2011: Year in Review

It's hard to believe my third year book blogging has come to an end. My tastes and preferences have shifted some since I first began, and this year especially marked a move away from YA and towards more adult fantasy and sci-fi as well as nonfiction. Though five YA books made up my top ten last year, only one made the list this year (Ship Breaker). Three nonfiction titles made the list, including Fey's Bossypants, which is even better in audiobook (in fact, four of the top ten books I listened to on my iPhone). The order of the list below is only mildly significant.

My top 10 books read in 2011:
1. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (sci-fi fiction)
2. Bossypants by Tina Fey (nonfiction/audiobook)
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (classic fiction/audiobook)
4. Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer (nonfiction)
5. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (YA dystopian fiction)
6. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (fiction/audiobook)
7. Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson (dystopian fiction)
8. The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (fantasy fiction)
9. The Magician King by Lev Grossman (fantasy fiction)
10. The Man in the Rockefeller Suit by Mark Seal (nonfiction/audiobook)

Total books read and reviewed: 85
I read fewer books this year (I read 109 in 2010), but I'm not at all disappointed with my number. This year I participated in more after-work activities (e.g. taking cooking and mosaic classes), and I also started taking daily walks, all of which cut into reading time, but in a good way.

Fiction read: 64
Nonfiction read: 21
Nonfiction became a larger part of my reading this year (25%), and many of my favorite books were nonfiction, including the three listed above, Packing for Mars, and Just My Type (the latter two were both shortlisted for my top ten list). My interest in the weird, nerdy, and random, which so guides my fiction reading, can be well-fulfilled in through many nonfiction books.

Adult read: 70
Young adult read: 15
The last two years I had a goal to keep YA to no more than one-third of my reading total. Though I kept the same goal this year, it wasn't even necessary, as YA made up only 18% of my reading. I think I've been somewhat burned out from it, and there hasn't been a lot that's kept my interest. However, in addition to Ship Breaker, listed above, I did enjoy Rampant a lot.

Female authors: 34
Male authors: 51
For most of the year, these two numbers were fairly equal. Then, sometime in the fall, the men surged ahead and I never read enough by women to make up. It's something I'm a bit disappointed in, though I'm not sure it's something I want to actively work on equalizing.

Years published:
- 2011: 32
- 2010: 15
- 2000-2009: 21
- 1990-1999: 8
- 1900-1989: 7
- 1800-1899: 2
Though I don't have the official stats, I'm definitely reading more newly published books than before, largely because my "oh, I always meant to read that!" list has grown rather short. 

Book sources:
- Total borrowed: 74 (68 from library, 6 from friends/family/students)
- Total purchased: 2
- Total for review: 5 (4 from NetGalley, 1 from NCTE)
- Total otherwise acquired: 2 (1 from Paperback Swap, 1 free for Kindle)
- Total already owned: 2 (these are books I've had for over five years)
No surprises here. Because of my daily walking and many long car trips, I did listen to a lot more audiobooks (13 total, all from the library) than in previous years. I purchased a grand total of two books this year. One, Game of Thrones, was purchased because we had a Borders gift card and I thought my husband, who takes forever to read books, might read it. The second, Across the Universe, was due to the author's clever marketing (see post).

Challenges I participated in:
- Back to the Classics Challenge 2011
- POC Reading Challenge 2011
I got a little distracted and never finished the Back to the Classics Challenge, though I did meet my goal by reading seventeen books for the POC Reading Challenge.

Happy new year and best wishes for 2012!