By the way, just to be upfront about things, when I say “read” I often mean “listen” – but I consider consuming books with eyes, ears or fingertips to be reading.
This is the 5th year I’ve done these annual reading summaries. Writing about reading is turning into an enlightening subject because over time I can see my reading habits evolving and showing trends. I’ve been logging what I’ve read since 1983, and I’ve often wish I had started recording which books I read right from my very first book. (Just some advice to any bookworm tykes reading this.)
I kept a reading log once before, in the early 1970s when I was in college and had a lot more free time, and I read 452 books in 18 months. I hate that I lost that list. That epic reading period was mostly short science fiction paperbacks. I’ve always read mostly science fiction, a smattering of science, a handful of history books, and a few odds and ends. Since I’ve started these yearly summaries I always end up wishing I’d try more variety. I slowly have.
In 2012 I read 49 books.
I again read too much science fiction this year, but then I’m in the Classic Science Fiction Book Club. I’m also addicted to audiobooks and love to listen to all the old science fiction novels I first discovered back in the 1960s. I ended up reading to 22 science fiction books, way more than I should because I only read three actual science books. I’d be a lot more impressed with myself if I had read 22 science books and only 3 science fiction titles. Resolutions for next year: read only one SF book a month and read at least one science book a month.
Of course that brings up the whole fiction versus nonfiction guilt that I have. For me fiction is more fun, but nonfiction is more rewarding. Fiction can be deeply philosophical and observant of reality, but usually it’s just escapism. Science fiction is known for its sense of wonder, but none of the SF books I read this year could touch A Universe From Nothing, From Eternity to Here and The Mind’s Eye for their overwhelming sense of wonder.
Regarding the quality of fiction, the most thought provoking novels I read in 2012 were: Anna Karenina, A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, Freeman, On the Beach, The English Patient, The Age of Miracles, Frankenstein, Ready Player One and The Windup Girl. If I was honest with myself, I’d stop reading so much old science fiction because it’s just not that worthwhile. However, nostalgia often overwhelms my to read impulses. Science fiction imprinted on me at that impressionable age of 12 and I’ve never been able to give it up the habit.
I did read eight history books this year and they were so rewarding that I feel I need to up their number next year. My yearly averages for books read usually runs around four a month. See my past years 2011 (58), 2010 (53), 2009 (40), and 2008 (45).
For 2013 I’d like to aim for a monthly mix of:
- 1 novel
- 1 science book
- 1 history/other nonfiction book
- 1 new (2012/2013) title per month.
I’d also like to read one big classic novel during the year. This year was Anna Karenina. I’m thinking about Les Misérables for 2013.
Besides loving audiobooks, I love reading new books that just came out. It’s great fun to discover books published during the year and promote them with your friends and then have those books validated at the end of the year by showing up on Best Books of the Year lists. This year’s discoveries was Full Body Burden by Kristen Iverson and The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, but sadly they were only on a couple best of lists. I didn’t read Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo until after I saw it on a zillion lists this month, so it doesn’t count.
Every year when I write this summary of books read, I also think about which books I want to read for the next year. Since I have over 500 unread books sitting on my physical bookshelf, and over a 100 unread audiobooks sitting in my digital bookshelf, I should be concentrating on clearing out my backlog, but that doesn’t happen. Many of the books on my list below were bought just before I read them. I’m in three online and one local book club that discusses 5 books a month. That’s dictating too many of my reads – 19 this year. Obviously I didn’t read all 60 discussed books.
I would like to participate more in the book clubs, read more books off my to be read pile, as well as read as many new books as possible. That’s only possible if I read more books. I could give up television, but I’m not sure I can digest more than a book a week anyway.
In a perfect world, every book I read should be thought about for hours, researched, studied, discussed in a book club, and reviewed for my blog. To do all that would require 10-30 hours each week depending on the size of the book. Most books are 10-20 hours of listening time. Anna Karenina was 42 hours long, and it took me three weeks to finish. As a hobby I’m pushing my limits as a bookworm. I know bloggers who read 100+, 200+ and even 300+ books a year and write reviews. There are some real super-bookworms out there. I’m just not one of them. I can accept my smallish total if I read 52 great books each year. My goal is not to read more books, but better books.
Most of the books I “read” every year are books I listened too. I just don’t have much time for eyeball reading anymore. Theoretically, I might average two books a week, one listening and one reading, but I’d need to find more La-Z-Boy reading time, and that’s hard. I do watch a lot of TV and listen to a lot of music, so I suppose I could sacrifice some of that time. But do I want to be more of a bookworm? Sometimes I think I should be less of a bookworm, and do more active things. Or instead of reading books I should be writing them. I’m happy with the book a week pace. It would be nice to actually hit 52 books a year though.
Here are my favorite books I’ve read this year. Only the first was actually published in 2012.
Novel of the Year
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
Nonfiction Book of the Year
Eden’s Outcasts by John Matteson
Classic Science Fiction Book of the Year
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
Modern Science Fiction Book of the Year
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Most Recommended Book This Year
The Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Orekes and Erik Conway
Books Read in 2012
- The Gnostic Gospels (1979) – Elaine Pagels
- Tunnel in the Sky (1955) – Robert A. Heinlein
- Ready Player One (2011) – Ernest Cline
- 1959 (2009) – Fred Kaplan
- The Ecstasy of Influence (2011) – Jonathan Lethem
- Midnight Rising (2011) – Tony Horowitz
- The Forge of God (1987) – Greg Bear
- A Universe from Nothing (2012) – Lawrence M. Krauss
- Life (2010) – Keith Richards
- The Swerve (2011) – Stephen Greenblatt
- Pushing Ice (2005) – Alastair Reynolds
- Anna Karenina (1877) – Leo Tolstoy
- The Year of the Quiet Sun (1970) – Wilson Tucker
- Embassytown (2011) – China Miéville
- Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (2012) – Jenny Lawson
- The Last Starship From Earth (1968) – John Boyd
- Little Women (1868) – Louisa May Alcott
- Beyond This Horizon (1948) – Robert A. Heinlein
- The Day of the Triffids (1951) – John Wyndham
- Glory Road (1963) – Robert A. Heinlein
- Assignment in Eternity (1953) – Robert A. Heinlein
- Merchants of Doubt (2010) – Naomi Orekes and Erik Conway
- A For Andromeda (1962) – Fred Hoyle and John Elliot
- Imagine (2012) – Jonah Lehrer
- The Age of Miracles (2012) – Karen Thompson Walker
- The Listeners (1972) – James E. Gunn
- The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction (2009) – edited by Allan Kaster
- Full Body Burden (2012) – Kristen Iversen
- The Black Cloud (1957) – Fred Hoyle
- Freeman (2012) – Leonard Pitts, Jr.
- The Mind’s Eye (2010) – Oliver Sacks
- Horseman, Pass By (1961) – Larry McMurtry
- From Eternity to Here (2010) – Sean Carroll
- Ubik (1969) – Philip K. Dick
- A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man (1916) – James Joyce
- The Dog Stars (2012) – Peter Heller
- Eden’s Outcasts (2007) – John Matteson
- Aftershock (2010) – Robert B. Reich
- Frankenstein (1818) – Mary Shelley
- Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace (2012) – Kate Summerscale
- The Windup Girl (2009) – Paolo Bacigalupi
- The English Patient (1992) – Michael Ondaatje
- Space Cadet (1948) – Robert A. Heinlein
- The Worst Hard Times (2006) – Timothy Egan
- On the Beach (1957) – Nevil Shute
- Jumper (1992) – Steven Gould
- Behind The Beautiful Forevers (2012) – Katherine Boo
- Revelations (2012) – Elaine Pagels
- The Wizard of Oz (1900) – L. Brank Baum
I’ve annotated this list with links to my reviews.
The last book I read in 2012 was The Wizard of Oz in anticipation of Oz the Great and Powerful that comes out in Spring 2013.
JWH – 12/19/12
Auxiliary Memory 
I consider audio books to be “reading” as well, Jim. We are on the same page there.
I won’t get into the discussion of what worthwhile reading is other than to say that a) I discourage guilt, and b) as long as your reading is worthwhile to you then that is what matters and that is how I would suggest structuring your goals, which it looks like you did.
I too want to read more newly released books this year and would like to at least average reading one book every month that was released in that month. I’m working on that now as my first read cracked into today was the Jan 1st release of Timothy Zahn’s newest Star Wars novel. Pure nostalgia pick for me as it features Han Solo and Brian Daley’s Han Solo books were my earliest forays into SF. It was fun to order it on Kindle just after midnight and see it show up just a bit later.
I like your goals for the year and of course wish you much success. Love these end of the year posts. It is fascinating to look back and see if one gets into certain patterns, etc. I still ache when I think that you used to have those old records and don’t anymore. I wish for your sake that you still had them.
Happy New Year to you and yours Jim!
Earlier this year, I read Replay based on your recommendation. And, thought was an unexpected joy. So, I scrutinized your above lists closely. Thanks for the list.
I’m afraid Terry that a book like Replay doesn’t come along very often. However, I just realized I left off a great book from my list, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline! I can’t believe I left it off. I wonder how many other books did I leave off?
Ready Player One was a fantastic SF novel that used nostalgia for growing up in the 1980s as its plot. This even changes my Modern SF favorite book of the year.
I second the idea that listening to books counts as reading them! when I listen to a book in the car, I know i actually read more of the book as you can’t skim anything! I can never pick absolutely the best book of the whole year and I appreciate those people who can. I think you have a pretty broad list actually. Happy reading in 2013!
Out of all these 49 books i’ve only read Ready Player One and i agree that it was wonderful. We have very different tastes in choosing what to read!
Jim, you can’t read “too much science fiction” – unless, of course, you don’t enjoy it, in which case, why are you reading science fiction at all?
And I don’t get that whole “fiction versus nonfiction guilt” stuff. In fact, you seem to feel guilty about everything you enjoy doing. Why? Life’s too short for that!
The fact is, there’s never enough time for everything. There just isn’t. You’ll always have to pick and choose. But I don’t get why you’d feel “guilty” about reading one kind of book instead of another.
I suggest a New Year’s resolution to forget all that for 2013. Have a happy, non-guilt new year and read whatever you feel like reading at the time. 🙂
My first book of 2013 is Daemon by Daniel Suarez. So far it’s a heck of a good audiobook.
My first book of the year was Confessions of a Crap Artist by Philip K. Dick on audio. It was fantastic. I now consider it PKD’s best book. I read it back in the 1970s but had long forgotten it.