It’s time for my favorite annual post: my Books and Reading Recap for 2009!
In this post I break down the books I bought and/or read during 2009 into all sorts of different stats and lists. It’s a nerdy thing to do and I love every minute of it.
Previous annual installments include: 2008, 2007. (Also, my 2007 Book Flow Chart, which is even nerdier and I hope to have time to do again this year.)
2009 Books and Reading Recap
Total Books Read: 104
Fiction: 73
Non-Fiction: 31
By Genre (some books may be in more than one genre):
Contemporary Fiction: 22
Memoir: 19
Kid’s Lit: 18
Fantasy: 15
Classic: 14
YA Lit: 12
Graphic Novel: 11
Food Writing: 10
Short Story Collections: 8
Travel Writing: 5
Total Pages Read: (does not include unfinished books): 27,646
Average Number of Pages/Book: 265
Shortest Book Read: Chicken With Plums by Marjane Satrapi (84 pages)
Longest Book Read: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (871 pages)
Books that were Re-reads: 18 (Rather large number because of re-reading all 10 Betsy-Tacy books and the re-reads for book club)
Also, 2009 might be the first year that I read and re-read a book within the same year. I read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman in February, and then re-read it in October for my book group.
Number of Books Read by Decade:
2000s: 64 (including 27 published in 2009)
1990s: 6
1980s: 3
1970s: 4
1960s: 3
1950s: 4
1940s: 12
1930s: 1
1920s: 1
1910s: 1
1900s: 1
<1900: 4
Total Number of Different Authors: 73
Multiple Books Read by One Author:
Maud Hart Lovelace: 10
Neil Gaiman: 4
Ruth Reichl: 4
J. K. Rowling: 3
Laurie Colwin: 3
Gabrielle Bell: 3
Elizabeth Enright: 3
Charles Dickens: 2
Simon Van Booy: 2
Muriel Barbery: 2
P. G. Wodehouse: 2
Kurt Vonnegut: 2
J. D. Salinger: 2
Richard Peck: 2
Miss Lasko-Gross: 2
“New to Me” Authors: 56
Books by Male Authors: 41
Books by Female Authors: 63
Books by Dead Authors: 34
Books by Living Authors: 70
Books Read by Non-American Authors: 28
(18 English, 2 Italian, 2 French, and 1 each: Australian, Irish, Iranian, Zambian, Russian, and Dominican)
Favorites of 2009 (Books that were re-reads are excluded):
Top Five Favorite Fiction Books:
1. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
2. The Elegance of the Hedgehog By Muriel Barbery
3. The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen
4. Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy
5. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Other Favorites: Margherita Dolce Vita by Stefano Benni, Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
Top Five Favorite Non-Fiction Books:
1. In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
2. A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg
3. The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
4. Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
5. The Long Winded Lady by Maeve Brennan
Other Favorites: Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl, Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl, A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Top Five Favorite YA/Kid’s Lit:
1. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
2. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
3. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
5. Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay
Top Five Favorite Book Covers: (click on the title to view the cover)
1. The Wild Things by Dave Eggars (Fur covered edition)
2. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
3. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
4. Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
5. Heaven to Betsy & Betsy in Spite of Herself by Maud Hart Lovelace
Top Five Favorite Book Titles:
1. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
2. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
3. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
4. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
5. Time Was Soft There by Jeremy Mercer
Favorite Book Website: The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet
Total Number of Books Purchased: 139
Number of Books Purchased from an Independent Bookstore: 101
Book/Author Events Attended:
Sherman Alexie 4.5.09, Symphony Space
Ruth Reichl 4.30.09, Barnes and Noble Lincoln Center
Neil Gaiman 5.2.09, PEN World Voices Festival
Gabrielle Bell & Miss Lasko Gross 5.19.09, Strand
Lisa See 5.27.09, Barnes and Noble 82nd & Broadway
AJ Jacobs 5.29.09, Book Expo
Trenton Lee Stewart 5.29.09, Book Expo
David Sedaris 6.2.09, Strand
Lev Grossman 9.13.09, Brooklyn Book Festival
Garrison Keillor 9.30.09, Barnes and Noble Lincoln Center
Judith Jones & Jason Epstein 11.5.09, Strand
2009 Reading Goals & How I Did:
At the beginning of the year, I made a list of book goals for 2009. Here’s the list, and a summary of how I did.
-Read 100 Books – completed
-Read 52 Short Stories – incomplete (failed miserably, read 8)
-Specific books to read:
The Scarlett Letter – did not read
The Awakening – read
Lolita – read
Great Expectations – read
-Attend 15 book events – incomplete (attended 10)
List of all books bought and read in 2009
Upcoming posts: Reading Goals for 2010, Other 2009 recaps, and (hopefully) a 2009 books flow chart.
Nice Post. I’m working on my stats right now. It looks like you read a lot of new authors (and a lot of female authors) in 2009. I need to get to some of your favorite books.
You’ve had a great reading year! I have Hemingway, Chabon, and Van Booy as a few of the authors on your list that I want to read this year. Happy New Year!
Interesting post! I loved your top 5 list in both fiction and non-fiction! I have ‘The Selected works of T.S.Spivet’ and ‘Love begins in winter’ on my TBR list. It looks like though you read ‘The Geography of Bliss’ last, it had managed to make quite a dramatic entry into your top-5 list :) I also liked the fact that you bought quite a number of books from indie stores. It is wonderful and thanks for doing that!
Interesting post! Looks like you had an amazing year of reading! I’m curious as to how you stay so organized with all of your stats… =)
I love your nerdy posts! Hope you make another flowchart, the last one got me to read The Mysterious Benedict Society! :) I have no idea how you keep track of all this, I tired of the numbers halfway through in my recap and everything got mixed up.
Happy reading in 2010!
I love all the statistics in your post! I started to do more from my reading list, but then decided to just post a few key numbers and whatnot. It looks like you had a great reading year!
I just saw your 2007 flowchart :) It was awesome! Hope you find the time to make a flowchart this year! Looking forward to seeing it!
So impressive!! I can’t wait to hear what your reading goals are for this coming year. Also, if you add the Brooklyn Book Fair and Book Club/KCC events you definitely hit your “book events” goal ; )