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Best Books of 2012 Survey-From Boston Bibliophile

How many books read in 2012?

51, as of December 28th.

How many fiction and non-fiction?

8 non-fiction and the rest fiction. That's an unusual amount of non-fiction for me!

Male/Female author ratio?

19 male and 26 female authors. I had a feeling I'd read more women this year, but didn't know it was that many more!

Favorite book of 2012?

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and/or The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak.

Least favorite?

Last Night at Chateau Marmont by Lauren Weisberger

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why?

Not that I can remember.

Oldest book read:

Plato's Symposium, written between 385-380 BCE.

Newest?

The Particle at the End of the Universe by Sean Carroll came out in November 2012.

Longest and shortest book titles?

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making; Symposium

Longest and shortest books?

I think Lorna Doone was the longest, not sure about the shortest, maybe Symposium again or Henry IV Part I.

How many books from the library?

6, including the Graceling audiobook.

Any translated books?

The Dwarves was translated from German, I think that's the only one. I still need to work on that!

Most read author of the year, and how many books by that author?

I didn't do a lot of repeat authors this year, probably Bruce Coville, since I read the last three books in The Unicorn Chronicles.

Any re-reads?

I don't think I counted any re-reads for purposes of the blog; I read Twelfth Night again for a class and Reading Lolita in Tehran for a book review (it was the 2012 pick for DC Reads).

Favorite character of the year?

Wade Watts from Ready Player One.

Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?

Various parts of the United States and Britain, the imaginary lands of Girdlegard, Eternal Sky,and Mallorea, an alternate universe England and Soviet Union, and apocalyptic versions of the States.

Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation?

Ready Player One was recommended by multiple friends and Books on the Nightstand. Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Lorna Doone , and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland were all personally recommended to me.

Which author was new to you in 2012 that you now want to read the entire works of?

Too many! Markus Heitz, Eva Stachniak, Katherine Longshore, Catherynne M. Valente...

Which books are you annoyed you didn’t read?

Insurgent by Veronica Roth, I started this year excited about it and I even bought it in August. Maybe I'll get to it by New Year's?

Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?

Quite a few. The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet and Special Topics in Calamity Physics were both books I regretted not getting to last year. Also, Lorna Doone had been kicking around for a while on my list, and I finally bought and read it this year.

*Bonus*

How many SFF books did you read this year?

This year, I read 20 SFF books, mostly published in 2012 too, so I feel like I have a better idea of the "state of the genre" than I did last year. Stay tuned for my SFF Lit post in January!

How many of the books you read were published this year?

18! I'm doing much better on new releases this year, probably thanks to more ARCs from publishers.

Comments

The phat ally said…
Oh man, I need to read Ready Player One!
Marie Cloutier said…
Everybody loves Ready Player One. Great meme!
I'm jealous that you finished T.S. Spivet. That is one I started twice now and keep getting sidetracked even though I am enjoying it. Err...

Ready Player One was a good one and although I was interested in the premise it took several friends recommending it, most particularly the audio version, to get me to finally read it. So glad that I did as it ended up being on my favorites list for the year.

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