 Year in Reading

It's hard to believe that another year has come to a close, and with so many books on my TBR list still unread! This past year I challenged myself to read 50 books, and I exceeded that goal handily, so obviously I am going to have to up the ante for 2012.* As usual, I did a significant chunk of my reading in audio format. This was the first year that I read a significant number of books--more than one or two--in electronic format. I can't say I prefer  reading on a screen, but I appreciate the convenience factor, especially where review copies are concerned. I've been keeping track of books I've read using Goodreads, because I no longer have the time or energy to write reviews here for everything I read. Here is the breakdown:

Read: 62 books + one awful novella (including 19 audiobooks and 10 ebooks)
Lesbian Fiction: 12
Fantasy: 11
Science Fiction: 8
Young Adult: 8
Mystery: 5
Romance of the non-lesbian variety: 5
General Fiction ("literary" or otherwise): 5
Nonfiction: 4
Humor: 2
Manga: 2
Children's: 1

I read fewer Young Adult books this year in my attempt to branch out, and those I did read were generally SF or Fantasy. Some of the books I finished, such as Reamde and A Dance With Dragons, were real doorstops, and I read several SF works that collected 2-3 books in one volume (Goodreads estimates the total page numbers as over 23,000, but of course the audio factor complicates that statistic).

I read many first volumes of a series and failed to read the next installment, even if it had already been published (Wake, The Penderwicks, The Name of the Wind, Acacia, The Red Wolf Conspiracy, Dust, Leviathan). My uptick in lesbian fiction reading was due largely to signing on as a reviewer at the Lesbrary. In that capacity I now have a monthly deadline to read books that I'd probably read at some point anyway. Everyone wins. For a full list of the books I read last year, visit my Goodreads page.

In last year's meditation on my reading year, I claimed that I would read more books that were recommended to me, and that I wanted to participate in the "Women of Science Fiction" online book group. I did in fact read several books that were out the usual way, placing impulse holds on things when I came across a review that particularly appealed to me. The online book group started well but my attention petered out quickly as my priorities wandered. It turns out that I am terrible at reading books on a schedule now that I've been out of school a few years, and the Lesbrary takes up all of my minimal power in that regard. However, I did read Cordelia's Honor as part of that group, which led me to the Vorkosigan universe in which I am still happily enmeshed.

In the coming year, my goal is to read as much nonfiction as I do fiction, not only because reading The Swerve reminded me that I love history (there's a reason I had a History minor to go along with my English major), but because I'm participating in a panel at ALA 2012 entitled "The Great Non-Fiction Readalike: If You Like This, You’ll LOVE That!" I have ideas on what makes for good reader's advisory in nonfiction, of course, but I would like to do a little more personal experimentation as I prepare.

I am looking forward to a year full of books and discussion!

ETA my favorite books of the year:

In the Woods
The Spymaster's Lady
The Long Goodbye
Cotillion
Cordelia's Honor
The Swerve



*Although if I counted the many, many picture books I've read to my son in the past year, I'm sure I'd be in the 200s.

Meditation on My 2010 Year in Reading

Last year I read 87 books, most of them before I became a parent in late September. This year I fell significantly short of that mark (for a full list of books see this page), but here are the stats:

Books Read: 51 (27 in audio format)
Young Adult: 17
Fantasy: 10
Romance: 9 (7 lesbian romances)
Nonfiction: 4
Science Fiction: 3
Children's (not including the masses of books read to Baby G): 3
Mystery/Suspense: 2
General Fiction: 2
Books Resisting Categorization: 1 [The City and the City]
Favorites: Shades of Grey, His Majesty's Dragon, Howl's Moving Castle, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Madensky Square

This accounting also includes a few books, such as Pretties, Specials, and Wildthorn, for which I have not yet gotten around to writing reviews. There are many books in the "Young Adult" category that could be classified as Sci-Fi or Fantasy, since that is what I particularly like to read.

Last year, only 7% of the books I read were in audio format. This year, I listened to over half (53%) of the books that I read. Generally this also involved having a paper copy of the book in hand, but if you've been reading this blog you will know that I feel strongly that listening = reading. And THANK GOD for audiobooks, otherwise my commute would be a wasteland of commercial radio (dramatic exaggeration) and I would have missed out on a lot of great books. As my friend Jen said in her year-end review, this is the year of the audiobook, and I'm glad that I am finally at the point where half of my reading is done in the car, ideally with the aid of Simon Vance.

I think my reading resolution for 2011 will be to read more books that are recommended to me, even if they don't seem like something I would choose for myself. Maybe I will occasionally do something as random as asking Twitter what I should read next and following up on the first recommendation given. I am also planning on participating in "The Women of Science Fiction" reading challenge, because I'd like to read a lot of those books anyway, and the opportunity for intelligent discussion is very appealing.

Happy New Year!

Meditation on My 2009 Year in Reading

Last year's New Year's resolution was to read books that were new to me, and resist (for the time being, at least) re-reading old favorites. I think that I did an admirable job, having read many new books, especially over the summer months, most of which were not only new to me but newly published as well. I read a lot more nonfiction than I ever had before (mostly humorous memoirs, but still), and delved into the elusive genre of Literary Fiction. The jury's still out on the success of that experiment. Here are the stats for 2009, as accurately as I can determine:

Books Read: 87 [6 of those via audiobook]
Young Adult: 25
Manga/Graphic Novels: 21
Nonfiction: 7
Fantasy: 6
Romance: 6
Literary Fiction: 6
Mystery/Suspense: 4
Science Fiction: 3
Children's (not including picture books read to Baby G): 3
Historical Fiction: 2
Urban Fiction: 1
Books Resisting Categorization: 3
Favorites: Rampant, Scott Pilgrim, A Certain Slant of Light, Warbreaker, Soulless, Lord of Scoundrels

I had a couple other New Year's Resolutions in mind for the coming year, but since last year's resolution was the only one I've ever managed to keep in my entire life, I think I will go ahead and renew it for 2010. That is not to say that I won't re-read a few books for comfort, especially as I have a new audience with whom to share my favorites. However, I think that working on broadening my reading horizons in this way has also had a positive effect at my job! Reader's Advisory isn't just a catchphrase, you know . . . it actually happens. At the moment I feel more prepared than ever to recommend something to someone when they are looking for something new to read. I realize that my reading time in 2010 will undoubtedly be more curtailed, given the circumstances, but I still hope to enjoy many new books in the coming year! Happy New Year to everyone!