Obligatory Year-end Review

I’ve been on GoodReads for two years now. Each year I’ve been able to set a “resolution” for the number of books I want to read. For that past two years it has been set to 10 books a month (120 books) because that was my past book average. But now I’ve failed for two years.

In 2011 I read 109 books.
In 2012 I read 106 books. (I may find books that I forgot to add).

I want my goal to be a stretch for me, but I don’t want to end up needing to read 30 books in December to make the goal again. So my goal will be 110 books this year. I’m reading less because I’m playing video games more and working full time. This year I was saved from embarrassing myself by the Kindle and a morning commute. (106 is a respectable number).

Analyzing the data (the fun part)

I read 7 books that I gave 5 stars too and only 2 that ended up with 2 stars. Mushishi is an excellent supernatural historical manga series that is just gorgeous. The Little Endless Storybook was just plain fun. Xenogenesis is one of my top science fiction books and always a good read. The audio book for Dune was quite good with a mostly full cast. Quiet was an excellent introspective into introvert life. The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks I’d wanted to read for two years and it lived up to its radio recommendation. And finally I was surprised to really enjoy Stephen King’s On Writing. The audio book was read by him and he’s the first writer who seems to write the same way I do.

I don’t recommend Toscanini’s Fumble or Brains, Trains and Video games. There are better neurological casebooks (see Oliver Sacks) and better writings on Autism out there.  Don’t bother.

The longest book I read was the 3-in-1 book Xenogeneis by Octavia Butler. It’s about a woman who wakes up after the apocalypse having been saved by aliens and questions what it is to be human. You can buy it under the title “Lilith’s Brood” these days and it is one of my all-time favorite books.

Year of the audio book and the ebook

I got an audible account this year and had a road trip to Portland. Sandry’s Book, On Writing, Gravel Peril, Tris’s Book, Uglies, 1984, The Shifter, Unwanteds, Dune, First Lensman. I would highly recommend The Shifter for its awesome voice acting but would not recommend Uglies despite loving the book.

I more than doubled the ebooks I read, from 11 to 34 this past year. I used to only buy ebooks when I wouldn’t have bought the book at all, mainly biographies and memoirs that I heard about on MPR, but then at the end of last year I bought some paranormal romance ebooks. (7 of that 11 were JR Ward’s vampire romances that read that December).

This year I bought anything in ebook form. I’d buy a single paperback sensibly at Uncle Hugo’s or Barnes and Noble (White Tiger, Dragon Kin) and then buy the rest of the series in kindle form. I bought a book I actually owned because when I was in the middle of reading it I noticed I was missing 20 pages from the paperback. And I bought books from Amazon’s December kindle sale.

Book Buying Achievements

• Own the same book in two different formats: Uglies (audio & paperback) & The Vor Game (paperback & ebook)
• Buy three books in a series in all different formats: Dresden files: Storm Front (paperback), Fool Moon (kindle), Gravel Peril (audio)
• Buy a book from the Goodreads ad area: Origin

I’m sure you’re all as eager as I to see what I read this next year.

EDIT: Found another book. Total for 2012 is 107 books.