Books of 2012 and 2013
Looking back, I discovered that I never did a proper books roundup of 2012, unlike in previous years ( 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005). Well, there's plenty of time to put that right. So here are my picks of both last year and this, in various categories. (Curses - LJ ate a long version of this post, so I'm going to be much briefer than I wanted. Probably just as well)
Total books: 237 this year, 259 last year - more than 2006 or 2007, less than any year since. More active weekends, plus devoting some commuting time to watching Doctor Who and Game of Thrones episodes.
Total page count: ~68,000 pages this year, ~77,800 last year, ~88,200 in 2011
Diversity: 71 (30%) by women this year, 65 (25%) by women last year - compares with 22% in 2011, 23% in 2010, 20% in 2009, 12% in 2008 and I don't seem to have counted previously. This year's total augmented by 10 Agatha Christie novels.
11 (5%) by PoC this year, 12 (5%) by PoC last year - compares with 5% in 2011, 9% in 2010, 5% in 2009, 2% in 2008. Could do better.
Most books by a single author:
2012: Jonathan Gash (11), Ursula Vernon (6), Ian Rankin (5), Alison Plowden and Justin Richards (4 each); though the Ursula Vernon and Alison Plowden books could be considered as component parts of a single work in each case.
2013: Agatha Christie (10), followed by Terrance Dicks (7), Jonathan Gash (6), Philip Sandifer (5), Cressida Cowell, Gary Russell, Ian Rankin and Neil Gaiman (4 each).
Non-fiction
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
46
19%
53
20%
69
23%
66
24%
88
26%
Best of 2012: The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, by Edmund de Waal - brilliant story of heirlooms, Proust, the Holocaust and Japan.
Best of 2013: A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf - wish I'd read it when I was an undergraduate, a fundamentally important essay about literature and gender.
Non-sfnal fiction
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
44
19%
48
19%
48
16%
50
18%
57
18%
Best of 2012: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë - I came to it late, but much my favourite Brontë novel - seems somehow a bit more in balance than her sisters' books.
Best of 2013: The Complete Stories of Zora Neale Hurston - brilliant collection of this unjustly obscured writer, not done any favours by its publisher.
Non-Whovian sff
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
65
27%
62
24%
78
26%
73
26%
78
23%
Best of 2012: Among Others, by Jo Walton - like most of the Hugo and Nebula voters, I found that papersky had somehow got inside my head and shared my memories.
Best of 2013: The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss - I don't usually go for big fantasy epics, but this somehow got to me.
Doctor Who fiction
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
72
30%
75
29%
80
27%
71
26%
70
19%
Best of 2012: Shada, the long awaited novelisation by Gareth Roberts from Douglas Adams' script.
Best of 2013: I'm going to cheat here. Although I enjoyed a lot of the Who,Torchwood and Sarah Jane fiction I read this year, pride of place goes to Philip Sandifer's TARDIS Eruditorum series of books ( vol 1, vol 2, vol 3, vol 4) which were tallied above with non-fiction, but are setting a new standard for Who criticism. (Honorable mention along the same lines to Graham Sleight's The Doctor's Monsters.)
Comics
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
30
13%
21
8%
27
9%
18
6%
28
8%
Best of 2012: Digger, by Ursula Vernon - a deserving winner of the Hugo.
Best of 2013: The Blue Lotus, by Hergé - the master of the genre finds his stride.
Making up the numbers were two poetry collections, Paul Muldoon in 2013 and Walt Whitman in 2012.
What do I need to round this off? Oh yes, a poll...
Total books: 237 this year, 259 last year - more than 2006 or 2007, less than any year since. More active weekends, plus devoting some commuting time to watching Doctor Who and Game of Thrones episodes.
Total page count: ~68,000 pages this year, ~77,800 last year, ~88,200 in 2011
Diversity: 71 (30%) by women this year, 65 (25%) by women last year - compares with 22% in 2011, 23% in 2010, 20% in 2009, 12% in 2008 and I don't seem to have counted previously. This year's total augmented by 10 Agatha Christie novels.
11 (5%) by PoC this year, 12 (5%) by PoC last year - compares with 5% in 2011, 9% in 2010, 5% in 2009, 2% in 2008. Could do better.
Most books by a single author:
2012: Jonathan Gash (11), Ursula Vernon (6), Ian Rankin (5), Alison Plowden and Justin Richards (4 each); though the Ursula Vernon and Alison Plowden books could be considered as component parts of a single work in each case.
2013: Agatha Christie (10), followed by Terrance Dicks (7), Jonathan Gash (6), Philip Sandifer (5), Cressida Cowell, Gary Russell, Ian Rankin and Neil Gaiman (4 each).
Non-fiction
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
46
19%
53
20%
69
23%
66
24%
88
26%
Best of 2012: The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, by Edmund de Waal - brilliant story of heirlooms, Proust, the Holocaust and Japan.
Best of 2013: A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf - wish I'd read it when I was an undergraduate, a fundamentally important essay about literature and gender.
Non-sfnal fiction
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
44
19%
48
19%
48
16%
50
18%
57
18%
Best of 2012: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë - I came to it late, but much my favourite Brontë novel - seems somehow a bit more in balance than her sisters' books.
Best of 2013: The Complete Stories of Zora Neale Hurston - brilliant collection of this unjustly obscured writer, not done any favours by its publisher.
Non-Whovian sff
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
65
27%
62
24%
78
26%
73
26%
78
23%
Best of 2012: Among Others, by Jo Walton - like most of the Hugo and Nebula voters, I found that papersky had somehow got inside my head and shared my memories.
Best of 2013: The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss - I don't usually go for big fantasy epics, but this somehow got to me.
Doctor Who fiction
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
72
30%
75
29%
80
27%
71
26%
70
19%
Best of 2012: Shada, the long awaited novelisation by Gareth Roberts from Douglas Adams' script.
Best of 2013: I'm going to cheat here. Although I enjoyed a lot of the Who,Torchwood and Sarah Jane fiction I read this year, pride of place goes to Philip Sandifer's TARDIS Eruditorum series of books ( vol 1, vol 2, vol 3, vol 4) which were tallied above with non-fiction, but are setting a new standard for Who criticism. (Honorable mention along the same lines to Graham Sleight's The Doctor's Monsters.)
Comics
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
30
13%
21
8%
27
9%
18
6%
28
8%
Best of 2012: Digger, by Ursula Vernon - a deserving winner of the Hugo.
Best of 2013: The Blue Lotus, by Hergé - the master of the genre finds his stride.
Making up the numbers were two poetry collections, Paul Muldoon in 2013 and Walt Whitman in 2012.
What do I need to round this off? Oh yes, a poll...