Saturday, January 9, 2010

2009 Reading Meme!

Here's a fun reading meme I found over at BookClub Care's blog.

How many books read in 2009?

87

How many fiction and non fiction?

70 fiction versus 17 nonfiction. I think my preference is clear!

Male/Female author ratio?

41 male authors to 47 female authors- almost 50/50! One book, Broad Appeal, is an anthology of womens' comics edited by a man; I counted it once in each category.

Favorite book of 2009?

Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese.

Least favorite?

Sonata for Miriam by Linda Olsson. Just. Awful.

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why?

Several. The Russian Debutante's Handbook. The Story of French. Jarrettsville. See Unfinished Friday for more!

Oldest book read?

Strange Ways, by Rokhl Faygenberg, originally published in 1925.

Newest?

Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel.

Longest and shortest book titles?

Longest: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. Shortest: Spiced, by Dalia Jurgensen.

Longest and shortest books?

Longest book: either Wolf Hall or The Children's Book. Shortest: Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan.

How many books from the library?

Three library books. I'm not a big borrower.

Any translated books?

The Funeral Party, by Ludmila Ulitskaya, and Siberia, by Nikolai Maslov, translated from Russian. Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, Klezmer: Tales of the Wild East, by Joann Sfar (French); The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka (German); The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Swedish); Valley of Strength by Shulamit Lapid, Someone to Run With, by David Grossman, And From There You Shall Seek, by Joseph Soloveitchik (Hebrew); Rachel Calof's Story by Rachel Calof and Strange Ways by Rokhl Faygenberg (Yiddish); Isaac's Torah by Angel Wagenstein (Bulgarian).

Most read author of the year, and how many books by that author?

Margaret Atwood, with two books- her latest The Year of the Flood and its companion novel Oryx & Crake. Other than that no repeats!

Any re-reads?

No- no re-reads this eyar.

Favorite character of the year?

Thomas Cromwell of Wolf Hall.

Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?

India, Russia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Slovenia, Hungary, Britain, Israel, Lebanon, Germany, France, Poland, Sweden, Sudan, Ethiopia, Iceland.

Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation?

The Polski Affair, by Leon H. Gildin. Lorri's review at her JewWishes blog was instrumental in persuading me to read this book.

Which author was new to you in 2009 that you now want to read the entire works of?

Elizabeth Strout. Loved her luminous Olive Kitteridge.

Which books are you annoyed you didn’t read?

I wish I'd gotten to The Anthologist, Nicholson Baker's new one. But I have it, and I will read it.

Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?

No. I need to work on that in 2010.

2009 TOP TEN Events in Marie's Book Life - in no particular order:

10. Boston Book Fest. Lots of fun.

9. Meeting Ann Kingman of Books on the Nightstand and Dawn of She is Too Fond of Books,

8. Meeting authors China Mieville, Ariel Sabar and Abraham Verghese at readings,

7. The Boston BEA Tweetup,

6. Attending ReaderCon, a science fiction and fantasy conference. I learned a lot!

5. Having author Scott Pomfret attend my book club meeting,

4. Meeting Margaret Atwood, one of my all-time-ever-top-favorite writers,

3. Having one of my reviews published in a high school English textbook,

2. Saying hi to pals and making new friends at the always-fun and enriching conferences of the Massachusetts Library Association and the Association of Jewish Libraries,

1. Reading all of your blogs & comments!

13 comments:

Ann Kingman said...

Oh, I'm so honored, thank you!
But how do you keep all of this straight? I could not do this meme, even if I had kept track of all of the books I read this year (I stopped tracking in JUne, I think). There's especially no way I could have listed all of the countries!

JoAnn said...

You've had a great year, Marie!
(note to self - read Cutting for Stone in 2010)

Care said...

We read the same number of books! woo hoo. And many of the same books, which is also interesting to me.

bermudaonion said...

Great meme! I love that you listed your top 10 events!

Rebecca @ The Book Lady's Blog said...

Oh, this is a fun meme, and I need to make time to do it! So glad to see another blogger loving CUTTING FOR STONE. It was wonderful.

And wasn't SONATA FOR MIRIAM the one you called a giant turkey of a book or something like that? I loved that description (and therefore never considered reading the book). Happy 2010 reading!

Anonymous said...

Wow, Marie, you read a lot of translated books and "visited" quite a few countries. I feel like I'm constantly reading books set in England or America; I need to work on that for 2010.

Ali said...

It's so fun to see all our different reading styles summed up in these posts. Sounds like you had a great reading-and-blogging year.

rhapsodyinbooks said...

I believe my longest and shortest titles for the year are the same as yours! And I do put Cutting for Stone in my top 5, although I am unable to rank 1-5 in any meaningful way that would persist from one mood to the next.

Fun meme!

Alexia561 said...

What an interesting meme! Never thought about the ratio of male to female authors before, but off the top of my head I think I skew towards female writers. Sure there's a reason, but can't think what it might be! *L*

Anonymous said...

Cutting for Stone was my favorite in 2008 (again, same taste...) :-) Wolfe Hall is on my reading list, it looks overwhelming at first!

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

Great year in books for you Marie. Cutting for Stone was also on top for me as well. That is a lot of record keeping on your part -- all those different categories.

BTW...You Maine Coon cat is beautiful. We use to have one like her but she disappeared when we use to have indoor/outdoor cats.

Happy Reading in 2010!

April (BooksandWine) said...

Awesome meme! I love the picture of the cat on the bookcase :-D

Zibilee said...

Cool meme! The cat looks like he's guarding the book case with intensity!!