2011: My Year in Books

When I went over my 2011 book stats, I was a little surprised. Even with a layoff and a cross-country move, I’ve read 57 books. Well, I didn’t finish all 57. Four I stopped reading. I’ve indicated which below.

This number includes audio books and books I read to the kids. I didn’t keep really close track of these, though, so you can be sure there were more than what I’ve listed below. Especially picture books. And if I got extra credit for reading kids’ books over and over and over, this list would be at least two posts long. I know for sure I read Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea and about 2,700 of Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books this year, but those were on my list from so long ago, they didn’t show up when I pulled the list for 2011 from Goodreads.

So, the stats:

In 2011, I read 57 books (finished 53), with a total number of 16,803 pages.

The average (mean) per month was 4.75, and the average (mean) per week was 1.10.

Of these, 28 were fiction, 3 were memoirs, 11 were children’s books, and the remaining 15 were nonfiction.

I am currently reading How to See Yourself As You Really Are by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Walden by Henry David Thoreau (which may well end up on my “stopped-reading” shelf), The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron, and Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn. And Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I’m hoping to read many fewer self-help books in 2012. How I got so many this year, I’m really not sure.

Below is the book list, by the month I finished (or gave up on) each book. I’ve included links to reviews, if I’ve posted them on this blog. Other reviews you can read on my Goodreads profile. You can also go there to see the other 504 books I’ve read.

December:

• The English Major (Harrison, Jim)
• There but for the (Smith, Ali)
• Simplicity Parenting (Ross, Lisa M. and Payne, Kim John)
• Your Money or Your Life (Dominguez, Joe) (skimmed and passed to my husband for a close reading)
• The Simple Living Guide (Luhrs, Janet)
• Voluntary Simplicity (Elgin, Duane)
• By the Shores of Silver Lake (Wilder, Laura Ingalls)
• The Unnamed (Ferris, Joshua)

November:

• Plain and Simple: A Woman’s Journey to the Amish (Bender, Sue)
• I, Robot (Asimov, Isaac)
• On the Banks of Plum Creek (Wilder, Laura Ingalls)
• The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy (Birdsall, Jeanne)
• Little House on the Prairie (Wilder, Laura Ingalls)
• Little House on a Small Planet, 2nd: Simple Homes, Cozy Retreats, and Energy Efficient Possibilities (Salomon, Shay)
• The Buddha in the Attic (Otsuka, Julie)
• Everything is Illuminated (Foer, Jonathan Safran)
• I Drive a Dump Truck (Bridges, Sarah)

October:

• Little Bee (Cleave, Chris)
• People of the Book (Brooks, Geraldine)
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (Ford, Jamie)

September:

• Organic Body Care Recipes (Tourles, Stephanie)
• Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within (Goldberg, Natalie)
• Let the Right One In (Lindqvist, John Ajvide)
• The Help (Stockett, Kathryn)
• Home (Robinson, Marilynne)
• All Facts Considered (Malesky, Kee)

August:

• The Nanny Diaries (Nanny #1) (McLaughlin, Emma)
• Gilead (Robinson, Marilynne)

July:

• A Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion (DeMille, Oliver Van)
• The Weight of Water (Shreve, Anita)
• Infidel (Ali, Ayaan Hirsi)
• Make Way for Ducklings (McCloskey, Robert)
• Cold Mountain (Frazier, Charles)

June:

• A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century (DeMille, Oliver Van)
• Magic Tree House Series, #1-9 (Osborne, Mary Pope)
• Little House in the Big Woods (Little House, #1) (Wilder, Laura Ingalls)

May:

• Look at Me (Egan, Jennifer)
• The Dive From Clausen’s Pier (Packer, Ann)
• Songs Without Words (Packer, Ann)