33 were non-fiction, and 27 were fiction. Five of the non-fiction books were cookbooks read cover to cover. I read four books as ebooks, five books from the library. [I don’t keep track of whether books are borrowed or bought used, or whether they’re hard or soft cover.] Fifteen of the fiction books were read aloud to my daughter. I read two books by each of two authors (Eleanor Estes and Peggy Orenstein), and three books by people I know (Melissa Ford, Emily Rosenbaum and Peg Tyre). And I simply didn’t finish one book, because it was tediously banal.
Not included in the total of 60 read are eight books which I’d begun but hadn’t finished as of midnight on New Year’s Eve (not that I was up that late).
My favorite piece of (grown-up) fiction was Wolf Hall – a dense, complicated, fascinating novel about King Henry VIII and his first two wives and a whole lot of other people, all through the prism of Thomas Cromwell. The runner up was a book of short stories by Michelle Latiolais, called Widow.
The four most satisfying non-fiction books were:
- As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto
- The Emperor of All Maladies
- Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World
- Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
- Frindle
- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
- The Secret Garden
- The Witches
- D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
- Miranda the Great
- The Witch Family
- The Secret in Miranda's Closet
- Finn Family Moomintroll
- Mysterious Miss Slade
- From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
- The Magic Pudding
- The Prince of the Pond: Otherwise Known as De Fawg Pin
- Bridge to Terabithia
- Carbonel & Calidor
(Oh, and I read other books to her, but they were re-reads upon re-reads of picture books, and I had to draw the line somewhere.)
So, what'd you read last year? Oh, and happy new year!
Assembling my year of books post now. I love Goodreads to an almost creepy extent. I love seeing your food-ish books listed - anxious to hear how the olive oil one was (scandalous? didn't know olive oil had scandals associated with it).
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try to figure that out, especially the read-alouds, but I need to wait to ask the kids for help remembering the full list....
ReplyDeleteThe book I just finished reading is Packing for Mars, by Mary Roach. I highly recommend it. As well as the rest of her books.
ReplyDeleteI knew you were the perfect person to get "Reality is Broken."
ReplyDeleteMy greatest reads of last year were the Game of Throne books. I loved them so much that I still keep trying to find fantasy books and reading them just to re-create the whole experience of escapism plus deeply enjoyable prose. And failing. But I can't give up just yet.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I finally did your Monday aversion and discovered that your aversion to canned tuna is at the heart of our deepest problems as a society. I didn't quite do it justice, but I tried.
did your daughter like the finn family moomintroll? mine do not, much to their mother's disappointment.
ReplyDeleteI do love me some Good Reads. Having looked at my mere 33 books for 2011 I challenged myself to do 40 for 2012. We shall see. One down, though most of it was read in 2011. I'll take the win!
ReplyDeleteI can hardly remember what I read last year. Which is incredibly sad given that I'm a closet bathtaking/ toothbrushing/sittingatthestoplight kind of reader. If it's good! But in the last half an hour I did read The Giving Tree with my kindergartner- he got 3-4 pages into it.And listened attentively to my second grader read to me all about Helen Keller. I'm going to check out good reads!!
ReplyDeleteOoh, I can't believe I haven't read Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler with my kids yet. That is one of my all-time faves.
ReplyDeleteOur big achievement was listening to the unabridged, audiobook versions of Harry Potter. It took a year! And I just finished Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese), which I enjoyed very much.
I read (or listened to) 63 books last year. Plus books I read to my children that weren't counted on GoodReads. I read The Magic Pudding, some Laura Ingalls Wilders, a Moomintrolls, Carbonel, etc. to the youngest. To the eldest, I can only recall Tom Sawyer. Because it was the next-to-last. We're in the middle of Huck Finn right now. Maybe I should be tracking those too?
ReplyDeleteI'm grateful for goodreads, too, because usually by the end of the year I can't remember what I read at the beginning! According to goodreads I read 29 books, but I know I read more books to MQ that I didn't bother to record, and I think one or two personal books may have slipped through the cracks as well.
ReplyDeleteI saw every year I'm going to write down the books I read. And ... every year I fail to do so! I did update my goodreads this morning...but only to include very recent things. Hmmm...but...I have my Kindle & Nook & iBook aps...so...ok, off to goodreads again!
ReplyDeletebtw...got a sample of make the bread, buy the butter ... it intrigued me, but I haven't bought it yet...