My reading year 2008

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!! :-)

Books I've read in 2008 - December

These are the books I've read this month. Not all of them journalled on BookCrossing yet, as is my habit ... shame on me, I know, I need to do better next year. :-)

More on books read tomorrow. :-)

Me of Little Faith by Lewis Black (audio)
Olja by Gunnar Lindstedt
Giving by Bill Clinton (audio)
Dronning Margot, volume one by Alexandre Dumas
Illusions by Richard Bach
Freakonomics by Levitt/Dubner (audio)
The Echo by Minette Walters
The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie
Something Muffins by Stewart Clark
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
Legally Blonde by Amanda Brown
War and Anti-War by Alvin Toffler & Heidi Toffler
Broken English Spoken Perfectly by Stewart Clark
Mannen i sjön by Arnaldur Indridason (audio)
Turtles by Mervin F Roberts
Kallocain by Karin Boye
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Real Murders by Charlaine Harris
Dronning Margot, volume two by Alexandre Dumas

Books I've read in 2008 - November

Storm Thief by Chris Wooding
SO watcha sayin’ [sic] by Martin Kellerman
Fup by Jim Dodge
The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears
Sult by Knut Hamsun
The Ballad of Typhoid Mary by JF Federspiel
Songs of Tuvalu by Gerd Koch
Se oss by Amal Aden (pseud.)
Saknad by Karin Alvtegen
Amphigorey Again by Edward Gorey
Jamilia by Chingiz Aïtmatov
The Tokaido Road by Lucia St Clair Robson

Findabair, I'm going to 'Cross one of these books to you.

Can you guess which one (it's not Fup ;-)?

Books I've read in 2008 - October

I don't blog about books very much; that's because I write up my book reviews over at BookCrossing. Very slowly. :-) I do list the books I read here though. So far I've done it by posting one to-be-updated post at the beginning of each month, and then updating that with titles of and links to books as I finish them. That hasn't seemed to generate a lot of interest though. ;-) So from now on I will keep a list on my BC bookshelf and then write a post here at the end of the month. Let's see how that works out. :-)

If anyone has any thoughts on any of the books on the list, I'd love to hear them. I love to talk about books. :-) Click on the link to see the books' BookCrossing journals. I mostly haven't written my reviews on these books yet, shame on me, because ... I am slow. Coming up soon, though. Don't give up on me.

The Muse Asylum by David Czuchlewski
Anarkismen by Daniel Guérin
Without Reserve by Abigail Reynolds
Closely Observed Trains by Bohumil Hrabal
Escape by Carolyn Jessop BORROWED COPY! This was a pretty good read, relatively well-written, but first & foremost a fascinating story about an unusual life. A testament to the evils of organised religion.
Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson
Angel-Seeker by Sharon Shinn
Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan
Akhenaten. Dweller in Truth by Naguib Mahfouz
Your First Terrapin by David Green
Fortellinger ved peisen by André Bjerke LIBRARY COPY
Tortoises Including Turtles and Terrapins by David Robinson
An Unequal Marriage by Emma Tennant

Books I've read in 2008 - September

How I Became Stupid by Martin Page
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
A Small Book of Grave Humour
The Missing Reel by Christopher Rawlence
Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo
Nynorsk vinteridrott by Bengt Göran Markebom
Dune by Frank Herbert
Skuld by Karin Alvtegen
Chew on This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson
Out of Egypt by André Aciman
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
De tre musketerer, volume two, by Alexandre Dumas

Books I've read in 2008 - August

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by MG Vassanji
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
De dødes tjern by Bernhard Borge
I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier
Pick Up Your Parrots and Monkeys by William Pennington
Nye kinesiske noveller by Vibeke Børdahl, ed.
As Nature Made Him by John Colapinto
Presumption by Julia Barrett
Crucible by Nancy Kress
Hiroshima by John Hersey
Maybe the Moon by Armistead Maupin
Sure of You by Armistead Maupin
Elinor & Marianne by Emma Tennant
Creation by Gore Vidal
Mao for Beginners by 'Rius & Friends'

Books I've read in 2008 - July

Naked Pictures of Famous People by Jon Stewart
Himmelgraven by Xinran
The Last Station by Jay Parini
Prairie Springs by LR Williamson
De tre musketerer, volume one, by Alexandre Dumas
Desert Dawn by Waris Dirie & Jeanne d'Haem
Skyggelandet by Tom Egeland
Glennkill by Leonie Swann
Boktyven by Markus Zusak
Häxor och häxprocesser by Bror Gadelius
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Grass for His Pillow. Lord Fujiwara's Treasures by Lian Hearn

Books I've read in 2008 - June

Strange Boy by Paul Magrs
Significant Others by Armistead Maupin
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
Teaterdrømmer by Disa Netterstrøm-Jonsson
Pocket Planet Earth Factfile
Behind the Screen by William J Mann
White Collar Zoo by Clare Barnes, Jr
The Crimes of Charlotte Brontë by James Tully
Crocodile Soup by Julia Darling
Falska förespeglingar by Leena Lehtolainen
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent
American Fuji by Sara Backer
With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed by Lynne Truss

Books I've read in 2008 - May

The Marriage of Likeness by John Boswell
How the Homosexuals Saved Civilization by Cathy Crimmins
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
The Sewing Circle by Axel Madsen
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly (audio)
Between the Acts by Jeffrey Weeks & Kevin Porter, eds.
Spoon River Antologien [sic] by Edgar Lee Masters
Drowned Wednesday by Garth Nix
Amuse Bouche by Anthony Bidulka
Hvem fulgte Doruntine hjem? by Ismail Kadare
Path of Fate by Diana Pharaoh Francis
Odjuret by Roslund & Hellström

Books I've read in 2008 - April

The Mabinogion
Mannen utan öde by Imre Kertesz
Land Under England by Joseph O'Neill
Presidentens val by Anne Holt (audio)
Foreign Devil by Wang Ping
The Case of Mary Bell by Gitta Sereny
Gay Cinematherapy by Jason Bergund & Beverly West
Affinity by Sarah Waters
Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb
Med kaldt blod by Truman Capote
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Federal Fag by Fred Hunter
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
The Deep by Peter Benchley

Books I've read in 2008 - March

The Bermuda Triangle by Charles Berlitz
How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks
Bara sedan solen sjunkit by Johanna Sinisalo
Sickened by Julie Gregory
Fatherland by Robert Harris
Pride & Promiscuity by Arielle Eckstut
The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears
Close to Shore by Michael Capuzzo
Spring Moon by Bette Bao Lord
The Translator by Daoud Hari
The Darwin Conspiracy by John Darnton (audio)
Dokumenter vedrørende spilleren Rubashov by Carl-Johan Vallgren
Babycakes by Armistead Maupin
Kunsten å vere neger by Are Kalvø
En rød heltinnes død by Qiu Xiaolong LIBRARY COPY! This was an excellent read, a fascinating setting and a good story. I will definitely be reading more by this author.
Chang and Eng by Darin Strauss
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Books I've read in 2008 - February

Feng Shite. A Little Book of House Messing by Anna Crosbie
Mary Kingsley. Forskningsresande i Västafrika by Signe Höjer
Stevenson under the Palm Trees by Alberto Manguel
Ö-morden by Gretelise Holm (audio)
The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by GB Edwards
Buddhism. A Very Short Introduction by Damien Keown
Further Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix
Suits Me. The Double Life of Billy Tipton by Diane Wood Middlebrook
Pemberley by Emma Tennant
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (abridged audio) Begun in 2007
Miraklene i Santo Fico by DL Smith

Books I've read in 2008 - January

I want to list the books I read here, with links to them on my BookCrossing shelf if possible. I'll do this every month from now on. I'll post the lists from the beginning of this year now.

Impulse & Initiative by Abigail Reynolds Begun in 2007
Naked by David Sedaris Begun in 2007
Luftslottet som sprängdes by Stieg Larsson (audio) Begun in 2007
Strangers by Taichi Yamada
Kvinnen som kledte seg naken for sin elskede by Jan Wiese
Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis Begun in 2007
Teleny by unknown ... Oscar Wilde, et. al?
The End of Faith by Sam Harris
Edward Finnigans upprättelse by Roslund & Hellström (audio)
The Embrace by Aphrodite Jones
Vinterdrottningen by Boris Akunin
Hjerter i chili by Laura Esquivel
I Choose to Live by Sabine Dardenne with Marie-Thérèse Cuny
Elskeren by Marguerite Duras