Books and audios of 2011
Total number of books for the year: 301 (counting the various Gibbon volumes as one). This is up from 278 in 2010 but below 2009's 346 and 2008's 374, thanks to watching old TV episodes (mostly Doctor Who) on my commute.
65/301 (22%) by women (23% in 2010, 20% in 2009)
15/301 (5%) by PoC (9% in 2010, 5% in 2009)
42/301 (14%) rereads (9% in 2010, 11% in 2009)
Non-fiction
Total 69 (23%; 24% in 2010, 26% in 2009)
Best of category: The two slave narratives by Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass. Though Gibbon is in a category of his own.
Fiction (other than sff)
Total 48 (16%; 18% in 2010, 18% in 2009)
Best of category: greatly enjoyed Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest.
SF (other than Doctor Who)
Total 78 (26%; 26% in 2010, 23% in 2009)
Best of category: This may seem a rather odd choice but Tom's Midnight Garden, published 53 years ago, grabbed me in a way that none of the more recent books published for a more mature audience managed to.
Doctor Who
Total (not counting comics) 80 (27%; 24% in 2010, 19% in 2009).
Best of category: Torchwood: First Born, the best of a good crop of Who books published this year; honourable mention also to Paul Cornell's fannishly gleeful No Future.
Comics
Total (including Doctor Who comics) 27 (9%; 8% in 2010 and 2009).
Best of category: I was blown away by the first two volumes of Mike Carey's The Unwritten, Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity and Inside Man.
Audios
I was hugely impressed with Big Finish's Peri and the Piscon Paradox which took one of the least satisfactory bits of TV Who continuity, and got Nicola Bryant and Colin Baker to exorcise it very effectively. It was generally a good year for Big Finish though.
Most read author of the year
Arthur Conan Doyle, with all 9 Sherlock Holmes books.
Also-rans: James Goss (7), Hergé (6), Ursula Le Guin (6), J.R.R. Tolkien (6), Justin Richards (4), Ian Rankin (4), David Martin (4).
Worst books of the year
A close-run thing between Kuifje in Afrika / Tintin in the Congo and The Onion's Our Dumb World.
All reviews indexed on Livejournal and Librarything.
Incidentally I read one book called Blackout and listened to an audiobook also called Blackout. Both were pretty poor.
65/301 (22%) by women (23% in 2010, 20% in 2009)
15/301 (5%) by PoC (9% in 2010, 5% in 2009)
42/301 (14%) rereads (9% in 2010, 11% in 2009)
Non-fiction
Total 69 (23%; 24% in 2010, 26% in 2009)
Best of category: The two slave narratives by Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass. Though Gibbon is in a category of his own.
Fiction (other than sff)
Total 48 (16%; 18% in 2010, 18% in 2009)
Best of category: greatly enjoyed Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest.
SF (other than Doctor Who)
Total 78 (26%; 26% in 2010, 23% in 2009)
Best of category: This may seem a rather odd choice but Tom's Midnight Garden, published 53 years ago, grabbed me in a way that none of the more recent books published for a more mature audience managed to.
Doctor Who
Total (not counting comics) 80 (27%; 24% in 2010, 19% in 2009).
Best of category: Torchwood: First Born, the best of a good crop of Who books published this year; honourable mention also to Paul Cornell's fannishly gleeful No Future.
Comics
Total (including Doctor Who comics) 27 (9%; 8% in 2010 and 2009).
Best of category: I was blown away by the first two volumes of Mike Carey's The Unwritten, Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity and Inside Man.
Audios
I was hugely impressed with Big Finish's Peri and the Piscon Paradox which took one of the least satisfactory bits of TV Who continuity, and got Nicola Bryant and Colin Baker to exorcise it very effectively. It was generally a good year for Big Finish though.
Most read author of the year
Arthur Conan Doyle, with all 9 Sherlock Holmes books.
Also-rans: James Goss (7), Hergé (6), Ursula Le Guin (6), J.R.R. Tolkien (6), Justin Richards (4), Ian Rankin (4), David Martin (4).
Worst books of the year
A close-run thing between Kuifje in Afrika / Tintin in the Congo and The Onion's Our Dumb World.
All reviews indexed on Livejournal and Librarything.
Incidentally I read one book called Blackout and listened to an audiobook also called Blackout. Both were pretty poor.