2For66

In 2009 I started tracking what I read. I wanted to become more intentional about my reading. I am (was?), after all,  an English literature major and I discovered that I had been reading less and less and wanted to kick start it.So, I set a New Year’s resolution (a rare thing for me) to read at least eight books a year.

I also discovered when talking with folks about reading sometimes I wouldn’t be sure if I’d read a book in the discussion. So decided I’d keep track of what I read. Plus I love lists so a spreadsheet  was right in my wheel house.

In the first four years (2009 – 2012) I read between 11 and 14 books a year. In 2013 I started commuting on the bus and my reading blew up. Having over an hour a day to read, I read 28 books in 2013 and 33 this past year.

Statistics

• Book count: 33
• Author count: 25
• Fiction: 21
• Non Fiction: 13 (sub sections have some overlap)
  • History: 8
  • War: 8
  • Theology: 2
  • Science: 2
  • Biography: 1
  • Photography: 1
• Average rating: 3.73
• Favorite: The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout.
• Runner up: After This by Elizabeth Strout.

Reviewing my list I see that I’m kind of an easy grade. I’m picky about my reading and won’t pick up anything that I suspect will be bad; after all I’m doing this for fun not a job. Plus, I found a few fantastic authors – Alice McDermott and Elizabeth Strout – so that will trend the average up.

By the end of the year I realized I read mostly fiction and war history and wanted to mix it up so I made a conscious effort to get out of my comfort zone and read some science books. They were good but my passion is great fiction where you can get inside someone’s head and see life from another perspective for an extended period of time.

I wanted to include links to my book reports but the limited HTML table functionality in WordPress doesn’t allow that. I suggest you go here to see a list of what I’ve blogged.

Now that I’m retired I most likely won’t hit 30 books this year- no commute time and I have many other interests to consume my time; but I still plan to average a book every 6 weeks to reach my original goal of eight.