happy new year; books read in 2011
Jan. 1st, 2012 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbardHappy New Year! Last night my dad set off fireworks, which appeared to be mostly duds, and I cowered behind my mother because I despise fireworks. I have an overly-honed sense of keen self-preservation. Also, I drank champagne, but I still hate champagne. Fizzes, has no taste, smells like something fermented. (Which...it is.)
Meanwhile, as a result of one of those mornings where I get my fandoms mixed and slot the wrong character names into random bits of prose floating through my head (doesn't everyone do this?), I am now pondering the high fantasy AU of BSG. Which is really not that different (thematically) from actual BSG, just without spaceships and with magic instead of technology. Except I just went to a place where it is also steampunk BSG, which is certainly an interesting place.
(Don't get too excited, my random bits of prose are things like "Karl (or Sharon) drew his (or her) sword" and "Sharon thrust back the visor of her helmet." The first one is because I have this lovely beautiful sword-drawing image stuck in my head that's going to transfer to Dust or BW, but let's be honest, works better visually than in prose. The second one is because I started reading The Tears of the Sun this morning. Oh, Stirling, you so whacky.)
*
So, in 2011, I kept a chart of all the books I read for fun (no books for school), including the date began and the date ended, author, title, page count, genre, and notes about whether or not it was a reread or an audiobook or a did not finish or what.
I started 104 books. Only two books were definite DNFs, and four I had to return to the library before I finished them. One of them is sort of awkward because it was an omnibus, and I read two of the books in it, but not the whole thing, but I marked it on my chart as the omnibus, not the individual books. But they were published individually, so all in all, this year I read exactly 100 books.
34 were rereads. 21 were non-fiction (all history, I believe; this included the two DNFs). 13 were mystery (all but one were Lindsey Davis; the thirteenth was Dennis Lehane). 43 were YA fiction (mostly fantasy or historical or, alternately, fantasy/historical). 1 was an audiobook.
12 books by Lindsey Davis.
12 books by Tamora Pierce (8 on the same day).
12 books by Rosemary Sutcliff (1 twice).
10 books by Mercedes Lackey.
The most pages read in a single day was 2112 (my "read ALL the Tamora Pierce" day (note that these were all paperback, I don't know how much a difference it makes) - May 12), followed by 1903 (the four books of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series - December 23)), and 1016 (GRRM's A Dance With Dragons - August 8).
During the entire month of July I read one book, which I read before I left America; I started a book near the end of July and finished it in August. (This is the month I was in England.) In November I finished one book (begun in October) and started another one which I didn't finish (library). Those were my two weakest months, reading-wise. I read the most books in May, June, August, and December -- my vacation months.
As a sidenote, I will not that, although I did have two DNFs, I tended towards trying really hard to finish books once I started reading them because I was keeping track and I wanted to see how many books I read in a year with a heavy courseload. So I probably finished more books than I might have done had I not been keeping track. These are all books read through beginning to end, not skimmed, although I'll note that I'm a very fast reader and I don't read every word.
Meanwhile, as a result of one of those mornings where I get my fandoms mixed and slot the wrong character names into random bits of prose floating through my head (doesn't everyone do this?), I am now pondering the high fantasy AU of BSG. Which is really not that different (thematically) from actual BSG, just without spaceships and with magic instead of technology. Except I just went to a place where it is also steampunk BSG, which is certainly an interesting place.
(Don't get too excited, my random bits of prose are things like "Karl (or Sharon) drew his (or her) sword" and "Sharon thrust back the visor of her helmet." The first one is because I have this lovely beautiful sword-drawing image stuck in my head that's going to transfer to Dust or BW, but let's be honest, works better visually than in prose. The second one is because I started reading The Tears of the Sun this morning. Oh, Stirling, you so whacky.)
*
So, in 2011, I kept a chart of all the books I read for fun (no books for school), including the date began and the date ended, author, title, page count, genre, and notes about whether or not it was a reread or an audiobook or a did not finish or what.
I started 104 books. Only two books were definite DNFs, and four I had to return to the library before I finished them. One of them is sort of awkward because it was an omnibus, and I read two of the books in it, but not the whole thing, but I marked it on my chart as the omnibus, not the individual books. But they were published individually, so all in all, this year I read exactly 100 books.
34 were rereads. 21 were non-fiction (all history, I believe; this included the two DNFs). 13 were mystery (all but one were Lindsey Davis; the thirteenth was Dennis Lehane). 43 were YA fiction (mostly fantasy or historical or, alternately, fantasy/historical). 1 was an audiobook.
12 books by Lindsey Davis.
12 books by Tamora Pierce (8 on the same day).
12 books by Rosemary Sutcliff (1 twice).
10 books by Mercedes Lackey.
The most pages read in a single day was 2112 (my "read ALL the Tamora Pierce" day (note that these were all paperback, I don't know how much a difference it makes) - May 12), followed by 1903 (the four books of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series - December 23)), and 1016 (GRRM's A Dance With Dragons - August 8).
During the entire month of July I read one book, which I read before I left America; I started a book near the end of July and finished it in August. (This is the month I was in England.) In November I finished one book (begun in October) and started another one which I didn't finish (library). Those were my two weakest months, reading-wise. I read the most books in May, June, August, and December -- my vacation months.
As a sidenote, I will not that, although I did have two DNFs, I tended towards trying really hard to finish books once I started reading them because I was keeping track and I wanted to see how many books I read in a year with a heavy courseload. So I probably finished more books than I might have done had I not been keeping track. These are all books read through beginning to end, not skimmed, although I'll note that I'm a very fast reader and I don't read every word.