2015 reading roundup
This year I read 69 books, my highest number since 2009.
I was surprised to see that I read only 16 e-books compared to 28 paper books and 25 audio books this year.
Here is the list of books I read 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.
X
by Sue Grafton
I
Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
Delirium
by Lauren Oliver
Some of my favorite fiction books this year were The Martian (also loved the movie with Matt Damon), I am Pilgrim, Still Alice, Days of Awe, Extraordinary Means, and The Secret Chord. My favorite non fiction books were A Deadly Wandering (frightening), Unbroken (OMG), It Was Me All Along, and Furiously Happy. I seemed to overdose a bit on young adult fiction, especially books about terminally ill or suicidal teenagers. All the Bright Places destroyed me. I also liked Did you Ever Have a Family, We Never Asked for Wings (not as good as The Language of Flowers), Whiskey and Charlie, The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street, Saint Mazie, Fourth of July Creek, Make Me (you just can't go wrong with Jack Reacher), The Book of Joe (ditto for Jonathon Tropper), Five Days Left, And the Mountains Echoed, Half Broke Horses, The Arsonist, and The Delirium trilogy. After writing out that list I'm surprised to see how many books I actually enjoyed because it felt like I was always complaining about how I didn't like a book I was reading.
I was really disappointed by John Irving's new book, Avenue of Mysteries, which I had been very excited to get as an advanced reader's copy (ARC). Other books I didn't enjoy which everyone else seemed to love were The Girl on the Train, Fates and Furies, and the Pulitzer Prize winning All the Light we Cannot See. Other books I did not enjoy were North of Boston, A Fifty-Year Silence, Armada (so cliche'd and a big disappointment after Ready Player One), and The Drowning People.
Of the books I read 36 were by male authors and 33 were by female authors. Twenty eight books were by authors I've previously read.
Here is the breakdown of books per month and genres:
In 2015 I read 17,026 pages and listened to 254 hours and 18 minutes of audiobooks. The longest book I read was I am Pilgrim at 612 pages and the shortest was Carry the One at 215 pages. The longest book I listened to was Fourth of July Creek at 15 hours and 41 minutes and the shortest was Notes from the Internet Apocalypse at 5 hours and 23 minutes.
My 2016 reading is off to a slow start because I've been turned onto the Big Bang Theory by my friend and co-worker, Yona, and I've got 8 1/2 seasons to catch up on. I don't have any goals for 2016 but I think I'm going to ease up on the young adult genre a bit, especially the incredibly depressing ones (see above, terminally ill and suicidal teenagers).
