An Analysis of the Books I Read in 2011 aka Nerd Alert IV

Books read: 55

• Average # of books read/month: 4.6
• Non-fiction: 16 (29%)
• Fiction: 39 (71%)
• YA Fiction: 4 (7%)
• Books by male authors: 34 (61%)
• Books by female authors: 21 (39%)
• Disliked:14 (25%)
• Ambivalent about/sort of liked:9 (17%)
• Actively enjoyed: 32 (58%)

By Genre:

• Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 8
• Biography/Memoir: 7
• Science/Medical: 3.5 (I’m only counting the UFO book as half of a science book. There, are you happy skeptics???)
• Mystery/Thriller: 4
• Graphic novels: 0
• Spiritual: 1
• Poetry: 0 (This is bad/It makes me sad)
• Historical Fiction: 1
• Short story collections/Anthologies: 2
• Contemporary fiction: 5
• Books about food: 2
• History: 3
• Horror: 14
• Classics: 0 (Haha take THAT Literature!)
• Romance: 0

Compared to 2010:

• I read 23 fewer! Unbelievable. I blame society, and the presence of so many excellent scripted shows on television. Also I should probably stop re-reading huge, 1000+ page Stephen King books that I have already read. Especially when he’s still writing NEW 1000+ page books I have yet to read!/Give other authors a chance, Jane! (Ok my first book of 2012 was 11/22/63, but after that’s done I will branch out, I promise).
• I liked most of the books I read this year, a 20% increase over last year! If I was a company and those were my financial results, my shareholders would be rich! Which is to say, can I somehow make money from this book picking ability?
• I was all about revealing/trashy celebrity biographies this year - Oh-ooh-oh-ah-oh-prah's taking the cake, of course. Celebrities whose biographies I will seek out in 2012: Coco (does she have one? SHE MUST), Mindy Kaling, Darrell Hammond, Diane Keaton, Lucille Ball.

Notes & Superlatives

• Repeated authors: Stephen King (2 years running! I'm sure this means more to him than all his other accomplishments), and George R.R. Martin (ironic considering he finishes a book every 10 years). Wow this list is really earning it's nerd alert title.
• Authors I discovered this year: I'll definitely be picking up some other books by William Gay, Yannick Murphy, Ben Winters, and Jonathan Carroll.
• Favorite book of 2011 (fiction): The Call by Yannick Murphy. In a year filled with genre fiction this subtle epistolary story set on a farm surprised me with how much I enjoyed it and how much I kept thinking about it after the fact. I also really liked A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. I guess the Pulitzer Prize *does* mean something.
• Favorite book of 2011 (non-fiction): Bossypants! The only book I read last year to get 5 stars. Tina Fey you glorious monster, please never stop shining your light on our sad little world. I also really enjoyed Keith Richard's autobiography, if only for the pictures inside of a young, hot Keith, taken before his face turned into an old leather baseball mitt.
• Least Favorite book of 2011: Mini-Shopaholic. Maybe it was the recession but somehow I couldn't enjoy or relate to a book about an irresponsible twerp and her whiny brat shopping and having HIGH-larious misunderstandings and hi-jinks. OR Mockingjay, the third book in the Hunger Games series. This book should have never been written. If you do want to read the series (overall I give it a rating somewhere between a slightly interested raised eyebrow and a grunted "meh") stop after the second book. I beg of you!
• Funniest book of 2011: Bossypants. Even the cover with the disturbing man arms makes me laugh uncomfortably!
• Saddest book of 2011: The Long Goodbye, by Meghan O'Rourke. It's a memoir about her mother dying. I CAN'T. I love you mom!
• Scariest book of 2011: Bedbugs, by Ben Winters. I'm still feeling itchy and thinking every stray lint ball is the scouting party of a giant army of bloodthirsty insects.
• Things the books I read made me want to do this year: Go to Papua New Guinea, try umeboshi plums, check my mattress for bedbugs (see above), call my mom, be nicer to retail employees, add more sea vegetables to my diet, watch 80s movies, write more, and read more. Read everything!

What's your first book of 2012? Authors currently hanging out on my bedside table include Glen Duncan, Dorianne Laux, S.J. Watson, Mindy Kaling, Cormac McCarthy, Annie Proulx, and Louis de Bernières. It's going to be a good year....!

In sum: I love books. You should too. I now have a Nintendo Wii but I'll try not to let Mariokart eat into my reading time. YAY LIFE!