I greatly admire Lauren Baratz-Logsted’s 2005 effort to read 365 books in a year. I have not the slightest clue how she did it. She also wrote two books. Who has that time?
No matter. I read 52 books this year — one for every week — not counting a variety of research books, re-reads, novels written by my CPs, audiobooks, books I couldn’t bring myself to finish, and any book I happened to have written myself. There has been an ongoing list in the lower right corner of this blog.
I’ve always thought that a copious amount of reading is absolutely necessary to the formation of a writer. You soak up so much information about craft and story and tips and tricks when you are reading the work of another person. Read a lot is the first and best piece of writing advice to give to any aspiring author. Continued reading is also important so you get an idea of what else is out there.
Here are some stats. This year, I read (there will be some crossover):
14 chick lits
21 romances
12 contemporary romances
6 historical romances
2 time travel romances
1 futuristic romance
6 category romances
13 YA novels
35 books by authors who were new to me
41 books by authors new to me this year (Thank you, Scott Westerfeld, for making this particular statistic necessary)
14 debut novels (go, authors!) *
*Note: Debut in print or non self-published, as Bella Andre had written ebooks and Linda Berdoll had previously self-pubbed. Also not counting Gossip Girls, as have no clue how many books that chick wrote at her book packaging company.
6 novels by previously published authors breaking into a new genre
25 books that are part of a series or have a sequel (that I know of, and I’m being very loose with this. I’m totally counting the Glasses, as am I any “family” romances)
15 are the first in the series
19 series in which there are or will be more books in the series that I haven’t read
11 whose series I’m interested in following further
14 books that would not fall under the umbrella term of “women’s fiction” (and I’m counting teen chick lit as falling under that umbrella)
20 books with “paranormal,” “Science fiction,” or otherwise “couldn’t happen now, then, or at all” elements
3 I’d call horror (no matter what Dean says)
2 I’d call science fiction
2 books called “literature”
Interesting stats, I think. To me, they say a lot about my interests, my industry research, and where I might be lacking. We’ll see how these stats affect my reading choices next year.
December 30th, 2005 at 10:57 am
That’s really great, Diana! I like how you broke it all down. I’m planning on stealing the idea of keeping track of what I read over 2006. I bet I won’t get near 52 books…I just never get as much time to read as I’d like. My daughter and I are going to keep track, and she’ll beat me by double, at least, I’m sure.
I also plan on making this the year of reading new authors to me. I think I really need the stimulation of not reading the tried and true all the time. Not only can they begin to feel stale to me because of the lack of variety, but I really want to discover some new “must read” authors. I’ll probably never take the time to break it down like you did, but I will at least keep track, so I have a running list.
Happy reading in 2006!
Shannon
December 30th, 2005 at 11:25 am
I like this idea too, Diana. I find it really interesting. Are we book geeks or what? ;D
What would be weird in my stats would be the amount of books I purchase and ones I actually finish. Unfortunately, there are stories that have been highly recommended that didn’t grab me enough that I set down and lost interest. I think about roughly 35% of the new authors I’ve read, I haven’t finished the books. Bad, I know. =)
December 30th, 2005 at 11:38 am
Steal away, Sha-nay-nay. I know I stole this from someone else, but I can’t remember who right now. And here here! on the finding new authors. This was a big year for new authors for me, partly because I threw myself full-steam into industry buzz and partially because I discovered nuevo-YA. Also, I wanted to read a lot of debut books. Highly recommend Holly Black, Scott Westerfeld (it’s a broken record around here) and Susan Squires. New voices are such an eye opener about your own writing, I think.
I’m pretty good about finishing the books I start, even if it means dragging myself through it. I don’t like giving up. But I did give up on a few books this year. After banging them against the wall a few times I just couldn’t put myself through it any more.
I already have my initial lineup for 2006: The Da Vinci Code, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Golden Compass, Gathering Blue, Against the Rules, In the Cold, and Jewel of Atlantis. Always more books than time! And did I mention I want to write two books next year?
December 30th, 2005 at 11:58 pm
Wow, my reading actually went down a little this past year. Bummer.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Ben O.
December 31st, 2005 at 12:42 am
oh, and get that url to the book’s site up there. and one to amazon to buy the book.
December 31st, 2005 at 9:18 pm
Love the stats (basking in the inner geek moment… ok, it’s gone).
Going to have to keep better track of my 2006 reads!
January 1st, 2006 at 7:27 am
I admire Lauren Baratz-Logsted too, Diana!
I was going to do the same, but somewhere along the way, I fell apart. But I did read over 300 books this year, and most years I make it over 200, so it wasn’t too bad.
I may steal this, if I’m not lazy. Hehe.
I need to post the list of books I read soon.
January 2nd, 2006 at 10:51 pm
R U gonna review all the books U red last year?
January 3rd, 2006 at 12:05 am
alas, anonymous, I found it all too time-consuming for my current schedule. but it was hte usual. a few were great, most were decent, and some were bleh.
Besides, we don’t really need another rendition of the Scott Westerfeld parade around here, now do we? I do talk about many of the books that i’ve read in my various posts, and a few weeks ago, I listed my a few of my favorites: The Companion, Valiant, and Uglies.
Benny O! Wow, so cool to see you here!
January 4th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
When I was a teen and thus less busy (having no job is a great way to live *g*), I used to read just about that amount of books. One book per day, and weekends allowed me two. So I probably read about 400 books a year. Back then…
I don’t keep a list but it would probably look like this:
Urban Fantasy / Dark Modern Fantasy / Supernatural Thriller – 50%
)
Paranormal Romance in the same vein as above – 15%
Chick Lit Mystery & Thriller 10%
Horror 5%
Science Fiction 10 %
Other Mystery & Thriller 5%
YA 3% (all of them either modern fantasy or dark fantasy or whatever
Other Chick Lit 1 %
Literary 1 %
It is no wonder I mostly want to write in the first three categories, isn’t it?
January 18th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
Thanks for the mention!