It was an amazing year for reading, which I attribute not only to our “empty nest” but that I stayed with my nonresolution to read what I want when I wanted. I read only 19 review copies this year, compared to 36 last year. Ultimately, I read far more books this year than ever before.
I read more than 51,000 pages last year. My personal reading in 2012 also reflected what is happening in society. Nearly half the books I read were ebooks, an increase of more than 300 percent since 2010 and up nearly 40 percent over last year.
I read slightly more fiction percentage-wise. That resulted from increases in both translated literature and SF. As for nonfiction, people’s lives apparently intrigued me in 2012. Nearly half the nonfiction I read in 2012 were autobiographies, memoirs or biographies. Here’s a breakdown of how the year shaped up:
Books Read: 162
Pages Read: 51,040
- Average Pages per Book: 315.06
- Average Pages per Day: 139.4
- Average Number of Days per Book: 2.26/li>
- Longest Book: 784 pages (The Untold History of the United States, Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick)
- Shortest Book: 80 pages (The Brummstein, Peter Adolphsen
Fiction: 87 (53.7 percent)
- Translated Works: 27 (25 fiction — 29 percent of the fiction– and two nonfiction)
- Languages: French (6), German (5), Russian (3), Spanish (3), Arabic (2), Finnish (2), Albanian (1), Chinese (1), Dutch (1), Korean (1), Norwegian (1), Various (1)
- Science Fiction: 20
- Short Stories: 8 (includes translated works and SF)
Non-fiction: 75 (46.3 percent)
- Autobiography/Memoirs/: 23 (19.4 percent of nonfiction)
- Biography: 13
- History: 12
Ebooks Read: 76 (47 percent)
Library materials: 56 (34.5 percent) (includes ebooks)
The presence of books in my hands, my home, my pockets, my life will never cease to be essential to my happiness.
Joe Queenan, One for the Books
Congrats on a great reading year. Here’s to many more down the line for both of us.