2008 Reads
2008 YEAR IN REVIEW!!
2008 was by far my most successful year to date in terms of reading. I read a total of 73 books and completed 12 challenges (have 2 more that carry over to 2009).
Some Stats (some categories, like classics, are difficult to define and there is overlap):
Pages: 22,896 (doesn't include a handful of stand alone stories)
Fiction: 58 Drama: 2
Non-Fiction: 13
Classics: 13
Young Adult: 6
1001 list: 14
New to me: 51!!!
Male v. Female: 38:29
Decades: 12
Author nationalities: 14
From TBR: 39 (Books owned before 2008)
Personal Library Read/Unread Ratio: 295:282 out of 577 books= 51%
Average book size: 314 pages
2008 Reads (top 10 in red)
1. Thirteen Moons - Charles Frazier
2. Atonement - Ian McEwan
3. The Giver - Lois Lowry
4. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
5. Plain Truth - Jodi Picoult
6. Tender at the Bone - Ruth Reichl
7. Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
8. Nine Stories - J.D. Salinger
9. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
10. Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula Le Guin
11. All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
12. Salem Falls - Jodi Picoult
13. The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros
14. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
15. The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory
16. Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
17. Retold Classic Myths
18. A Long Way Gone - Ishmael Beah
19. The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwood
20. Indian Tales from Picuris Pueblo
21. A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
22. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See
23. The Color of Magic - Terry Pratchett
24. The Innocent Man - John Grisham
25. Wicked - Gregory Maguire
26. All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren
27. The Shipping News - Annie Proulx
28. Anne Frank Remembered - Miep Gies
29. Mother of Pearl - Melinda Haynes
30. Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
31. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
32. A Rumor of War - Philip Caputo
33. A Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare
34. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
35. Springtime on Mars - Susan Woordring
36. The Translator - Daoud Hari
37. Stardust - Neil Gaiman
38. Al Capone Does My Shirts - Gennifer Choldenko
39. Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! - Fannie Flagg
40. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
41. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
42. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
43. Water Keep - J. Scott Savage
44. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
45. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
46. My Antonia - Willa Cather
47. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
48. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
49. The Complete Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi
50. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
51. Matrimony - Joshua Henkin
52. Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert (re-read)
53. Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata
54. Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
55. The Heretic's Daughter - Kathleen Kent
56. My Father's Paradise - Ariel Sabar
57. Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller
58. Ride the Wind - Lucia St. Clair Robson
59. A Tale Out of Luck - Willie Nelson
60. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (re-read)
61. The Ice Queen - Alice Hoffman
62. Coraline - Neil Gaiman
63. A Map of the World - Jane Hamilton
64. The Swiss Family Robinson - Jan Wyss
65. The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
66. Emma - Jane Austen
67. Zorba the Greek - Nikos Kazantzakis
68. The Little Giant of Aberdeen County - Tiffany Baker
69. The Zookeeper's Wife - Diane Ackerman
70. Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris
71. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
72. Bringing Down the House - Ben Mezrich
73. Mistress Oriku - Matsutaro Kawaguchi
ABSOLUTE 2008 FAVORITE:
I usually can't pick a favorite, but this year--the top honor goes to...
The God of Small Things
How does this all stack up to last year? 15 more books and 4 more challenges. My goal was to not stress so much, which was great until December. And even then I didn't really stress, but I was mostly absent from the blogging world. The only goal I didn't achieve was the 60/40 Read/Unread ratio. As you can see above, I'm currently at 50%.
2009 GOALS
Again, don't stress. Reading should be fun, not a chore. And it certainly isn't a competition. I don't think I'll be able to read as many books next year, so my goals are going to be a little different:
*40 books from TBR (acquired before December 31st, 2008)
*24,000 pages
*Personal Library Read/Unread Ratio = +50%
*Continue to read outside normal boundaries
*ENJOY ENJOY ENJOY
Happy New Year Everyone!!
43 comments:
YOu did good. Your read some really great books!
Have a great reading 2009!
I've been seeing number of pages in everyone's stats. I haven't been keeping up with that and now I'm wondering if I should. Great year in reading!
It looks like you had a great reading year, Trish. I enjoyed seeing your favorite picks and am happy to see that several are ones I really want to read or ones I loved as well.
I hope you have a great reading year in 2009!
Thank you for leaving an encouraging comment on my blog :)
I am SO impressed with your reading accomplishments in 2008! There are many, many books that you completed that are on my TBR pile, and several others that will probably be added as a result of your favorable reviews.
May you have a healthy, joyful, prosperous 2009!
Your reading list is wonderful. I'm glad to see some of the books on my tbr pile are ones in your top 10. I'm so glad i found your blog this year, and can't wait to read next year's reviews. :)
Great list! Congratulations on your accomplishments!
Lezlie
*Gautami - It feels great to be starting afresh. I hope you have a wonderful 2009 as well!
*Bermuda - This is the first year that I started keeping track of page numbers. I keep a running list of my reads in Excel (giant nerd alert), so it makes it really easy to add them all up at the end of the year.
*Lit Feline - I'm really looking forward to seeing what will be the top books of 2009--new beginnings are so exciting!
*Molly - I hope I didn't come off sounding as a ranter. :P Just wanted to let you know that you aren't alone in terms of trying to find bargain books! I hope you have a wonderful 2009.
*Amanda - I'm glad you found my blog too. :P And I'm looking forward to the books that YOU added to my TBR such as Possession and The Painted Veil.
*Lezlie - Thank you! It was a great year and hopefully 2009 will be just as enjoyable. I hope you have a wonderful new year!
I really enjoyed our 2008 List and have added a few of your favs to my list; thanks and nice blog.
I love your top! The ones I've read are favourites of mine too. I really want to read the others. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and McEwan are both authors I hope to get to this year.
Good luck with your goals and happy 2009!
An excellent reading year! Good luck with your 2009 goals!
What a great year for you! I have The God of Small Things on my list, but perhaps I'll move it up a few notches.
I'm a sucker for lists, so I really enjoyed checking out this post and looking at all the juicy books you read last year. Well done! However, I was wondering if you could please explain your read/unread ratio stat to this relative newcomer at your blog (if you get a chance). In the meantime, Happy New Year to you and yours, Trish!
Oops-sorry about the double entry!
Wow Trish...that was a fantastic year of reading!!! So many of those I want to get to! Ooooh, and so many reviews I get to go back and read from the days before I discovered your blog.
And I'm glad Richard asked about the read/unread thing, as I didn't want to admit my ignorance. Of course, I just did anyway. :)
congratulations on your reading! Sounds like a great year. I love reading your reviews!
That's a great year!
I just decided not to read Wicked (not now anyway), but I think Lolita is on my must read for this year.
*Diane - Thanks for coming by! Do you have any particulars on your list for 2009?
*Nymeth - I'd love to read both Purple Hibiscus and something else by McEwan. I have Amsterdam on the shelf, so maybe that one. Hope 2009 goes great for you as well! And I think YOU should host the re-read challenge :P
*Debnance - Have a happy 2009!
*Charley - God of Small Things is one where people either like it or don't, but I think everyone can at least take something away from it. Hope you like it!
*Richard - No problem! The first number is the books I've read from my personal library, the second number is the books from my library I haven't read--not including textbooks, my husband's books, and other collector type books. So, from my personal collection, I've read 295/577 books and haven't read 282/577 (numbers are a little rough as I have some recent purchases). Hope that makes sense! LOL--kind of embarrasing numbers. Happy new year to you as well, and thanks for popping by!
*Debi - See above. :) I didn't explain it well in the post, but I'll go back and add something to maybe clarify. And I love questions--so bring it on! Happy New Year to you, my dear.
*Michelle - Thanks--08 was a surprisingly fantastic year. I don't think I'll get to as many books this year since I want to try and knock some of the chunksters off the shelf, but we'll see. Happy New Year!!
*Lisa - If you had asked me yesterday, I probably wouldn't have listed Wicked as one of the top books for 2008. Out of the ten, it's probably lower on the list. Lolita was tough but well worth it. I am really behind on my Lolita comments, so I'll answer here--Yes, I will be hosting again. :)
what an awesome list of books review! I'm going to check out some of those reviews I didn't see the first time around...
Very impressive stats! I think you've set attainable goals for 2009--here's to a new year of great reading! :)
Great list of books Trish. I've read most of your favorites, and I have to agree, but I liked Never Let Me Go better than Remains of the Day, but you can't go wrong with Ishiguro.
The more I look at your list, the more I notice that if I haven't read it, I want to!
Happy New Year, and Happy Reading!
not to stress to much is a good resolution. I keep telling myself I should enjoy reading, it doesn't matter how many books I read. But I want to read them all!!!NOw!
Good top ten choices! I started reading The God of Small Things, but put it down. Maybe I should give it another shot.
Wow! It looks like you had a really great reading year. Congrats and hope you have a happy 2009!
Fun stats, Trish! I hope you are able to accomplish your 2009 goals with much pleasure. Happy New Year!
You did great, Trish! I didn't do well for my challenges last year so I'm hoping this year will be better! ;)
You did awesome Trish! Congrats on completing 12 challenges. That in itself amazes me. Good luck for your 2009 reading. I agree reading needs to be fun not a chore.
A challenging book I might suggest would be Atlas Shrugged. I think it would definately be out of the norm based on your list from 2008. Its like 1100 pages and probably not an easy read. Anyway, you're probably not looking for ideas, but I thought I'd give one any way. PS - if you guys ever want to visit SD, you can use our apartment for a place to sleep.
*Rebecca - 08 was a great year, but hopefully this year will be better--I know there are a few that were on your list that I'm looking forward to.
*Laura - The page number might be tough since it is more than this year, but I'm hoping to get some of those scary long books finished. I'm going to need a lot of support!! :)
*Raidergirl - What I like about Ishiguro so far is that both books were so different! I look forward to reading more of his stuff.
*Valentina - I feel really impatient as well--there are so many great books out there! I understand the feeling of wanting to read them ALL NOW. :)
*Regularrumination - Thanks for stopping by! It took me at least 80 pages to get into the book. After that it was much easier to get follow the style.
*Sam - I hope you have a wonderful 2009 as well!
*Joy - Pleasure is the keyword, right? :) Happy new year to you, Joy.
*Melody - I think I'm going to take it easy with the challenges this year, but last year I did A LOT of cross-posting!
*Dar - Like I said above, there was a lot of duplicates and even triples on my challenge list--for me the key to challenges is a lot of cross-posting! :) Hope your 09 reading goes well, also!
*Jason - Thanks for the heads up on a place to crash. :) Kim is reading The Fountainhead right now and not really liking it that much. I think Rand is a little overrated, but maybe that's just based on what I've heard. Have you read it??
Looks like a fantastic reading year!! Good for you!
Congratulations, you did really well! :-) I've read most of your favorites and loved them too! Happy new year!
Great list of books! I still haven't done much reflection on last year's reading, but I did finally get my 2008 reading list posted. I think I need to work on writing reviews for those I read in 2009. At least I did and do ENJOY ENJOY ENJOY!
You're amazing. Wish I was a good reader. I just bought The Road and am excited to get into it. I've heard great things.
Missed you to pieces over Christmas. Seriously, wish you guys coulda been there love.
*Stephanie - Definitely a good reading year; hopefully 2009 will be great in its own way.
*Joanna - For some reason this year the "favorites" stood out a little more than in past years. Not sure if that is good or bad. Have a happy new year, too!
*Terri - I haven't had a chance to comment yet, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on Kafka on the Shore! I'll be reading that one soon. Enjoying is the most important part of me as well.
*Rae - I've always been a reader, but for some reason I'm the only one in our family who really enjoys to read. Weird huh? I wish we could have gone to Utah as well--sounds like everyone had such a great time. Did you have to sleep in the cemetary with the ancestors? :P Haha!!
Trish, I left you an award on my blog today. Check it out.
I have Kafka on the Shore staring at me from my desk. Knowing someone wants to read the review is just the nudge I need to sit down and write it! I'm hoping to get it done this weekend.
73 books...and 12 challenges...awesome. I only finished one challenge and read 63 books.
The God of Small Things is one of the most amazing books I've ever read! I read it in college and loved it! It's incredible, and I totally agree, Trish. It's tops!
*Dar - thank you!! Definitely made my day. :)
*Terri - I'm about 70 pages into the book and am really intrigued so far! Natuka was just introduced...so I'm curious how he and Kafka will come together.
*Serena - I did a lot of cross-posting with the challenges and the read-a-thon definitely helped with the book number boost. 63 books is still fantastic--that's more than I read last year!
*Hattie - It is such a great book, huh? Even months after reading it, I still can't stop thinking about it! Thanks for popping by.
Hi Trish
Greetings from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
I admire your methodoloy of logging all books you read.
I read about 60 books last year but I can't remember until I read your lists which have some of those that I read.
Wonder what is your fave book of all time?
I have all books by Jodi Picoult, Sue Miller, Alice Hoffman and Anne Tyler.
But my fave is She Comes Undone by Wally Lamb. Rad it four times.
Also read I Know This Much Is True 3 times.
Just bought The Hour I first believed.
We will compare notes when I finished it, okay.
Hey Trish! You did fantastic this year. I would love to find out what my read/unread ratio of books in the house is. Because I can guarantee it's a way lower number than yours. I've got to stop buying books. I can't help myself. Have a great 2009!
You did a great job last year! I agree with your assessment of The Book Thief. I have no doubt you'll meet your 2009 goals!
--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric
*Idzam - I don't know if I have an absolute favorite of all time. Some of my top books are probably The Handmaid's Tale, The Time Traveler's Wife, The Poisonwood Bible, Wuthering Heights, The God of Small Things...to name a few. :) Happy New Year to you!
*Natasha - Having a spreadsheet will all my books definitely helps in figuring out the ratio. Sometimes when I go on a book buying binge, it's better not to look at the numbers. :)
*Anna - Glad you liked The Book Thief also--it's one that I would love to re-read again soon.
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