Saturday, January 5, 2013

2012 Reading List and Stats

While I'd like to complain that my life is nothing but work, work, work, my reading list for 2012 suggests otherwise. I managed to squeeze in 46 books (most of which I finished). Here's the overall list followed by some stats, commentary, and Erin Book Awards: 2012.

Fiction: Sci Fi / Fantasy
The Alloy of Law (Mistborn #4), by Brandon Sanderson
The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle #1), by Patrick Rothfuss
The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1), by Brandon Sanderson
Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson
Enchantment, by Orson Scott Card
The Awakened (The Awakened #1), by Jason Tesar

Fiction: General
A Girl Named Zippy, by Haven Kimmel
Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger
A Very Private Gentleman, by Martin Booth
Master and Commander (Aubrey/Maturin #1), by Patrick O'Brian
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1), by Stieg Larsson
Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri
Falling Uphill, by Wendy Tokunaga
Hostile Witness (Witness Series #1), by Rebecca Forster
Transfer of Power, by Vince Flynn
Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #6), by Alexander McCall Smith
The Kalahari Typing School for Men (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #4), by Alexander McCall Smith
Whose Body?  (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries #1), by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Mysterious Affair At Styles (Hercule Poirot #1), by Agatha Christie
Her Royal Spyness (Her Royal Spyness Mysteries #1), by Rhys Bowen
Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine

Fiction: Classics
Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne
Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell
Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables #2), by L.M. Montgomery
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne
The Three Musketeers (The D'Artagnan Romances #1), by Alexandre Dumas
The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux
Les Misarables, by Victor Hugo
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens
Persuasion, by Jane Austen

Non-Fiction: General
South, by Ernest Shackleton
Beethoven - His Life and Music, by Robert Greenberg
Beyond Band of Brothers: The war memoirs of Major Dick Winters, by Dick Winters
The Civil War (American Heritage), by Bruce Catton
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain

Non-Fiction: Parenting & Kids
Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting, by Pamela Druckerman
Pete Seeger's Storytelling Book, by Pete Seeger
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua
Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture, by Peggy Orenstein
Between Parent and Child: The Bestselling Classic That Revolutionized Parent-Child Communication, by Haim G. Ginott
Toilet Training in Less Than a Day, by Nathan H. Azrin
The New Strong-Willed Child, by James C. Dobson
Setting Limits with Your Strong-Willed Child: Eliminating Conflict by Establishing Clear, by Firm, by and Respectful Boundaries, by Robert J. MacKenzie
1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12, by Thomas W. Phelan

Stats
  • 39% (18) of books read on Kindle, compared with 0% in 2011
  • 24% (11) of books audio (on Kindle)
  • 17% (8) of books were re-reads
  • According to Goodreads, I read 11,382 pages this year. That's 32 pages a day. 
  • A full 13% of those pages came from Les Misarables
  • 9% came from The Way of Kings by Branson Sanderson (sheepish look)
  • The mean (average) original publication date of my reading list was 1967. Median (middle) was 2000. Mode (most frequent) was 2011.
Commentary
  • I read a lot of random books this year (particularly in the fiction category) because they were available for free (or immediately at my library) on the Kindle.
  • For the same reason, I read more classics than I normally would.
  • I would like to branch out my non-fiction reading to include more non-parenting books. Kids get easier after 2 1/2 anyway, right? Right??
  • I like sci-fi and fantasy. Not the really crazy into it kind, but the crowd-pleasers.
  • I do not like chick lit. I knew this in my soul, but re-committed this year.
Erin Book Awards: 2012
  • Most hilarious: A Girl Named Zippy
  • Great find: Pete Seeger's Storytelling Book
  • Weirdest reading experience: A Very Private Gentleman (book about a man who makes custom guns for assassins, which I listened to at 3am every night while nursing newborn Xena).
  • Most proud of: Les Misarables
  • Most well-written: Peace Like a River
  • Most forgettable: Whose Body?
  • Most controversial: Bringing Up Bebe or Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
  • Likely candidate for a re-read: A Girl Named Zippy or The Civil War

4 comments:

Megan said...

Chris has also read many classics recently since they are free on the Kindle. I just got an Ipad mini for Christmas, so maybe I will read digital books now.

Whitehead Family Fun said...

Totally just requested a Girl Named Zippy. I need something funny to read about now. Thanks for posting that is quite an impressive list with two small kids.

Rachel said...

Great list! I used to use my kindle just for travel, but then I discovered digital library books. This year I've used it for most of my reading.

Sarah said...

I loved A Girl Named Zippy (which I probably never would have found and read had you not given it to me). I've never read a parenting book. I think I've started a few. Maybe I should give it a try with #4.