The Annual 2011 Booklist!
Jan. 7th, 2012 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_amazee_azThe Booklist
Introduction
Last year I made a goal to continue to record the books I read. Neither of the two people on my f-list who usually post a list of books this year have([info]satakieli and [info]meanie9494 HINT HINT). But I was going to do it anyway and [info]lapinguina requested it.
This year my special goal was to read books I bought and then never read. I also tried NOT to purchase new books, but that really didn't work out so well. I bought books at booksignings and on trips. In fact I bought 13 books in France, though most of them were children's books. I also bought TONS of cookbooks at Borders in June. I did read 11 books that I had owned since the previous year, and some for YEARS.
Method: If I read the ENTIRE book, it's on the list. Not on the list are any of the French books, though I finished four of them. Nor is Mark Bittman's half cookbook, half food book, "Food Matters". I didn't read the cookbook. The are marked as follows
nf nonfiction
f fiction
5- FANTASTIC. I will tell everyone I meet to read this book because it rocked my world.
4- Really good,I recommend this book to you.
3- Default rating. This means I liked the book. I won't recommend it to you, because I try not to recommend everything I read. If you say, should I read this, I'll say YES!
2- I didn't like it, to be honest. I did't hate it but I didn't like it either.
1- This book sucked. If it weren't for my list or the book club, I probably won't have finished it.
bio,biography
com,comedy
foo,food
rel,religion
h,history
L,Literature
mys,mystery
fan,fantasy
rom,romance
soc,social sciences
sci, science
sf,sci-fi
ya,young adult
snl- SNatched at Library on a whim
p- purchased
arc advanced reader copy
bc book club
ds- author on the Daily Show and I saw it
lib- sought at library
ony- Owned. Part of my resolution to read books I own
fri- loaned from someone I know
Data:
1 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides f 3 L ony
2 Random Family by Adrian Nicole Leblanc nf 5 soc bc *need to read about inner city and poverty. Won't tell you anything you don't know, but will hep you understand it.
3 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri f 3 L ony
4 The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold f 3.5 fan ony
5 The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold f 3 fan ony
6 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot nf 4 his bc
7 The Dawn of Human Culture by Richard G. Klah and Blake Edgar nf 1 his ony
8 The Little Book of Earthquakes and Volcanoes by Rolkf Schick nf 1 sci ony
9 Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane nf 3.5 bio ony
10 Collapse by Jared Diamond nf 4 his bc * Sadly the people who don't think environmentalism is important don't read.
11 He's Just Not That Into You by Greg Berhardt and Liz Tuccillo nf 4 com p * This came at a time when I badly needed it
12 Intuition by Allegra Goodman f 3 L bc
13 Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezerch nf 3 bio ony * Almost created a fiction, thriller category fot this book
14 Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein nf 3 soc snl *FYI, pink is for boys and blue is for girls
15 The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera f 2 L bc
16 The Boat Who Wouldn't Float by Farley Mowat nf 3 bio ony
17 The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith f 3 mys snl
18 Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell nf 3 soc snl
19 The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith f 3 mys snl
20 The Last Samuari by Helen DeWitt f 3.5 L bc * Like Hitchhikers, one of the most fascinating beginnings to a books that is stil good, but doesn't live up to its start.
21 Blink by Malcolm Gladwell nf 3 soc snl
22 Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson f 3 sci ony
23 The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell nf 3 soc fri
24 Reinventing Australia by Hugh Mackay nf 3 soc p * From the 90s and about Australian social survey results. Basically nothing has changed since 1990.
25 Freedom by Johnathan Franzen f 3 L bc
26 For the Love of Physics by Walter Lewin nf 3 bio p *Great Lecture
27 A Game of Thrones by George RR Marin f 4 fan lib
28 A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin f 3 fan lib
29 The Psychopath Test by John Ronson nf 3 soc ds
30 A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin f 4 fan lib *I wanted to throw this book against the wall like everyone else.
31 A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin f 2.5 fan lib
32 A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin f 3 fan fri
33 The Price of Everything by Eduardo Park nf 2.5 soc lib *Book wished it were Freakonomics. Needed to be its own book
34 Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua nf 4 bio snl
35 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov f 2 L bc
36 Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell nf 3.5 his snl *Good intro to Hawaiian History
37 War by Sebastian Junger nf 4.5 his lib *Cambridge Reads 2011 book
38 The Illustrated World's Religions by Huston Smith nf 1 rel bc
39 Inside Scientology by Janet Reitman nf 3 rel lib
40 The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddartha Mukerjee nf 4 his bc
41 Women without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur f 2.5 L bc
42 The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande nf 3 soc snl *This book wants you to make lists, but it's NOT a self-help book, weirdly.
43 Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden f 3 L ony
44 Banana: The fate of the fruit that Changed the World by Dan Koeppel nf 3 foo bc
Analysis:
Total Books: 44
Average rating: 3.06
Total Fiction: 19
Total Non-fction: 25.
By Type:
Literature: 9
Fantasy: 7
Mystery: 2
Science-Fiction: 1
Biographay: 5
Comedy: 1
Food: 1
History: 6
Religion: 2
Science: 1
Social Sciences: 9
Books Read for:
New Year's Resolution: 11 (2.72)
Found at library: 8 (3.18)
Sought Out at library (read interviews):7
Daily Show: 1
Borrowed From Friends: 2 (DS+FRI+SOL: 3.25)
Book Club: 12 (3.08)
Purchased in 2012 and Read: 3 (3.33)
Conclusions:
I wish I had read more books. When you consider that some of the books I seriously lacked momentum in reading, and the the books by George RR Martin and Cryptonomicon were quite long, it's not so bad. However, the pacing of my reading is indicated by the book club books, which occur roughly monthly. I read 3 books for Nov-Dec. Ah well.
I purchased more books than purcahsed books that I read. Sigh....
The score for the New Year's books was lowered by the two Non-fiction books on early humans and volcanoes that I had been meaning to read. Didn't like them, the rating may be over harsh. I have more books I'd like to make a point to read though. Otherwise, the list of stuff was good: Mike Mullane's Astronaut Memoir, Memoirs of a Geisha and Cryptonomicon were damn good books on this list, I'd say. I'd had the Boat who Wouldn't Float as a Gift for a decade and never cracked it. I'd lost it at one point and got quite upset, even though it was slow going at times.
Book of the Year: Random Family. It's about girls who get pregnant as teenagers multiple times with different fathers, are involved with drug dealers as kids, and then become old (20s), can't handle their kids and are pretty much every stereotype you are ever going to get about these types of people. However, the book makes you realize there are no easy answers for certain problems. After you finish, you should look up everything the author has written about the people as the author (she removes herself from the book, though at certain points she was living with the people in the book). It drags in the middle big time. Still a 5. War by Sebastian Junger would be my second place book. Collapse would be my third place book of the year. Tiger Mom and Henrietta Lacks get Honorable Mentions. SOIAF is good stuff, but I liked my non-fiction better.
[info]Lapinguina Per your facebook request, I suggest the Malcolm Gladwell books. They are light like Freakonomics (I read one per day) and deal with odd an interesting things in a similar fashion. I have "What the Dog Saw" as well on loan from my sister, but it's not as good (I skipped around).
Comment about any book if you'd like to discuss it.
Introduction
Last year I made a goal to continue to record the books I read. Neither of the two people on my f-list who usually post a list of books this year have([info]satakieli and [info]meanie9494 HINT HINT). But I was going to do it anyway and [info]lapinguina requested it.
This year my special goal was to read books I bought and then never read. I also tried NOT to purchase new books, but that really didn't work out so well. I bought books at booksignings and on trips. In fact I bought 13 books in France, though most of them were children's books. I also bought TONS of cookbooks at Borders in June. I did read 11 books that I had owned since the previous year, and some for YEARS.
Method: If I read the ENTIRE book, it's on the list. Not on the list are any of the French books, though I finished four of them. Nor is Mark Bittman's half cookbook, half food book, "Food Matters". I didn't read the cookbook. The are marked as follows
nf nonfiction
f fiction
5- FANTASTIC. I will tell everyone I meet to read this book because it rocked my world.
4- Really good,I recommend this book to you.
3- Default rating. This means I liked the book. I won't recommend it to you, because I try not to recommend everything I read. If you say, should I read this, I'll say YES!
2- I didn't like it, to be honest. I did't hate it but I didn't like it either.
1- This book sucked. If it weren't for my list or the book club, I probably won't have finished it.
bio,biography
com,comedy
foo,food
rel,religion
h,history
L,Literature
mys,mystery
fan,fantasy
rom,romance
soc,social sciences
sci, science
sf,sci-fi
ya,young adult
snl- SNatched at Library on a whim
p- purchased
arc advanced reader copy
bc book club
ds- author on the Daily Show and I saw it
lib- sought at library
ony- Owned. Part of my resolution to read books I own
fri- loaned from someone I know
Data:
1 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides f 3 L ony
2 Random Family by Adrian Nicole Leblanc nf 5 soc bc *need to read about inner city and poverty. Won't tell you anything you don't know, but will hep you understand it.
3 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri f 3 L ony
4 The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold f 3.5 fan ony
5 The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold f 3 fan ony
6 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot nf 4 his bc
7 The Dawn of Human Culture by Richard G. Klah and Blake Edgar nf 1 his ony
8 The Little Book of Earthquakes and Volcanoes by Rolkf Schick nf 1 sci ony
9 Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane nf 3.5 bio ony
10 Collapse by Jared Diamond nf 4 his bc * Sadly the people who don't think environmentalism is important don't read.
11 He's Just Not That Into You by Greg Berhardt and Liz Tuccillo nf 4 com p * This came at a time when I badly needed it
12 Intuition by Allegra Goodman f 3 L bc
13 Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezerch nf 3 bio ony * Almost created a fiction, thriller category fot this book
14 Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein nf 3 soc snl *FYI, pink is for boys and blue is for girls
15 The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera f 2 L bc
16 The Boat Who Wouldn't Float by Farley Mowat nf 3 bio ony
17 The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith f 3 mys snl
18 Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell nf 3 soc snl
19 The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith f 3 mys snl
20 The Last Samuari by Helen DeWitt f 3.5 L bc * Like Hitchhikers, one of the most fascinating beginnings to a books that is stil good, but doesn't live up to its start.
21 Blink by Malcolm Gladwell nf 3 soc snl
22 Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson f 3 sci ony
23 The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell nf 3 soc fri
24 Reinventing Australia by Hugh Mackay nf 3 soc p * From the 90s and about Australian social survey results. Basically nothing has changed since 1990.
25 Freedom by Johnathan Franzen f 3 L bc
26 For the Love of Physics by Walter Lewin nf 3 bio p *Great Lecture
27 A Game of Thrones by George RR Marin f 4 fan lib
28 A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin f 3 fan lib
29 The Psychopath Test by John Ronson nf 3 soc ds
30 A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin f 4 fan lib *I wanted to throw this book against the wall like everyone else.
31 A Feast for Crows by George RR Martin f 2.5 fan lib
32 A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin f 3 fan fri
33 The Price of Everything by Eduardo Park nf 2.5 soc lib *Book wished it were Freakonomics. Needed to be its own book
34 Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua nf 4 bio snl
35 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov f 2 L bc
36 Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell nf 3.5 his snl *Good intro to Hawaiian History
37 War by Sebastian Junger nf 4.5 his lib *Cambridge Reads 2011 book
38 The Illustrated World's Religions by Huston Smith nf 1 rel bc
39 Inside Scientology by Janet Reitman nf 3 rel lib
40 The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddartha Mukerjee nf 4 his bc
41 Women without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur f 2.5 L bc
42 The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande nf 3 soc snl *This book wants you to make lists, but it's NOT a self-help book, weirdly.
43 Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden f 3 L ony
44 Banana: The fate of the fruit that Changed the World by Dan Koeppel nf 3 foo bc
Analysis:
Total Books: 44
Average rating: 3.06
Total Fiction: 19
Total Non-fction: 25.
By Type:
Literature: 9
Fantasy: 7
Mystery: 2
Science-Fiction: 1
Biographay: 5
Comedy: 1
Food: 1
History: 6
Religion: 2
Science: 1
Social Sciences: 9
Books Read for:
New Year's Resolution: 11 (2.72)
Found at library: 8 (3.18)
Sought Out at library (read interviews):7
Daily Show: 1
Borrowed From Friends: 2 (DS+FRI+SOL: 3.25)
Book Club: 12 (3.08)
Purchased in 2012 and Read: 3 (3.33)
Conclusions:
I wish I had read more books. When you consider that some of the books I seriously lacked momentum in reading, and the the books by George RR Martin and Cryptonomicon were quite long, it's not so bad. However, the pacing of my reading is indicated by the book club books, which occur roughly monthly. I read 3 books for Nov-Dec. Ah well.
I purchased more books than purcahsed books that I read. Sigh....
The score for the New Year's books was lowered by the two Non-fiction books on early humans and volcanoes that I had been meaning to read. Didn't like them, the rating may be over harsh. I have more books I'd like to make a point to read though. Otherwise, the list of stuff was good: Mike Mullane's Astronaut Memoir, Memoirs of a Geisha and Cryptonomicon were damn good books on this list, I'd say. I'd had the Boat who Wouldn't Float as a Gift for a decade and never cracked it. I'd lost it at one point and got quite upset, even though it was slow going at times.
Book of the Year: Random Family. It's about girls who get pregnant as teenagers multiple times with different fathers, are involved with drug dealers as kids, and then become old (20s), can't handle their kids and are pretty much every stereotype you are ever going to get about these types of people. However, the book makes you realize there are no easy answers for certain problems. After you finish, you should look up everything the author has written about the people as the author (she removes herself from the book, though at certain points she was living with the people in the book). It drags in the middle big time. Still a 5. War by Sebastian Junger would be my second place book. Collapse would be my third place book of the year. Tiger Mom and Henrietta Lacks get Honorable Mentions. SOIAF is good stuff, but I liked my non-fiction better.
[info]Lapinguina Per your facebook request, I suggest the Malcolm Gladwell books. They are light like Freakonomics (I read one per day) and deal with odd an interesting things in a similar fashion. I have "What the Dog Saw" as well on loan from my sister, but it's not as good (I skipped around).
Comment about any book if you'd like to discuss it.