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Monday, January 26, 2015

2014 reading roundup


So, as you may know I spent weeks on my 2014 reading roundup only to have it disappear when I accidentally hit Undo one time too many. I was feeling pretty discouraged and wasn't sure I wanted to redo my post, but I've decided to give it another shot. May the Gods of Google look favorably upon me and not delete my post.

This year I read 64 books, which included 19 paper books, 20 audiobooks, and 25 ebooks.






Here is the list of books I read in 2014, in the reverse order I read them.  I've linked to their pages on Amazon and linked to the author's homepage, Facebook page, or Wikipedia page if that was what was available. 


26 The Heist  by Daniel Silva
51 The People in the Photo by Hélène Gestern

Some of my favorite fictional books this year included  The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Rosie Project, Landline (I totally fell in love with the husband), Shotgun Lovesongs, Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Scar Boys, City of Thieves, and The Language of Flowers. The one I enjoyed most and highly recommend is Station Eleven. Don't be put off by it's description as post-apocalyptic. I don't like post-apocalyptic fiction (I HATED The Road) and I LOVED Station Eleven.

One of my goals this year was to read more non-fiction and I'm happy to say that in 2014 I read (mostly listened to) six non -fiction books. Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, The Emperor of All Maladies, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation, and The Emperor of All Maladies were all fascinating reads. And Lauren Hillenbrand is an incredible storyteller. You would not believe that a book about a racehorse would keep you riveted like Seabiscuit does.

 
Some of my least favorite reads this year included & Sons, The Color of Light (sorry BKU), All I Have in This World, Dept. of Speculation, We Were Liars (yes I know everyone loved it), The Finkler Question, and The Book of Jonah. 

I read 29 male authors and 30 female authors this year. I read books by 17 authors I've read previously. Some of these books were very enjoyable, and others were a little disappointing (Wally Lamb's We Are Water and Ruth Ozeki's All Over Creation, for example). Surprisingly, two authors I read for the first time in 2014 were Donna Tartt and Neil Gaiman. Although I enjoyed them, I'm not sure they'll be repeats. Neil Gaiman's genre is not my favorite to read (science fiction, fantasy) and though I enjoyed Tartt's Pulitzer Prize winning Goldfinch, it was loooong!
 
In 2014 I read 15832 pages and listened to 266 hours and 43 minutes of audio. The longest book I read was The Color of Light at 575 pages and the shortest was Dept. of Speculation at 192 pages. The longest book I listened to was The Goldfinch with 32 hours and 24 minutes and the shortest was The Ocean at the End of the Lane with only five hours and 48 minutes.

Below is the breakdown of how many books I read each month, with a high of eight and a low of two.

 Another visualization of the books I read in 2014:

I have four books under my belt in 2015, so far. If you want to see what I'm reading as the year progresses you can find me on Goodreads or Librarything. And here's a thought to keep in mind: