Happy New Year!
You'll be sick of these soon... but what is the new year for but to share book-reading statistics? I'll be revisiting the meme I started a few years ago - quite a simple one. I'll be doing some comparing with the results I got in 2011.
Number of Books Read
135 - rather more than the scant 106 I managed last year.
Number of Books Bought
I don't know, and you shouldn't guess.
Fiction/Non-Fiction Ratio
95 fiction, 40 non-fiction - a higher percentage of non-fiction than ever before, which seems to be a growing trend - but does not reflect the books I have waiting on my shelves...
Male/Female Authors
45 books by men, 90 by women. My reading is always slanted towards female authors, but not usually this much. Maybe I should make 2013 the year of the male author. But I won't.
Re-reads
Only 9 this year, and most of those were for my thesis.
Biggest turn-around in opinion
How could I not have realised how brilliant One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes was the first time?
Oldest book read
Castle Rackrent (1800) by Maria Edgeworth. And I didn't like it.
Newest book read
My friend Karina's Shrinking Violet (2012). And I loved it!
Shortest title
Mamma by Diana Tutton. Which unwittingly reveals my confession that I have read it, and never wrote about it! It's not very much like Guard Your Daughters.
Books in translation
Only 8, which is far fewer than I'd imagined - from French, Swedish, Spanish, German, and Czech.
Most books by one author
6 each by Sylvia Townsend Warner and Muriel Spark - no surprises there, since I wrote a chapter on Sylvia Townsend Warner and co-led Muriel Spark Reading Week.
Place names in book titles
The Abbess of Crewe, Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris, Mrs. Harris Goes to New York, The Westminster Alice, Brighton Rock, The House in Paris, Lovers in London, Reginald in Russia.
Animals in book titles
Dear Octopus, When God Was A Rabbit, His Monkey Wife, Dewey the Library Cat, Lady Into Fox, Gentleman Into Goose, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies.
Strange things that happened in the books I read this year
I loved doing this bit last year. Ok... A donkey played chess, a man turned into a teapot, another man turned into a bug, several people turned into flowers, parliament turned up with Alice in Wonderland, a ring turned people invisible, someone sought lots of Mr. Browns, someone sought lots of Mr. Blacks, a woman was haunted by a reappearing corridor, a nunnery was bugged, and a man married a monkey.
If this all sickens you completely, go and enjoy C.B. James' irreverent take on end of year stats!
