I’ve been keeping an online reading list for several years now. Here’s my annual summary, inspired by Jessamyn West’s annual end-of-year reading indexes.
number of books read in 2008: 92
number of books read in 2007: 120
number of books read in 2006: 103
number of books read in 2005: 103
number of books read in 2004: 80
average read per month: 7.7
average read per week: 1.8
number read in worst month: 5 (December)
number read in best month: 9 (February, March, July, August, November)
percentage by male authors: 76%
percentage by female authors: 24%
fiction as percentage of total: 48%
non-fiction as percentage of total: 52%
percentage of total disliked: 9%
percentage of total ambivalent or sorta-liked: 37%
percentage of total actively enjoyed: 54%
I read substantially fewer books this year than last, 92 books in 2008 vs. 120 in 2007. I trace some of that to reading more periodicals, and the rest to time spent on personal projects. I started keeping a personal blog last year, where I expand on non-book-related interests that don’t fit into the BookFinder.com Journal. I’ve also been tinkering with some interesting side projects: open sourcing code to read LCCN numbers, developing an (unreleased) data portability tool for Netflix users, and setting up a website for people thinking of buying voluntary carbon offsets.
Some of the themes in my reading this year included disease-hunting (China Syndrome, The Ghost Map), angsty Indian male protagonists (An Outline of the Republic, The Romantics), the ethics of violence (Rising Up and Rising Down, Pacifism as Pathology, Igniting a Revolution), body-bending lit (Half Life, The Pregnant King, Black Man), and San Francisco (On the Lower Frequencies, Little Brother, The Mayor of Castro Street, The Tree Bride, The City, Not Long After).
Two of my favorite books from 2008 both deal with punk — a musical genre that does absolutely nothing for me. I loved On the Lower Frequencies: A Secret History of the City by Erick Lyle, a book of intensely personal essays about ethics and urban life by a San Francisco punk squatter musician. And The Taqwacores by Michael Muhammad Knight, an unputdownable coming of age story set in a fictional burgeoning Muslim American punk/alternative scene, where characters grapple with belief, identity, music, and growing up.
Happy new year. Hope you enjoy a year full of great books.
[Now reading The Bioscope Man by Indrajit Hazra]
Posted by Anirvan
Of course, covering up was not an option.I choose the positive side of life
Posted by: supra shoe | January 17, 2011 at 12:42 AM
I would like to propose not to hold back until you get big sum of money to order different goods! You should just get the mortgage loans or college loan and feel yourself fine
Posted by: Thomas25LORNA | February 15, 2011 at 04:45 PM