Some Numbers:
- Books Read: 42 (1 audio)
- Pages Read: 13,807 + 13.1 hrs audio
- Average Pages per Book: 337
- Books Acquired: 156
- Fiction: 38
- Nonfiction: 4
- Female Authors: 26
- Male Authors: 16
- New (to me) Authors: 24
- Most Read Author: Maud Hart Lovelace (5)
- Kid’s Lit: 13
- Contemporary Fiction: 11
- Classics: 6
- Young Adult: 5
- Memoirs: 3
- Plays: 2
- Essays: 1
- Short Story Collection: 1
- Rereads: 3
- Series Started: 4
- Longest Book: War and Peace (1,386 pages)
- Shortest Book: The Tales of Beedle the Bard (107 pages)
- Library books: 10
- Books from my collection: 32
- Challenges finished: 1 (Maud Hart Lovelace)
- Challenges failed: 1 (Everything Austen – will finish this year)
- Challenges continuing: 1 (Shelf Discovery)
2009 Goals
- Read 48 Books (4/month) – Failed
- Read Northanger Abbey and re-read Pride and Prejudice
- 12 Classics (1/month) – Failed (I read 6 and was much better earlier in the year)
- Specific Books
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Peony in Love by Lisa See
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Something Rotten and First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (I’m halfway through)
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
To sum up: I thought I would read more this year since it’s the first full year that I haven’t been in school, but regular old work life turned out to be more time-consuming than expected. I also didn’t mean to read so much kid’s lit but between Betsy-Tacy, Harry Potter re-reads, and The Mysterious Benedict Society that somehow became my biggest genre. I think it was a successful year even if it wasn’t my best according to numbers. I discovered the greater book-blogging community, reading challenges, and I participated in my first read-a-thon. And I enjoyed almost everything that I read which has to be the most important measuring stick.
Thank you all for listening to my ramblings this year and leaving wonderful comments for me. I’m looking forward to seeing what 2010 brings.
my books. my life. 
That you had a good job is the most important thing. 42 books is impressive with all of your commitments and life changes. The younger lit got a grip on me this year as well. I barely read anything like that in 2008!
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oh…and Happy New Year! How could I forget. It has been the first words that I type everywhere else today.
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Interesting numbers! 42 books is quite impressive and you have covered a range of genres! Reading ‘War and Peace’ was quite an impressive achievement! (I started reading it today :)) I also liked the fact that you acquired 156 books 🙂 I was feeling quite guilty about my book-buying last year and even tried a self-imposed book-buying ban (it didn’t work), but when I saw your ‘books acquired’ statistic, I felt quite happy 🙂
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I’m glad that my book-buying problem is making others feel better. 🙂
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I forgot to mention this too 🙂 Wish you a very Happy and Wonderful New Year! Hope you have a wonderful reading experience this year and achieve all your reading goals 🙂
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Looks like it was a good reading (and buying) year!
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Happy New Year!
42 books is a lot, Michelle. War and Peace does actually have the length of seven books – so: Read 48 Books (4/month) – Done! 🙂
Hope you have a great reading-year 2010!
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Haha – thanks. But then you have to count all the 100-page books I read as less than a book by that math.
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Haha, you acquired more books than I did that makes me feel better. It looks like you had a great reading year and kid´s lit rocks! 😉
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Again, glad I’m making others feel better. I do what I can.
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Yay for War & Peace! And I totally think you can call your year a success! Any year that includes two of Austen’s best automatically rocks. 😉
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Interesting stats! I also thought I would read more books this year, and I was on track to, but life got in the way. I’ll talk more about that in my post, which I hope to get up soon.
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Happy New Year, dear Michelle. What an impressive list of books! Just finished The Hunger Games and I absolutly share your enthusiasm for it. Loved it totally! Thank you very much for being my Book Secret Santa! Can’t wait to start the next one. All the best. Ciao. Antonella
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So glad that you enjoyed it!
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Pat yourself on the back I say, just for sticking with War and Peace. You did well, and you certainly have enough books at hand to keep you going for a while. Happy reading in 2010.
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