It’s been a busy year, so at times it felt like it flew by, especially the last three months or so. I can’t believe I’ve been in my new place five months already. I really like it here and I’m glad I’m no longer in Northern Virginia.
This time last year, I knew that the move would have a significant impact on my reading. I just didn’t think it would be this bad. Not counting the audiobooks, or the Jane Austen re-reads, I read a grand total of 20 books in 2010. To get an idea of how bad this is, I’ve listed the previous years’ stats. The good news? No DNFs (I’ve put aside the holiday book I was attempting to read, but I plan to pick it up again):
- 2010: 20 (plus 8 re-reads/audiobooks=28)
- 2009: 36 (plus 14 DNF and 3 short stories = 53)
- 2008: 46 (plus 8 DNF = 54)
- 2007: 50* (plus 6 more DNFs=56)
- 2006: 52* *
* = This number includes 3 re-reads and 2 DNFs
* * = Started keeping stats in February. Includes 3 re-reads and 11 DNFs
As you can see, I haven’t been very consistent on how I keep stats. The funny thing is, I thought I was doing a pretty good job back in ’06 and ’07. I have Powerpoint slides. With graphs. And pie charts.
Anyway . . . my point is that, even with books that were Did Not Finish, I averaged 3 to 4 books a month. I’m hoping that I can get back to amount — not counting the audiobooks.
“Speaking” of which . . .
This fall, I rediscovered the joy of audiobooks. Not that I really ever lost it (for the last three years, I lived in with my parents and my mother loves the Harry Potter audiobooks — she plays them constantly). Of the six audiobooks I’ve listened to, five were checked out of the library. I own a few, and I’ll read them in 2011, for the audio challenges I signed up for.
Time for more stats. . .
- Total pages read (including audiobooks): 8,720 * * *
- Total audiobook time: 44 hrs, 28 mins
- Audiobook “pages” only: 1,597
- Paper pages: 7,123
- New-to-me authors: 6
- New-to-me series: 3
- Books published in 2010: 10
* * * = Compared to the 11,649 pages in 2009, and that was without the DNF books
Challenges:
The wrap-up posts are still pending (and so are some of the reviews), but I don’t need to them to know that I had a dismal year. Even so, it hasn’t prevented me from signing up for challenges hosted by various GoodReads groups (and one from Shelfari). Those tended to be mostly short-term challenges and I haven’t done so hot with them either. I’ve learned that short-term challenges aren’t for me, unless they’re something like a featured author — read a book of your choice written by that month’s featured author. That’s how I came to read Patricia Briggs. In January, I’m trying a featured book challenge.
The lack of success in 2010 also hasn’t prevented me from signing up for 2011 challenges. I really like the type that give the reader the option of different levels. I noticed a lot more of the hosts were doing that this year. I’m glad. I don’t know if I would have signed up for half of them if they all required 12+ books.
So just how badly did I do in 2010? Of the seventeen challenges hosted on personal blogs, two end in 2011 and three are perpetual. I’ve successfully completed only three. They are:
- Pub 2010
- Romance Reading Challenge
- Holiday Reading Challenge
Yeah. Let’s not dwell on that.
Moving along . . .
Final Update on 2010 Goals:
Back in April, I did an initial “check in” regarding the goals I set in January 2010. Let’s see how it all panned out:
- Get back to reading Star Wars novels — In 2009, I did not read a single book. I have a huge backlist of the novels. UPDATE: read one in April! Final: Mostly fail. I read only one.
- Try to read more than one Georgette Heyer this year — I bought a few of her mysteries, so maybe I read one of each (romances and mysteries) Final: FAIL. I read only one.
- Finish the backlog of last year’s reviews — I have several left to do. I posted one earlier today, here, with a new format. I’m going to try using this new format for all reviews. UPDATE: I was making progress with this until recently. 🙁 Final: Good news! 2009 reviews are caught up! YAY!!
- Finish re-posting the “lost posts” from the last time I tanked the blog — Yeah, that’s still not done. Final: Did a few and the rest are in the draft folder. Save for Bloggiesta.
- Fix, again, the Author Index — goes in hand with the above. Final: Save for Bloggiesta
- Track number of pages read — includes remembering to annotate the page # I stop at when I decide a book is DNF. UPDATE: Yes!! Final: YAY!! Kept it up!
- Try to read more than one “In Death” books — I will never get caught up with this one if I don’t Final: FAIL
- Use my Sony Reader more — I bought it mainly to stash books/short stories for the time of the move. Final: FAIL. I’m just not an e-book person
- Look at my “books read” list from 2006-2008 and see if there’s a author I’ve been meaning to read again — and do so. Final: Mostly fail. I did read a short story by Gayle Wilson in the Christmas anthology, but I didn’t conscientiously make that choice. I also listened to the audiobook version of a Stephanie Rowe novel I’d already read. Not planned either.
- Do not get behind on 2010 reviews — even if it means not working on a 2009 backlogged one UPDATE: I was doing so good there for awhile. Final: *sigh* FAIL!
Wow. Only two goals met. Since I chose to defer the two “Tanking of the Blog 2009” projects for Bloggiesta, I gave myself a pass on those. I could have finished them over Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Top Ten:
Considering how few books I read this year, that would be half the list! I’ll have to come up with something else. I would love to do something clever again, something like this or this. Whatever I decide, it’s a topic for another day and another post.
And on That Note:
So, that’s that. Time to get all those pesky “incomplete challenge” posts out of the way, decide if there’s anything else I want to sign up for (on the fence about a few), and start “my goals for 2011” post. May I do better in 2011.
Happy New Year and Happy Reading,
