January 26, 2013 by

2012: Books in Review

5 comments

Categories: Book Reviews, Tags:

2010: Books in Review
2011: Books in Review

So over the course of 365 days, how many books did I read, buy, borrow from the library? How much did I spend? How much of my life has been wasted on literary pursuits?

My goal was to read more than last year (274). Or get a job. I got a job. The reading took a nose-dive. Although, really, I mean 218 books in a year isn’t bad precisely.

Books Read: 218
Books Partially Read: 63
Books Bought: 123
Money Spent: $332
Money Made: $131
Books Borrowed: 150
Books Given: 60
Books Re-read: 47 (22% of total books read)

Other statistics:

Total Books In: 333
Total Books Read/Started: 281

Spent approximately: $2.70 (2011 = $4.30 a book, 2010 = $2.33/book)

Time spent reading: 9% (2011 = 12%, 2010 = 10%)

Favorite Books of 2012:

YA
The Tomorrow Series (not all of them) by John Marsden
Demon’s Surrender by Sarah Rees Brennan
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Prized by Caragh M. O’Brien
Losers in Space by John Barnes

Lit
The Thin Woman by Dorothy Cannell
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Kids
Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne
The School for Cats and Jenny Goes to Sea by Esther Averill

Fantasy/Sci-fi
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell

Memoir
Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: a Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson

Graphic Novel
Serenity: Better Days and Other Stories by Joss Whedon
Wings by Shinsuke Tanaka
Fruits Basket by Natsuke Takaya

Romance
The Other Guy’s Bride by Connie Brockway
A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare

Essays
The Girl Who Was On Fire ed. by Leah Wilson

5 Responses to 2012: Books in Review

  1. Kris

    I really like the statistics. Is ‘time spent reading’ 9% of your total time in the year, I’m guessing? How do you calculate that, do you time yourself on each book? I’m fascinated by this.

  2. michele

    Remember, I wrote about it on FB and copied the comment on 2010’s book stats? You yelled at me about it and then I had to do better math. Remember how we talked today about how math is too hard? This is one of the reasons for me. =) Anyway, you should just go read the string of comments (by you and me) on 2010, but here’s how it was calculated (copying the FB comment again–the stopwatch thing was Ed’s idea):

    “And I *could* wear a stopwatch but I think it would make reading seem more like a chore than fun. But we can extrapolate. On average it takes me say 3.5 hours to read 1 book. Some less, some more, of course. But 239 x 3.5 = 836.5 and the 54 I started I probably spent average of 30 minutes on so 54 x 0.5 = 27. Then 27 + 836.5 = 863.5 hours in 2010 spent reading. Out of 8544 hours total in a year is 10%. In context, I spend about 32% of the year sleeping.”

  3. michele

    um. wait. there’s 8760 hours total in a year. how did i get 8455? well 2010’s stats are obviously wrong. MATH! DAMN YOU! well, never mind it’s still 10%. but jeez, math, you got me again.

  4. Kris

    Heh, okay. I had forgotten all that, and I expect I will forget it again next year. As far as I am concerned, your math is flawless. Flawless! Good work.

    P.S. What percentage of your year did you spend doing this math? =)

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