Here’s my year in books (with thanks to the Goodreads record keeping tool):
I read 91 books in total. According to Goodreads, that’s 25078 pages. The longest was Elliot Perlman’s The Street Sweeper at 626 pages and the shortest was 100RPM by Caroline Smailes at 112 pages.
Of those, 63 were by female authors and 28 by male authors.
27 books were by Australian authors (21 female authors and 6 male authors) and the rest were from America, England, Canada, Japan, China, Vietnam, Pakistan, Ireland, France, Germany, India, South Africa, Norway, Turkey and Germany – the Around the World in 80 Books reading challenge had me reading widely.
I was quite the reading-tart this year, with 60 books from authors that were new to me in 2017.
Of the 91 books I read, 15 were first published in 2017.
I read 26 non-fiction books (15 of which were memoirs). Quite a few made my ‘best of 2017’ list but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the reveal.
I read only 24 hardbacks (the rest were e-books). I listened to 11 audiobooks – I had a copy of most of the audiobooks I chose – I guess I can’t fully commit to the audio thing! The stand-out audio was Matt Haig’s Reasons to Stay Alive – there’s something extra-special about an author reading their own memoir, particularly when the topic is as sensitive as his.
I read mostly contemporary literature plus memoirs, historical fiction, a couple of thrillers, two volumes of flash fiction and two YA novels.
Bookish Beck posted her winners of ‘Various Superlatives, Good and Bad’ – I’ve pinched some of her categories and added a couple –
The Book Everybody Else Loved but I Didn’t: An Isolated Incident by Emily Maguire and Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
The Year’s Biggest Disappointments: Mrs Fletcher by Tom Perrotta and The Futures by Anna Pitoniak
The Worst Book I Read This Year: Nantucket by Harrison Young
The Downright Strangest Book I Read This Year: The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am by Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold
My Best Discoveries of the Year: Ann Patchett and Anita Brookner – why did I wait so long?!
The Debut Authors Whose Next Work I’m Most Looking Forward to: Eliza Robertson and Sally Rooney
The Book I Choose Entirely Because of the Cover: The Last Wave by Gillian Best
The Funniest Book I Read This Year: The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett and Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
The Book That Made Me Cry the Most: Our Magic Hour by Jennifer Down
Tomorrow I’ll post my Top Books for 2017. I know you can’t wait.
I’m planning, all being well, to post my reading highlights in lieu of Monday Musings on Monday – a shame but I always do that post on 1 January and it so happens that this year is a Monday.
I enjoyed your wrap up. Your female to male ratio is like mine though mine is even higher this year. And yes, I agree re Anita Brookner. Where HAVE you been!
I look forward to your top reads!
Loved this wrap up… waiting impatiently for your best of…
Fun! I’m glad you found my categories useful 🙂 I didn’t mention Mrs Fletcher in my disappointments, but boy was it.
Delighted you’ve discovered Ann Patchett! Looking forward to your 2017 favourites.
A great year of reading! I saw Ann Patchett interviewed this year and she’s an absolute joy. I don’t keep track of what I read but all the end of year round-ups by bloggers makes me think I should. Eagerly awaiting your favourites of 2017!
What a great group of reads (and such pretty covers)! I also read Commonwealth, The Mothers, Eligible, and The Paying Guests this year. Happy 2018 reading!
I like the categories! I too discovered Ann Patchett this year, now I’ll have to put Brookner on my list as well. Our stats are pretty similar, I also tried to read a lot of books from/about other countries. Happy new year!
Book everyone else liked but I didn’t was The Mothers. Best discoveries were the Goldsmith shortlisted Jon McGregor , YA author A.S. King and Mary Gaitskill.
I love that you tried 60 new authors! I love trying new authors and finding ones I love. I just tried Ann Patchett the other day with Commonwealth and loved it – I can’t wait to read more of her books! Here’s to a great 2018!
I love those categories and I agree with several of your answers- Disappointing yes to both and while I liked Exit West it wasn’t anywhere near my list of favorites.
You’re the second person to mention The Uncommon Reader so it’s going on my TBR.