Here we are on the last day of 2014 which means it’s time for me to look back over my year of reading. There was a bit of excitement with the Kindle Rebellion during which I killed two Kindles. Happily Kobo and I are living in peace if not harmony (it’s a good ereader but there are things about it that frustrate me). I also began doing reviews for Library Journal and did a review for Shiny New Books as well. I managed to read a little of everything — essays, history, gardening, poetry, short stories, plays, fiction of all kinds. Nothing to complain about there! I set no reading goals other than to read good books and I can report it was a success! I very much liked not having a list hanging over my head all year and simply making plans from month to month. I ended up reading a lot of just published books but I still read older books too, though admittedly there is an imbalance but is that really so bad? I wonder.
I had thought it was a record breaking year in terms of number of books read until just before I started writing this when I looked at past years. I completed 75 books in 2014. Last year I read 69 but the year before that I read 78. That year was the most read ever. So no record, but pretty close. Still, I try to always remind myself that it is not about the numbers but how much I enjoyed the books that matters most. And wow, were there some really good books! Let’s break it all down.
Books Completed: 75
Books begun but abandoned: 2
Fiction: 31(3 fewer than 2013)
Nonfiction: 31 (one more than 2013)
Poetry: 8 (twice as many as 2013)
Plays: 4 (3 more than 2013)
Breaking it down even further (there may be some overlap across genres)…
Essays: 5
Scifi/Fantasy: 6
Memoir/Biography: 6
Books about Books/Reading/Literature: 5
Science: 2
Social Science: 5
History: 1
Books about Gardening/Nature/Environment/Climate Change: 11
Childrens/Juvenille/YA: 1
Letters/Diaries: 1
Short story collections: 3
Graphic novels: 3
Books by women: 38
Books by men: 33
Multiple mixed authors: 3
Rereads: 5
Number of authors whose books I read more than one of: 6 (Euripides, Hilary Mantel, Bryan O’Malley, Claudia Rankine, Rebecca Solnit, Robin Wall Kimmerer)
In translation: 13 (French, Dutch, German, Japanese, Greek, Vietnamese)
Book source/Format
ARCS: 9
Ebooks: 10 (one of these was an ARC)
Library: 49 (several of these were ebooks)
Own: 11
Publication Dates
2014: 31
2010 – 2013: 17
2000 – 2009: 11
1950 – 1999: 3
1900 – 1949: 4
19th Century: 5
17th Century: 1
BCE: 3
Favorite Fiction:
- A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear Mc Bride
- How to Be Both by Ali Smith (just finished this last night, review forthcoming)
- Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
- Medea by Euripides
- King Lear by William Shakespeare
Favorite Nonfiction:
- Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution by Laurie Penny
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
- A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit
- Founding Gardeners by Andrea Wulf
Favorite Poetry (a category all its own because it is neither fiction nor nonfiction):
- Memories of the Unknown by Rutger Kopland
Honorable Mentions:
- Letters to Anyone and Everyone by Toon Tellegen
- The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
- The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
- Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Well, there it is, 2014. I am surprised by the number of rereads and the number of authors I read more than once. I am a bit startled by the number of books I borrowed from the library and the number that were published in 2014. I knew both would be big but I wasn’t expecting they’d be that big. The higher library count though also means I didn’t buy as many books as I might have. However, there were a couple of books I bought after borrowing them from the library.
All in all, a good year. Thank you for sharing it with me. I wish you a Happy New Year and I hope your 2015 is filled with oodles of great books!
Happy New Year Stefanie. I hope it turns out to be a good year of reading for you.
What do you make of the fact that three-quarters of the sixteen notable books you cite were written by female writers. That includes all of non-fiction books, three of the fiction, and four of the Honorable Mentions.
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Richard, a happy New Year to you too! I’m a little late, I know. Since I didn’t notice that most of my favorites for the year were by women authors I hadn’t made anything of it. I don’t pay attention to whether the authors I read are male or female until the end of the year when I look back over my list. I guess this year the book I read by women were more meaningful for me.
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Happy New Year, Stefanie…just think of all those new books about to be published. That makes me smile.
Great splits between fiction/nonfiction and male/female writers, BTW. I never get close to 50-50 on either of those even though it’s always kind of an official goal of mine.
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Sam, thanks and the same to you! The splits are purely accidental. I don’t generally pay attention until the end of the year when I add it all up so I was surprised and pleased about it.
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Happy New Year Stefanie! Wishing you a wonderful, peaceful, gardenful and bookfilled 2015! You managed all, and I am sooooo impressed. I must learn the art of balancing between fiction and all other kinds of books!!!
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cirtnecce, thanks and the same to you! There was never any intention in behind the balance, it sort of just happened on its own. I had to recount several times to make sure I’d done it right because I was so surprised!
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See…that’s the art….it’s so effortless, you do it unconsciously! 😉
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Ha! You give me way too much credit!
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Happy New Year! I’m still quite a bit down the list for The Narrow Road To The Deep North at the library (that and The Bone Clocks). But that’s okay since I’ve got tons of books that just came in the mail. Wow. 75! I think that’s pretty jaw dropping. I didn’t quite make my goal of 52, but what the heck. Tomorrow is another day…or come to think of it, n this case, tomorrow is another year, aint it!
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Grad, and Happy New Year to you too! Whenever your turn for the Flanagan comes around I look forward to your thoughts on it! I was surprised and pleased with 75 since until the last few years I was usually a 55 or 56 books a year girl. I suspect having an ereader and reading on the bus/train has had some impact.
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Stefanie I’m so impressed with your number of non-fiction reads. I always say I want to read more and this year I didn’t even read one! Oh well, there’s always next year 🙂 Happy New Year!
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Iliana, I always have something nonfiction on the go, I was surprised when I counted how many I had read. Happy New Year to you too!
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Hi Stefanie—41 reads including one reread (Dubliners).
You earn 5 stars for reading! Happy New Year.
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booksandbuttons, not bad! You get five stars too! Happy New Year 🙂
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A very lovely reading year! I like that you keep track of “books begun but abandoned” – I think I will try to keep track of that in 2015. Unfortunately my number is usually quite high, I read several books at once and sometimes one just doesn’t get picked back up again. I usually intend to pick them back up someday (and sometimes I do) but often I don’t.
I am delighted to see many of the books I’m intending to read soon on your favorites of the year lists. I hope to get to many of them soon, especially Station Eleven.
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chowmeyow, I didn’t used to keep track of books I gave up on but I thought it might be interesting to know after I borrowed a book from the library and realized about 30 pages in that I had already tried to read it a few before and didn’t like it then either. I hope you enjoy Station Eleven when you get to it!
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Sounds like a great year! I’m glad you were happy with keeping your reading plans open. I like not creating a reading list as well — nothing is hanging over my head or making me feel guilty. I want to try some of books on your best-of list, including the McBride and the Smith. Have a great 2015!
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Rebecca, exactly! No list means no guilt when I end up only reading one book from it. I hope you get to the McBride and Smith. I think you’d like both and I’d love to hear your thoughts on them.
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Great round up Stefanie … I plan mine in the next day or so. A bit pooped today after NYE (unusually we had a party to go to) and having parents and aunt around tonight. I need a breather.
Love that McBride and Flanagan feature as top and honourable reads. My poetry was greatly down this year but I read more short story collections. 75 is a respectable tally I reckon.
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whisperinggums, thanks! A New Year’s Eve party? I haven’t been to one of those in years. I can understand being tired afterwards! I read Flanagan mostly because of you so I owe you for that one!
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No, it was our first in years. We usually go to an early movie session and are home before midnight.
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Ah, so the party was out of the ordinary. I hope it was extra fun because of the novelty of it.
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it was, though we weren’t really expecting it to be, which made it even better!
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I hope your 2015 is filled with zillions of superb books too! Happy happy New Year!
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Jenny, thanks! Happy New Year and happy reading to you too!
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Happy New Year! It looks like you had a great reading year–happy to see Founding Gardeners on your list, too. I love these little wrap ups–always fun to see which directions your reading went! I have never read anything translated from Vietnamese (maybe a short story or two), so that’s cool! And I like how varied your reading was too. I want to try and include a book of poetry in my reading this year. But, like you, I have made no set plans–just starting out with a few books, one longer read coming and then we’ll see where it all goes over the course of the year. Looks like it worked for you! 🙂
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Danielle, Not bad even with all the gardening I squeezed in. There is something to be said for long, cold winters 😉 Thanks for reading Founding Gardeners with me. If it hadn’t been for you I have no idea when I’d finally get around to it!
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Happy new year! So many intriguing titles! No surprise that Hilary Manter made it to the top fiction (I haven’t read this one yet, but plan to very soon!)
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Smithereens, Happy New Year! Bring Up the Bodies wasn’t as good as Wolf Hall but it was still outstanding. I hope you enjoy it when you get to it!
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Happy New Year – I love your best-of lists. Certainly several there that I’ll be getting to in 2015, I sincerely hope (I was given Unspeakable Things for Christmas, yay!). And thank you as ever for a year of wonderful reading fun here on your blog. I’m very glad it was good for you, too! 🙂
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Litlove, Happy New Year! Thanks! It’s always fun to take a look back and realize, wow, I read a lot of really good books. Hooray for getting Unspeakable Things for Christmas! I look forward to your thoughts on it!
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Impressive gender balance. Any uncheery female authors you would recommend?
I came across a secondhand copy of She btw. If I find it finishable, I plan to review it in some fashion.
Glad to have found your blog last year. Happy New Year!
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Jeff, thanks it was purely accidental as I don’t deliberately choose books based on gender and never know what the balance is until the end of the year. Enjoy She! It’s one of those so bad it’s good books in some ways. Happy New Year!
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I have A Field Guide to Getting Lost out from the library right now! It just arrived yesterday. It took most of last year to work it’s way to me, so I am delighted to have it, and to see it on your best of read list! Also the Hilary Mantel – I’m reading Wolf Hall right now, and really enjoying it. Can I ask, did you group mysteries into fiction? Or not read any last year? And did you group the classics (English literature mainly I’m thinking about) into fiction too? I have found I have to keep track of what kind of fiction I’m reading, or I will skip over classics like I did last year, by accident.
I agree with you that the most important thing is to enjoy what we are reading, and to read as well as we can as well as for enjoyment, to be enriched by our reading.
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Susan, Ooh! I hope you like it! And Wolf Hall too! Two great books! I didn’t read any mysteries this year. I’m not much of a mystery reader so it isn’t a surprise that none turned up. I don’t separate out classics from fiction so those are grouped in. I can think of five that I read, there may be another one or two I am not remembering. Since I don’t buy books for my ereader most of my ereading ends up being classics so I am never in any danger of not reading any.
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You are such a prolific, well-rounded, and thorough reader, Stefanie.
Last year was not a banner year for me — 46 books in total.
I just wanted to drop by to say, I am heartened to see Shakespeare in your top five. I just think that is SO awesome. Who read Shakespeare any more? You do.
I read King Lear several years ago — in a spate of Shakespeare interest — and every time I indulge in such inclinations, I commit myself to reading more of him, and I continually fail — choosing more contemporary things. But I do believe that no mortal has ever written like he did, and let’s face it — immortals — they live a long time, but they seem to write nothing. Which is to say, he is the best writer that has ever breathed normal air, like the rest of us do.
And you have made me go to my bookshelf — where I have a Solnit book with a heavy layer of dust on it, unread. The Field Guide To Getting Lost.
I have to get to that thing sometime this year. Thank you for reminding me.
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Cipriano, ah shucks, you’re too kind. It might not have been a banner year but 46 is still a good amount and you read some excellent books too! I don;t read Shakespeare often but I like to now and then. I’m hoping to read one of his I haven’t read before at all this year. We’ll see if it happens! He is pretty amazing and Lear was especially great because at the time I was reading it I also attended a broadcast of the play put on by London’s National Theatre. Should you get to Solnit this year, I hope you enjoy it. I think it is one you will like!
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