Year | Books Read |
2003/04 | 151 |
2004/05 | 129 |
2005/06 | 141 |
2006/07 | 129 |
2007/08 | 152 |
2008/09 | 161 |
2009/10 | 157 |
2010/11 | 139 |
2011/12 | 184 |
2012/13 | 195 |
SUM | 1538 |
This is the second year in a row where I've set a new record for how many books I've read in the year-- quite obviously, this can and will be blamed on all the books I had to read for my exams.
Here's what I've been reading this year: (I broke out series/authors only if I read more than one book of that series/author)
SERIES/GENRE/AUTHOR | # OF BOOKS | BOOKS/ MONTH | % OF ALL BOOKS |
Doctor Who | 12 | 1.0 | 6.2% |
Star Wars | 2 | 0.2 | 1.0% |
Star Trek | 1.51 | 0.1 | 0.8% |
Other Tie-Ins | 2 | 0.2 | 1.0% |
Media Tie-In Subtotal | 17.5 | 1.5 | 9.0% |
J. R. R. Tolkien2 | 10 | 0.8 | 5.1% |
Ursula K. Le Guin | 7 | 0.6 | 3.6% |
H. G. Wells3 | 3 | 0.3 | 1.5% |
M. T. Anderson | 2 | 0.2 | 1.0% |
Robert Shearman | 2 | 0.2 | 1.0% |
Other SF&F | 18 | 1.5 | 9.2% |
General SF&F Subtotal | 42 | 3.5 | 21.5% |
Crisis Crossovers4 | 12 | 1.0 | 6.2% |
The Sandman4 | 6 | 0.5 | 3.1% |
Legion of Super-Heroes | 1.51 | 0.1 | 0.8% |
Other DC Comics4 | 30 | 2.5 | 15.4% |
Other Comics5 | 8 | 0.7 | 4.1% |
Comics Subtotal | 57.5 | 4.8 | 29.5% |
George Eliot | 2 | 0.2 | 1.0% |
Thomas Hardy | 2 | 0.2 | 1.0% |
Wilkie Collins | 1.51 | 0.1 | 0.8% |
Charles Dickens | 1.51 | 0.1 | 0.8% |
Other Victorian Literature6 | 22 | 1.8 | 11.3% |
Inspector Lynley Mysteries | 2 | 0.2 | 1.0% |
Other Literature | 4 | 0.3 | 2.1% |
General Literature Subtotal | 35 | 2.9 | 17.9% |
Other Nonfiction7 | 43 | 3.6 | 22.1% |
1. Books that cross over two series (i.e., Star Trek / Legion of Super-Heroes) or were written by two authors in collaboration (i.e., Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins's The Frozen Deep) are counted as half a book for each category.
2. This also includes books related to Tolkien (e.g., The Last Ringbearer).
3. This also includes Steven McLean's The Early Fiction of H. G. Wells: Fantasies of Science, a book about Wells.
4. These also include novels and nonfiction about these comics-originated characters/premises.
5. Comics based on a particular series (e.g., Star Trek or Star Wars) are included with that series's count.
6. This also includes nonfiction written by Victorians (e.g., Charles Darwin's On the Origins of Species by Means of Natural Selection), but not nonfiction about Victorians (e.g., James A. Secord's Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation).
7. Nonfiction connected to a particular series is included in that series's count.
Surprisingly, it wasn't in Victorian literature that I had a huge surge over last year (though there was one, from 19 to 29), but in "other nonfiction," where I went from 14 to 43. Tie-ins continue to no longer play a huge role in my reading (though I've got a heaping pile of unread ones).
As always, I selected a "Pick of the Month" each month; here are this year's in alphabetical order by author:
- Zombie Mommy: A Pals in Peril Tale by M. T. Anderson
- Objectivity by Lorraine Daston & Peter Galison
- Middlemarch by George Eliot
- Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium by Robert Greenberger, Murray Ward, Lou Mougin, Mark Waid, and John Wells
- The Unreal and the Real: Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin, Volume One: Where on Earth
- Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis
- Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical by Robert Shearman
- Birds of Prey: The Battle Within by Gail Simone
- Delirium's Party: A Little Endless Storybook by Jill Thompson
- The Treason of Isengard: Being the Third Book of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Ring Goes East: Being the Fourth Book of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
- Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero by Larry Tye
The trends in my reading can be expressed in this handy chart:
2003/04 | 2004/05 | 2005/06 | 2006/07 | 2007/08 | 2008/09 | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | ALL | |
Star Trek | 41.1% | 38.0% | 25.5% | 14.7% | 21.1% | 13.7% | 8.9% | 4.3% | 0.5% | 0.8% | 15.8% |
Doctor Who | 16.6% | 15.5% | 18.4% | 11.6% | 13.2% | 6.2% | 10.2% | 3.6% | 14.7% | 6.2% | 11.4% |
Star Wars | 10.6% | 11.6% | 11.3% | 15.5% | 12.5% | 11.2% | 2.5% | 6.5% | 7.1% | 1.0% | 8.6% |
Other Tie-In | 0.7% | 6.2% | 3.5% | 3.1% | 1.3% | -- | 1.3% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 1.0% | 1.7% |
SF&F | 9.9% | 6.2% | 21.3% | 15.5% | 21.7% | 22.4% | 21.0% | 25.9% | 10.3% | 21.5% | 17.7% |
DC Comics | -- | 4.7% | 0.7% | 2.3% | 7.2% | 9.3% | 19.7% | 25.9% | 13.6% | 25.4% | 11.5% |
Other Comics | -- | -- | -- | 3.1% | 4.6% | 2.5% | 1.3% | 7.9% | 23.9% | 4.1% | 5.2% |
Victorian Lit | -- | -- | 1.4% | 7.0% | 0.7% | 7.5% | 7.6% | 1.4% | 10.9% | 14.9% | 5.7% |
Other Literature | 14.6% | 10.9% | 14.9% | 24.0% | 14.5% | 21.1% | 20.4% | 14.4% | 10.9% | 3.1% | 14.4% |
Nonfiction | 6.6% | 7.0% | 2.8% | 3.1% | 3.3% | 6.2% | 7.0% | 9.4% | 7.6% | 22.1% | 8.0% |
Or graphically (click to enlarge):
Goodbye Star Trek, hello DC Comics! Some would say I've traded down.
You can compare this to previous years if you're interested: 2007/08, 2008/09, 2009/10, 2011/12. (I didn't do one for 2010/11.)
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