2006 in Review

Time for me to get on the reading year in review bandwagon. I would have done it sooner but I was waiting to see what other books I'd finish. So far I have finished 54 this year but should be making that 55 as I am less than 100 pages from finishing volume 2 of Proust. The mid 50s is my annual average, only once have I ever gone over 60 and that was just after I finished college and didn't have a job for four months. When I look forward to the day I will be able to retire, I dream of regularly reading 60+ books a year. Until then I will just have to make do.

Of those 55 books this year:

Fiction: 33
Nonfiction: 19
Poetry: 3

Number of Re-Reads: 5
Male Authors: 34
Female Authors: 18
Books by Male and Female Authors: 2

Of the Fiction:
Fantasy/science fiction: 8
Mysteries: 1
Classics: 11
Short Stories: 5
Adult Picture Books: 1

Of the Nonfiction:
Essays/Lectures: 7
Memoir/Biography: 5
Science: 2
Books about Books and Reading (includes some memoir and essays): 5
Literature: 2
History: 1
Religion: 1

Favorite Fiction read in 2006 (in no particular order):

1. Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood
2. Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
3. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
4. Seeing by Jose Saramago
5. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Favorite Nonfiction:

1. Categories on the Beauty of Physics edited by ed by Emiliano Sefusatti, John Morse, and Hilary Thayer Hamann
2. On Beauty and Being Just (will post about this soon) by Elaine Scarry
3. The Devil is a Gentleman by J.C. Hallman
4. On Being Ill by Virginia Woolf
5. A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester

Favorite Poetry:
Teahouse of the Almighty by Patricia Smith

Favorite Book Finished in 2006 but begun long before:
The Complete Essays of Michel de Montaigne

I'm pretty proud of myself for reading so many short story collections this year. I think I am learning to like them. I also read more nonfiction this year than I usually do, and I am glad. I think it provided a nice mix. Now, off to go work up some 2007 Reading Resolutions.