Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

Another year has come and gone, and I do believe it was my best reading year yet, at least in volume. My overall reading stats for the year:

JAN - Books read: 15 - Pages read: 2696
FEB - Books read: 5 - Pages read: 843
MAR - Books read: 7 - Pages read: 1923
APR - Books read: 6 - Pages read: 1513
MAY - Books read: 10 - Pages read: 2188
JUN - Books read: 16 - Pages read: 3276
JUL - Books read: 11 - Pages read: 2086
AUG - Books read: 5 - Pages read: 852
SEP - Books read: 7 - Pages read: 1554
OCT - Books read: 7 Pages read: 1363
NOV - Books read: 7 Pages read: 1664
DEC - Books read: 6 Pages read: 968

Books Read Total: 102
Pages Read Total: 20926

Genre/Book Type Breakdown:
Childrens - 1
Classic - 3
Fantasy - 3
Fiction - 18
Graphic Novel - 43
Horror - 5
Manga - 1
Non-Fic - 2
Travel - 1
YA - 12
Steampunk - 4
Short Story - 4
SciFi - 3
Humor - 2

Favorite Books of the Year
January - Soulless by Gail Carriger
February - Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde by Oscar Wilde
March - His Majesty's Dragon, Temeraire Book 1 by Naomi Novik
April - 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
May - Under the Dome by Stephen King
June - A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
July - Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
August - Dangerous Neighbors by Beth Kephart
September - Blameless by Gail Carriger
October - Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge
November - The Raising by Laura Kasischke
December - Modern Fairies, Dwarves, Goblins & Other Nasties: A Practical Guide by Miss Edythe McFate by Lesley M. M. Blume, illustrated by David Foote

Favorite "New to Me" Authors of the Year:
Gail Carriger
Laura Kasischke
Naomi Novik
Norman Partridge

Favorite "New to Me" Series of the Year: This is going to be a tie between Gail Carriger's The Parasol Protectorate series and Naomi Novik's Temeraire series. Both are equally fantastic!

Largest book I read this year: Under the Dome by Stephen King (1,074 pages)

Shortest book I read this year: Princess Alyss of Wonderland by Frank Beddor (30 pages)

Book it took me the longest to read: 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill (This was actually started in October, 2009 and finished April, 2010. It is a collection of short stories, so I was reading them in between other books that I was reading.)

Book I didn't finish this year: Tinkers by Paul Harding (I just could not get into this book. At all. So, after 70 pages, I put it down and moved on.)




I know I was a little heavy on the graphic novels this year, but I had a particularly challenging year personally in 2010, and I generally fall back on graphic novels as a safety for my reading time, so in 2011 I'm hoping to maybe balance everything out a little bit better. But really, I love graphic novels, so I'm not too concerned about it.

One thing that I've promised myself for this year is NO READING CHALLENGES! I felt like I bogged myself down in challenges last year, and I want to be able to just read what I want to read. If something I'm reading lines up with a particular challenge or group read, I'll join in then, but I really want to leave my reading schedule completely open and see how that goes.

And on that note, I've been looking at my bookshelves lately and realize that I've got some really great books that I've never read, so... I'm also going to try to not buy any new books for the year... first half(ish) of the year. Now, after you've all quit laughing at this statement, I realize it's not even remotely realistic. In fact, as I'm sitting here typing this, I'm thinking of several books that I want to go pick up, right now. But I'm going to try. Let's be honest, I'll be lucky if I get through the week without buying a new book, but a guy can dream, right? The only books that I'll continue to pick up as they are released are my graphic novels. They usually have a small print run, and more often than not, I've waited to pick up something and then it becomes too hard to find, so those are being picked up as they come along. (Hello, loophole, how are you?)

Anyway, so there it is. 2010 was a great reading year. Lots of fantastic books, and some seriously wonderful new authors, and I'm looking forward to just as much reading pleasure in 2011.

Happy New Year, everyone, and happy reading!


I'm not going to lie. I rewrote this post after reading Literary Feline's year end recap post over at Musings of a Bookish Kitty. I just loved it and wanted to borrow a couple of the elements. If you're reading this, LF, I hope you don't mind! Mea culpa!