How many books read in 2019?
I read 71 books in 2019. That's down 1 from last year.
How many fiction and non fiction? 48 fiction versus 23 nonfiction.
Male/Female author ratio? 45 female writers to 26 male.
Diversity?Of 71 authors 25 were people of color. That meets my goal of 20-25 POC authors in 2019 and represents just over 1/3 of the total.
Favorite book of 2019? Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken was my favorite novel; for nonfiction I loved The Queen by Josh Levin, My Own Country by Abraham Verghese and The Dinosaur Artist by Paige Smith.
Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why? A few. Just ran out of steam on them.
Oldest book read? Probably My Own Country, published in 1995. It was a year of recent reads.
Newest? We Ride Upon Sticks and Are There Presently, by Quan Barry, to be published in March 2020.
Longest and shortest book titles? Shortest title: Bunny, by Mona Awad
Longest title: The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna, by Juliet Grames
Longest and shortest books?Longest: Killing Commendante, by Haruki Murakami
Shortest: Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata
How many books from the library?None! I didn't visit a library all year. Sad! For the fourth year in a row, too.
Any translated books?I read books or stories translated from Japanese, Russian, Italian, Danish, Polish, Finnish, Swedish, and Hebrew. I really have not read many translated books this year- only 10. And none from French which is kind of shocking. So that's a thing to do more of next year and a big surprise honestly.
Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?I went to Japan, Russia, Italy, France, Denmark, Poland, Finland, Albania, Israel, France, China, the Philippines, South Africa, Scotland, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Zambia, Sweden, England, Ireland, the Bahamas, Colombia, Cuba, Palestine, Egypt, and Nigeria. But mostly in English language originals.
Most read author of the year, and how many books by that author? I did not repeat a single author all year.
Any re-reads?Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris. I did it on audio whereas I had originally read it in print.
Favorite character of the year? Small Frank from French Exit.
Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation?
Writers & Lovers by Lily King.
Which author was new to you in 2019 that you now want to read the entire works of?
Oyinkan Braithewaite.
Which books are you annoyed you didn't read?Nothing really.
Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?My Own Country, by Abraham Verghese.
Bookish Events in Marie's LifeI started a new job at a bookstore in Brooklyn. That's honestly about it. I'm pretty disconnected from the literary world despite sitting at one of its spokes. Two of my friends published books- Rebecca Kim Wells published Shatter the Sky and Tracy Strauss published I Just Haven't Met You Yet. I went to events for them so that was pretty cool.
Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2020:In 2020 I'm delving into my crime backlog and my most-anticipated reads are
- Grotesque, by Natsuo Kirino,
- Macbeth, by Jo Nesbo,
- Gang of Lovers, by Massimo Carlotto,
- Black Star Nairobi, by Mukoma wa Ngugi and
- Cult X, by Fuminori Nakamura.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.