a room without books is like a body without a soul
i can never do those year in review questionnaires because i can't ever remember any of the answers. or, rather, my answers usually amount to "i don't know". but books i can do, not because i remember them any better than anything else, but because i have a goodreads account. nabbed from 
cloudsinvenice
1. How many books did you read this year?
49 new and 9 re-reads, plus a few that i started and couldn't finish.
2. Fiction to Non-Fiction Ratio?
new books = 38 : 8 (plus 1 short story collection and 2 poetry collections); re-reads were all fiction
3. Male/Female authors?
new books = 22 / 23; re-reads = 2 / 7
4. Books by People of Color?
only 4 that i know of, which is appalling. i did a lot better last year.
a mercy - toni morrison
spectre - verena tay
a society without fathers or husbands: the na of china - cai hua
how to live safely in a science fictional universe - charles yu
5. Books in translation/a second language?
we - yevgeny zamyatin
race for the south pole: the expedition diaries of scott and amundsen - roland huntford
a society without fathers or husbands: the na of china - cai hua
the reader - bernhard schlink
6. How many were borrowed from the library?
more than half? i borrow a lot from the library, but then i sometimes buy a book after i've read it if i like it enough to own. that confuses things.
7. Oldest book?
pride and prejudice
8. Newest book?
thankless in death - j.d. robb
9. Longest book title?
it's a two-way tie with 15 words each!
greek fire, poison arrows and scorpion bombs: biological and chemical warfare in the ancient world - adrienne mayor
the victorian internet: the remarkable story of the telegraph and the nineteenth century's on-line pioneers - tom standage
10. Shortest book title?
we - yevgeny zamyatin
11. Most by any one author?
two: j.d. robb, jim c hines, margaret atwood, julianna baggott, a.s. byatt
12. Favorites?
embassytown - china mieville (this blew my fucking mind)
approaching ice: poems - elizabeth bradfield (if you only ever read one collection of poetry about arctic/antarctic exploration, make it this one)
the swerve: how the world became modern - stephen greenblatt (i would like to move into this man's brain)
a mercy - toni morrison (are there any prizes she hasn't won? can we make some up for her?)
13. Least Favorite?
the company - k.j. parker (hands down the most boring, pointless, sluggish, anticlimactic book, with the least sympathetic characters i have ever had the misfortune to read)
14. How many were rereads?
see above
15. Favorite character?
16. Favorite scene?
17. Favourite quote? quotes i liked
Here I saw, with my own eyes, that laughter was the most terrible weapon: you can kill anything with laughter--even murder itself.
We, Yevgeny Zamyatin (trans Natasha Randall)
But I think it is true, and thus the question of whether it is sad or happy has no meaning whatever.
The Reader, Bernhard Schlink (trans Carol Brown Janeway)
Under the table, where a wounded animal might creep, felt like the right place for her. There were no expectations under there and no scrutiny.
Chasing the Light, Jesse Blackadder
No wonder I stayed away from kindness; in some ways it was worse than ill treatment. You could fight against cruelty, tooth and claw, but sympathy engulfed you, took you over, made you aware of all you'd done wrong.
The Ice Queen, Alice Hoffman
I stood and stared at these people and they serially failed to read my mind.
The Flame Alphabet, Ben Marcus
But then Job was a man. Invisibility was intolerable to men. What complaint would a female Job dare to put forth? And if, having done so, and He deigned to remind her of how weak and ignorant she was, where was the news in that? What shocked Job into humility and renewed fidelity was the message a female Job would have known and heard every minute of her life.
A Mercy, Toni Morrison
18. Most inspirational in terms of your own writing?
in a very direct way, approaching ice and chasing the light by jesse blackadder because they deal directly with something that i may or may not actually write about one day.
19. Which would you read again?
approaching ice
embassytown
delusions of gender - cordelia fine
the swerve
and all but one on my re-read list since they're books i own and love, which is why i re-read them in the first place.
--
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. If you feel inclined, comment there.
cloudsinvenice
1. How many books did you read this year?
49 new and 9 re-reads, plus a few that i started and couldn't finish.
2. Fiction to Non-Fiction Ratio?
new books = 38 : 8 (plus 1 short story collection and 2 poetry collections); re-reads were all fiction
3. Male/Female authors?
new books = 22 / 23; re-reads = 2 / 7
4. Books by People of Color?
only 4 that i know of, which is appalling. i did a lot better last year.
a mercy - toni morrison
spectre - verena tay
a society without fathers or husbands: the na of china - cai hua
how to live safely in a science fictional universe - charles yu
5. Books in translation/a second language?
we - yevgeny zamyatin
race for the south pole: the expedition diaries of scott and amundsen - roland huntford
a society without fathers or husbands: the na of china - cai hua
the reader - bernhard schlink
6. How many were borrowed from the library?
more than half? i borrow a lot from the library, but then i sometimes buy a book after i've read it if i like it enough to own. that confuses things.
7. Oldest book?
pride and prejudice
8. Newest book?
thankless in death - j.d. robb
9. Longest book title?
it's a two-way tie with 15 words each!
greek fire, poison arrows and scorpion bombs: biological and chemical warfare in the ancient world - adrienne mayor
the victorian internet: the remarkable story of the telegraph and the nineteenth century's on-line pioneers - tom standage
10. Shortest book title?
we - yevgeny zamyatin
11. Most by any one author?
two: j.d. robb, jim c hines, margaret atwood, julianna baggott, a.s. byatt
12. Favorites?
embassytown - china mieville (this blew my fucking mind)
approaching ice: poems - elizabeth bradfield (if you only ever read one collection of poetry about arctic/antarctic exploration, make it this one)
the swerve: how the world became modern - stephen greenblatt (i would like to move into this man's brain)
a mercy - toni morrison (are there any prizes she hasn't won? can we make some up for her?)
13. Least Favorite?
the company - k.j. parker (hands down the most boring, pointless, sluggish, anticlimactic book, with the least sympathetic characters i have ever had the misfortune to read)
14. How many were rereads?
see above
15. Favorite character?
16. Favorite scene?
17. Favourite quote? quotes i liked
Here I saw, with my own eyes, that laughter was the most terrible weapon: you can kill anything with laughter--even murder itself.
We, Yevgeny Zamyatin (trans Natasha Randall)
But I think it is true, and thus the question of whether it is sad or happy has no meaning whatever.
The Reader, Bernhard Schlink (trans Carol Brown Janeway)
Under the table, where a wounded animal might creep, felt like the right place for her. There were no expectations under there and no scrutiny.
Chasing the Light, Jesse Blackadder
No wonder I stayed away from kindness; in some ways it was worse than ill treatment. You could fight against cruelty, tooth and claw, but sympathy engulfed you, took you over, made you aware of all you'd done wrong.
The Ice Queen, Alice Hoffman
I stood and stared at these people and they serially failed to read my mind.
The Flame Alphabet, Ben Marcus
But then Job was a man. Invisibility was intolerable to men. What complaint would a female Job dare to put forth? And if, having done so, and He deigned to remind her of how weak and ignorant she was, where was the news in that? What shocked Job into humility and renewed fidelity was the message a female Job would have known and heard every minute of her life.
A Mercy, Toni Morrison
18. Most inspirational in terms of your own writing?
in a very direct way, approaching ice and chasing the light by jesse blackadder because they deal directly with something that i may or may not actually write about one day.
19. Which would you read again?
approaching ice
embassytown
delusions of gender - cordelia fine
the swerve
and all but one on my re-read list since they're books i own and love, which is why i re-read them in the first place.
--
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. If you feel inclined, comment there.