I’m back in Minnesota this weekend, so I’m probably not going to get any reading done today. And since it’s the beginning of May, it seemed like a good day to take a look at my reading from the past month and what I want to try and read in May. Plus, the first third of the year is over which makes it an apt time for a few bookish stats from the year so far.
Book Lists
At the beginning of April I put together a list of books to try and read during the month. I read more books in April than in March (yay, Read-a-Thon!), but I didn’t quite get to all the books on my list for the month. That was mostly my fault for over-committing to review books I requested for the month. I need to be better about that.
Here’s what I got to in April, with books from my original list in bold and links to my reviews:
- Beautiful & Pointless by David Orr
- I’m Sorry You Feel That Way by Diana Joseph (Read-a-Thon)
- Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart (Read-a-Thon)
- Nothing Left to Burn by Jay Varner (Read-a-Thon)
- Fables: Sons of Empire, Fables: The Good Prince, and Fables: War and Pieces by Bill Willingham and others.
- Pox: An American History by Michael Willrich
- The Girl Who Was on Fire, edited by Leah Wilson
- This Life is in Your Hands by Melissa Coleman
- The Heroine’s Bookshelf by Erin Blakemore
- The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure
- Priceless by Nicole Richie
- The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
I just finished The Imperfectionists last night, but didn’t get around to Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff. It’s on the top of the pile when I get a chance. I also didn’t read any of War and Peace — I need an intervention on that book, stat!
May is going to be a crazy awesome month. I’m so excited. I also have a decent stack of books that I’m hoping to get to this month:
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (Volume II, Part 3 — thru page 487).
- The Paper Garden by Molly Peacock for a TLC Book Tour.
- Storming the Tulips by Hannie J. Voyles, a review copy from the publisher, Stonebrook Publishing.
- How Shakespeare Changed Everything by Stephen Marche, a review copy from Harper.
- The Convert by Deborah Baker, as part of Jen (Devourer of Books) and Nicole’s (Linus’s Blanket) BOOK CLUB discussion.
- Marriage Confidential by Pamela Haag, a review copy from Harper.
- Train to Nowhere by Colleen Bradford Krantz, a review copy from the publisher, Ice Cube Press.
With a week-long vacation to BEA, we’ll see how it goes! Most of these are pretty slim books, so I’m confident I’ll be able to get to many of them. I think I’m most excited for The Convert, which is a book from Graywolf Press that I’ll be chatting about with Jen (Devourer of Books) and Nicole’s (Linus’s Blanket) for their online book club. Fun!
Book Stats
Since the end of April also marks the end of the first third of the year, I also wanted to do a quick mention of some reading stats so far. So far in 2011 I’ve read 40 books, which is much higher than where I was at this time last year (23). I’ve said it before, but it’s worth saying again — it’s amazing what not being in school will do for reading.
And some other fun facts:
- I’ve read 10 fiction books, and 30 nonfiction books. That really surprises me.
- I’ve listened to 3 audiobooks and read 1 ebook.
- 17 have been review copies, 12 are my own books, and 11 have come from the library.
- 23 have been written by women, and 17 were written by men.
- 4 of the books I read in April were exactly 224 pages long. That’s weird, right!
I’d like to get the review/owned/library books to be a little more even, and try to read more ebooks, but otherwise I’m pretty happy with how my reading is going so far this year.
Any books I should be sure to get to — or decided to skip — in May? Do you have any fun book stats from the year so far?
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You did great in April! I love how you broke down your stats of what you’ve read so far. Why does it surprise you that you’ve read 30 non-fiction books and 10 fiction books?
Vasilly: It surprises me because I didn’t think the gap between fiction and nonfiction was so high — I knew I read more nonfiction, but didn’t realize it was that much more.
You read a great group of books in April. It’s awesome how organized you are & the stats are fun to read.
I’m also reading The Convert by Deborah Baker for Jen and Nicole’s book club. I think it’s going to be an interesting book!
Amy: That’s fantastic about The Convert — I’m sure you’re going to have some interesting things to say about it. I’ll looking forward to starting it soon.
This list makes me want to drop everything and READ! I’ve finished 14 books this year. I don’t have any book stats though. I like the idea and I think I may come up with a few for the books I’ve read.
I haven’t read any of the books you’ve listed so I can’t make any recommendations on them.
Reading Has Purpose: I always want to drop everything and read 🙂 Doing this stats isn’t too hard because I put all my books finished in a spreadsheet then just pull from there.
Fantastic stats for the year – especially love how much non-fiction you’ve been reading 🙂
Amy: I love it too! I didn’t quite realize it was such a big difference, but it’s kind of cool to me.
I think you’ve been warned about that Marche book. I’ll look forward to seeing what you say about it!
Jeanne: Yes, I read Jenny’s review last week, I think. I’m going into it with skepticism, but still want to give it a chance!
“it’s amazing what not being in school will do for reading.”
What a mean thing to say to me with one year left! 😉 Just kidding.
I’m amazed by how many women authors you’ve read. I feel like I need to be much better about that.
Ash: Lol, sorry! But just think how awesome next May will be. It a bit of a transition — from school to being a working person — but I do love having the energy to read almost as much as I want instead of getting bogged down in school reading.
I’m surprised about the women author stat too — late year I read a lot more male authors. It’s not something I really pay attention to though, or deliberately try to read more of one than the other.
Looks like a really productive reading month! I’ve been over committing on review books too..and trying to work on that since I’ve been simultaneously taking on all of these readalongs. 🙂
Trisha: I try to keep my review books down, but I just got sooo excited about the April options from Harper I went a little nuts. I liked the two I finished, and am very optimistic about Lost in Shangri-La when I get to it.
I didn’t even go for the intervention on W&P…I just gave up.
softdrink: I don’t want to give up, since if I do that I’ll probably never read it… I just can’t seem to work it into my reading routine in a way that keeps me on track.