And 2011 begins with more looking back at 2010. I've wanted to do an end-of-the-year reading list for the past four years or so, but I always lose interest in keeping track in about February. Fortunately, I keep a reading blog now, which is woefully sad compared to most reading blogs, but it's just right for me! I have friends who literally read as many books in one month as I read in a full year. Nevertheless, this is not for comparison's sake. This is because A) I love making lists, and B) I love statistics. And, it's fun to take a quick look back on what I've read this past year, now that I actually read more than 10 books a year.
I'm going to use * to represent something I've read before. Also, I'm not including the books I read to Robbie or comic books/graphic novels because, well, yeah. Also also, while I know "page count" is kind of a pointless thing to track due to differences in page size, font size, page formatting, illustrations, odd page numbering systems, etc, it's an opportunity to throw some of my quirky love of numbers into the blog, so I'm sticking with it anyway.
All righty, the official FOMW Reading List of 2010:
1. Through Painted Deserts, Donald Miller, 256
2. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett, 278
3. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, Joseph Ellis, 248
4. Evil: A Primer, William Hart, 192
5. Olympos, Dan Simmons, 691
6. White Oleander, Janet Finch, 391
7. Coraline, Neil Gaiman, 162
8. Moonraker, Ian Fleming, 247
9. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon, 639
10. Casino Royale, Ian Fleming, 187
11. Love is a Mix Tape, Rob Sheffield, 224
12. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 458
13. *Blood Feud, Adrian Dater, 238
14. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card, 324
15. Live and Let Die, Ian Fleming, 229
16. The Game, Ken Dryden, 248
17. Diamonds are Forever, Ian Fleming, 229
18. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Roald Dahl, 166
19: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Stephen King, 272
20. Christ the Lord, Anne Rice, 322
21. Goblin War, Jim C. Hines, 336
22. Blasphemy, Douglas C. Preston, 536
23. The Cherokee Trail, Louis L'Amour, 222
24. Wistrix Donn, Peter DeVries, 371
25. Powerless, Matthew Cody, 279
26. The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign-Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America's Pastime, Jason Turnbow and Michael Duca, 265
27. Gretzky's Tears: Hockey, America, and the Day Everything Changed, Stephen Brunt, 255
28. Cell, Stephen King, 451
29. From Russia With Love, Ian Fleming, 253
30. Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables, Phil Vischer, 260
31. Sometime Never: A Fable for Supermen, Roald Dahl, 255
32. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan, 670
33. The Complete Tales of Winnie-The-Pooh, A. A. Milne, 344
34. One Red Paperclip, Kyle McDonald, 310
35. Elantris, Brandon Sanderson, 496
36. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman, 312
37. The Grey Fairy Book, compiled by Andrew Lang, 387
38. The Green River Trail, Ralph Compton, 304
39. Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman Rushdie, 224
40. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan, 585
41. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan, 594
Now for the stats!
Total # of books read (excluding graphic novels, comics, kids' books, etc): 41
Total # of pages read: 13,710
Average # of pages/book: 334.39024
Average # of pages/month: 1142.5
Average # of average-sized books/month: 3.41667
Average # of pages/week: 263.6538
Average # of pages/day: 37.66484
Total # of books per Aeros/Astros games I went to in 2010: 10.25
Total # of pages per # of runs scored during my birthday Astros game: #DIV/0! (not that we're bitter)
Okay, now we're just getting ridiculous.
Favorite first-read books of 2010 (in no particular order)
The Eye of the World
One Red Paperclip
Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables
The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh
Ender's Game
Live and Let Die
Goblin War
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
Least-favorite first-read books of 2010 (again, in no particular order)
Wistrix Donn
Sometimes Never
Evil: A Primer
The Grey Fairy Book
Christ the Lord
Blasphemy
Forty-one books is a good accomplishment for me. You'll notice a lot of Ian Fleming on the list; that's because I've been reading Bond books as research for a project I hope to start up sometime late in 2011. I have a feeling I'll be reading fewer but longer books in 2011, just looking at the next few things I hope to read. In closing, I'll just say: Reading's fun. You should read. Tonight. Go read.
Do it. I'm going to go read right now.
