2011 in Books

Another year, more bookish statistics to share!

2011 has been busy! It was my first calendar year of full-time work. This means it was also the first year in which I could buy a lot of books, and unsurprisingly, I did just that, ending the year with 509 unread books. I read a lot of books, too; I also (finally) got back into gaming, and resurrected my writing ambitions, mostly towards the end of the year. I travelled to three new countries, with notable stops in Bruges, Amsterdam, and finally Rome for my second wedding anniversary. We moved into our first (rented) house of our own, and I am thrilled to not be living in a flat with noisy neighbors any longer.

In the midst of all of this, how was my reading?

Fiction Favorites

I could easily talk, this year, in terms of series for favorites. I’ve delved deeply into them this year, falling back in love with fantasy and science fiction, and even some romance.

But, let’s start with the stand-alones.

I can’t believe I didn’t read The Color Purple until this year. Simply a brilliant book; not much more needs to be said. Ready Player One satisfied the gamer in me completely, with an amazing adventure, questions about character and assumptions, and geeky trivia galore. As for The Perks of Being a Wallflower, I can’t believe I never reviewed it, but I adored it and actually had to stop reading for a while after I’d finished just to process the story.

I haven’t reviewed The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri yet either, mostly because I’m trying to actually write something remotely intelligent, but this too was a brilliant book that I waited far too long to read. Such an insightful look at family, at immigration, at feeling foreign versus feeling at home – I loved it intensely. And The Buddha in the Attic was short, but an amazingly moving look at the lives of “mail-order” Japanese brides.

Series and Authors Discovered

I had what felt like a massive year for amazing series. My first science fiction obsession was kicked off by Lois McMaster Bujold with the Miles Vorkosigan series. I tore through these books on my Kindle; I wasn’t at all put off by their length or the time invested in them. I’ve only stopped because I don’t want to run out – I’m sure I’ll read the rest in 2012, though. I just won’t be able to resist. I started with Young Miles, but Cordelia’s Honor is the actual chronological beginning for the omnibus editions I read.

Another series I discovered these year was Seanan McGuire’s October Daye books. Urban fantasy set in an utterly fantastic world, these books have incredible storylines, characters that haunt you when you put the books down, and a truly epic feel that will keep me coming back over and over again. McGuire is an author to watch, and I’m already counting the days until the next book. I already posted about my love for the series earlier this year, and reviewed the first book, Rosemary and Rue.

Finally, my top historical romance author this year has been Courtney Milan. Her books are almost unbelievably addictive, with fantastic characters, emotionally wrought plots, and romances to warm your heart. If you enjoy romance and you haven’t read her yet, I don’t know what you’re waiting for. I took a chance with her self-published novella, Unlocked, and I haven’t looked back since – any author that can pull off such a spectacular romance in novella form (notoriously unbelievable due to the short format, for me) is an author well worth reading again, and again, and again. In terms of series, the Turner series is her most recent, and comes highly recommended by me.

Non-fiction favorites

I can’t close out a year without mentioning a few of the extraordinary histories I read this year.

I’ve already recommended She-Wolves in my gift guide for 2011, but it’s well worth another mention here. I loved how this book looked at female rulers of England in the Middle Ages. It’s well matched with a book I read later in the year, and just reviewed yesterday, Matilda: Queen of the Conqueror. The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson is an older book, with a few rough edges at the end, but altogether a brilliant look into the history of illness, sanitation, and London. Finally, Heretics by Jonathan Wright was a book designed just for me – and for anyone else who loves poking around in the history of religion. I found every page fascinating.

As for books that weren’t just pure history:

The Statistics

Note that the percentages here don’t usually add up to 100%; I only picked out the most interesting of them.

Total Read: 197
Non-fiction: 41 (20.8%) – a percentage I really want to be higher next year. I aimed for 25% this year and failed.

• History: 15 (36%)

Fiction: 156 (79.2%)

• Historical Fiction: 45 (29%) – nice to see this actually still is top
• Fantasy: 29 (18.6%)
• Historical Romance: 28 (18%) – higher than expected
• Science Fiction: 8 (5%)
• Contemporary / Literary Fiction: 14 (8%)