Reading Report

Books to the ceiling, books to the sky.
My piles of books are a mile high.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
≈ Arnold Lobel

To date this year I have read 151 books; this includes two books that I read a significant portion of but did not finish and do not plan to revisit. I would like to reach 200, but I’m not sure I’ll make it.

Of the books, 94 were mystery/detective/suspense novels or collections of short stories in that genre. This is partly because I have two “projects” or challenges going on in that genre; one is to read all the Edgar Best Novel Winners, in chronological order (they’ve been given out since 1954, and I’m up to the late 90s now); the other is to read at least one mystery, by an author new to me, from every state in the Union and Washington, D.C. I just finished a book from Michigan a couple of days ago. The other reason, besides that I like mysteries, is my participation in the DorothyL listserv, where I am constantly reminded of old favorites who have new books and l also learn about authors I’d not been aware of.

Nine of the books were fantasy or speculative fiction; most of those were by Terry Pratchett. The two books I didn’t finish also fell into that category.

Fiction of various other kinds accounted for 30 books; I also read one autobiography, two memoirs, and 15 other non-fiction books.

The third challenge I’ve set for myself is to complete reading the Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (I’ve done a recount and it’s actually 1070, since they lump all Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series together as well as some other trilogies, quartets and other series). Optimistically believing that I might have 25 years of reading in which to do this, I calculated that I should be reading 40 of the novels per year (since I had already read a couple of hundred or so during the course of my reading life). So far this year I have read 21 novels from the list.

So, between now and December 31, my goal is to read 48 1/2 more books (I’ve already made good progress on #152), of which 19 ought to be from the Guardian’s list. Since I have some other things I want to do and/or have to do, I may not reach that goal. But I will enjoy trying!