Mid-year book roundup
I do a big book post at the end of each year quantifying all the reading I did. Since it's been a good reading year so far (I am half-way to my goal, and they've all been good books), I thought I'd do a mid-year book post. Not quite as detailed, but hopefully enough to satiate me until December.
So far, I've read four books by women and four books by men. The book I'm reading now is by a male author, but I already know the book I'm reading next is by a female author so the scales will only be temporarily tipped. I read four of them before and three are new to me. The authors' ages cover a nearly 50-year range, the youngest being Veronica Roth at 25 (UGH) and the oldest being James Hamilton-Paterson at 72. Murakami (65) will skew the mean upward and Atwood (74) will widen the range further. All authors are US-born except for Hamilton-Paterson (UK). Murakami will add Japan and Atwood Canada.
The beginning of the year was mostly fictionless, Sedaris' Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls providing only a few non-essay pieces. Since picking up Divergent in April, it's been only fiction, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle will make it even (if you count Sedaris as half-and-half). Of the non-fiction I read, three were memoirs, one was self-improvement/social science, and one American history. The fictions were short stories, YA fantasy, and humorous fiction. So far, all the books were published in the last ten years. (Murakami, who changes everything, will also change that.)
I finished one series and started another, although I'm not necessarily sold on Divergent. I hear the third book made people angry (which at once makes me want to both avoid it and read it, because I sometimes like book rage). Three books were gifts (two from Sharon and one from mom), three were purchased (two from Strand, one from Amazon via Holly), one was borrowed (from Kate) and one stolen (from Lindsay). Book clubs have had no impact on my reading so far, and movies have influenced one book, although I have yet to see Divergent.
That appears to do it for now.
So far, I've read four books by women and four books by men. The book I'm reading now is by a male author, but I already know the book I'm reading next is by a female author so the scales will only be temporarily tipped. I read four of them before and three are new to me. The authors' ages cover a nearly 50-year range, the youngest being Veronica Roth at 25 (UGH) and the oldest being James Hamilton-Paterson at 72. Murakami (65) will skew the mean upward and Atwood (74) will widen the range further. All authors are US-born except for Hamilton-Paterson (UK). Murakami will add Japan and Atwood Canada.
The beginning of the year was mostly fictionless, Sedaris' Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls providing only a few non-essay pieces. Since picking up Divergent in April, it's been only fiction, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle will make it even (if you count Sedaris as half-and-half). Of the non-fiction I read, three were memoirs, one was self-improvement/social science, and one American history. The fictions were short stories, YA fantasy, and humorous fiction. So far, all the books were published in the last ten years. (Murakami, who changes everything, will also change that.)
I finished one series and started another, although I'm not necessarily sold on Divergent. I hear the third book made people angry (which at once makes me want to both avoid it and read it, because I sometimes like book rage). Three books were gifts (two from Sharon and one from mom), three were purchased (two from Strand, one from Amazon via Holly), one was borrowed (from Kate) and one stolen (from Lindsay). Book clubs have had no impact on my reading so far, and movies have influenced one book, although I have yet to see Divergent.
That appears to do it for now.