2011 reading roundup

2011 was not a great reading year for me and I'm not sure why. Despite being challenged by my friend, KD, to read 100 books, I only read 44 books in 2011. I didn't listen to any audiobooks in 2011 because my car radio doesn't have an AUX input to connect an mp3 player, and anyway, my dog ate my mp3 player (sad but true).

Brandi, the mp3 player, shoe, pen, etc eating dog

I think that I spent much more time in 2011 looking for books I want to read, and downloading them to my Kindle, than I actually did reading them. 

Here is the list of the books I read in 2011 in the order I read them:

1.    The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
2.    The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman
3.    Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving
4.    Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
5.    The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
6.    Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
7.    Storm Prey by John Sandford
8.    Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
9.    How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway
10.  The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
11.  Blindman's Bluff by Faye Kellerman
12.  Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper
13.  House Rules by Jodi Picoult
14.  About a Boy by Nick Hornby
15.  Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva
16.  The Defector by Daniel Silva
17.  Killing Floor by Lee Child
18.  The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall
19.  The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo
20.  A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve
21.  Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
22.  The Mercy Rule by John Lescroart
23.  Family History by Dani Shapiro
24.  The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
25.  Sunnyside by Glen David Gold
26.  The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass
27.  The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
28.  Persuader by Lee Child
29.  The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
30.  The Third Rail by Michael Harvey
31.  Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
32.  Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
33.  Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
34.  The Hard Way by Lee Child
35.  Think of a Number by John Verdon
36.  The Known World by Edward P. Jones
37.  Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
38.  The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd
39.  Portrait Of A Spy by Daniel Silva
40.  The Stuff That Never Happened by Maddie Dawson
41.  A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
42.  The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
43.  Fall of Giants by Ken Follett
44.  The Affair by Lee Child

My favorite books this year included Last Night in Twisted River, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Let the Great World Spin, and A Visit from the Goon Squad. I also liked the Hunger Games series even though I found the idea of it very disturbing. I do wish I had paid better attention reading Let the Great World Spin and A Visit from the Goon Squad. They are similarly structured with each chapter taking the form of a short story related to the other chapters. Both contain multiple characters and it was hard to keep track of how all the storylines and characters are related.

The books I liked least were Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Solitude of Prime Numbers, Sunnyside, Revolutionary Road, and Her Fearful Symmetry. The first three got a lot of hype and were adored by many but they just didn't do it for me. I was looking forward to reading Her Fearful Symmetry, by the author of The Time Traveler's Wife, and I really disliked the book and found it creepy.

Fifteen of this year's books were read on the Kindle, twenty-three were by authors I've read more than once (either this year or previously), eighteen were by women, and two books were Pulitzer Prize winners.

If you want to keep up with the books I read  you can add me on Goodreads or Librarything where I catalog my books. You can also see the books I'm hoping to read on my Amazon wishlist.

Hoping 2012 is filled with good books!

“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”  ~ Diane Duane, So You Want to be a Wizard