BookFinder.com Journal

I’ve been keeping an online reading list for several years now. Here’s my annual summary, my version of Jessamyn’s end of year reading index.

number of books read in 2005: 103
number of books read in 2004: 80
number of books read in 2003: 100
number of books read in 2002: 103
number of books read in 2001: 124
average read per month: 8.6
average read per week: 1.98
number read in worst month: 4 (May & November)
number read in best month: 14 (July)
percentage by male authors: 82%
percentage by female authors: 18%
fiction as percentage of total: 49%
non-fiction as percentage of total: 51%
percentage of total disliked: 12%
percentage of total ambivalent or sorta-liked: 38%
percentage of total strongly liked: 54%

I read more books last year than in the year before, but fewer by female writers. I’ve also learned that I get more reading done when I have a big stack of interesting books to work through at home, right after a book-buying or library-borrowing run; knowing I have more books to work through helps motivate me to sneak more reading time into the nooks and crannies of my day.

When you’re hurting, everything reminds you of that hurt. It’s hard for me to think about my year in reading without thinking of a good friend of mine who died unexpectedly last week, someone with whom I’ve shared countless bookstore visits, author readings, and book recommendations. I’ll probably spend 2006 reading some of the books he recommended and loved.