Some facts & figures on my reading over the past year. Mainly for my own amusement. :-) It'll be interesting to go back to this next January.
Books read
Fiction: 108
Nonfiction: 48
Audiobooks: 9
Total: 165
Also 4 that I started in 2007 and finished in 2008, + 4 that I started in 2008 and will finish in 2009. Haven't counted these.
All but three of these were registered on BookCrossing.
For monthly lists of every title I read in 2008, click here and scroll down.
I read 16 titles from the [original] list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.
Some of the best books I read this year (although it's hard to choose), in no particular order:
As Nature Made Him by John Colapinto
Glennkill by Leonie Swann
Bara sedan solen sjunkit by Johanna Sinisalo
Close to Shore by Michael Capuzzo
Freakonomics by Levitt/Dubner
Olja by Gunnar Lindstedt
The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by GB Edwards
Suits Me. The Double Life of Billy Tipton by Diane Wood Middlebrook
Dokumenter vedrørende spilleren Rubashov by Carl-Johan Vallgren
Mary Kingsley. Forskningsresande i Västafrika by Signe Höjer
Some authors I read for the first time this year and will definitely be returning to:
Robert Harris
Bette Bao Lord
Qiu Xiaolong
Roslund & Hellström
Thomas Hardy
Karin Alvtegen
Lucia St Clair Robson
Some literary disappointments that I'd advise against trying:
Elskeren by Marguerite Duras
The Embrace by Aphrodite Jones
Pride & Promiscuity by Arielle Eckstut
Elinor & Marianne by Emma Tennant
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Illusions by Richard Bach
Legally Blonde by Amanda Brown
The biggest event of my reading life this year was getting my mp3 player. Best thing I bought all year. :-) Out of the 9 audiobooks I got through this year, 4 were in December. So ... I predict that in 2009, I will read many many more audiobooks than I ever have before. :-)
In 2009 I will keep track of not only the number of books that I read, but also the number of pages. Just out of curiosity. :-)
Happy reading, everyone!! :-)
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1 day ago
6 comments:
I wish I had time to read, looking at your reading that is very impressive for the year, do the audiobooks count in your total if so then I am not doing too badly for someone that does not have time, where do you get your audiobooks
Yeah, I've counted audiobooks started & finished this year. Only nine in 2008 ... that number's going to go UP this year, definitely. Yay, mp3 player ... ! :-D
Most of my audiobooks this year are BookCrossing books. But libraries in this country also have lots of audiobooks available. They're really expensive to buy in this country so I hardly ever buy them. Are they expensive in Ireland?
hard to get in Galway(west of Irl), smaller city than Dublin, dear here too. you that put it into my head to get books in MP3 format and I accidently came across Librivox.com which has a lot of the classics so I have started to listen as I drive when I am on my own,
only thing is some of the readers are not that great, example in Homers Odyssey one of English speaking ladies was crap while a Norwegian guy was great and there is the annoying librivox chapter thingy
(cant sleep, just in case you look at time posting)
BTW the mp3 player that you got was listed in one of the Irish papers before xmas as the best value for money mp3players so you did good
I like how you keep track of what you read, and I find it interesting that I haven't read any of the books you listed. Oh well, glad you enjoyed :)
Paz: Did I really inspire you to listen to audiobooks more?? Wow, kudos to me. :-) I think audiobooks are a fantastic invention, but as you say it does depend on the reader. That's the main problem with them. A bad reader can more or less ruin the whole book. :-( It's annoying ... especially in situations where it seems it would have been sooo easy to find someone better ... >:-(
I'd heard that too about those mp3 players - that in their price class they're pretty much the best you can get. One of the reasons I decided to get one of them. Although of course the cuteness was the deciding factor ... ;-)
Margo: Well, like I said, some of the books I listed weren't worth reading anyway. So you certainly shouldn't worry that you haven't read those (congratulate yourself instead! ;-). But those on the top ten list were really fantastic ... they were so rewarding in such different ways.
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