2009 in Books

2009 book meme.

How many books read in 2009?
32 plus 2 I didn't finish until after New Year's.

How many fiction and nonfiction?
30 fiction, 2 non-fiction. I really don't read a lot of non-fiction.

Male/Female author ratio?
21 male, 13 female (two books were written by two authors)

Favorite book of 2009?
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch and Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.

Least favorite?
Temple by Matthew Reilly.

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why?
Fan-Tan by Marlon Brando, partly because I didn't have time to finish it before I left Australia to go back to Norway and I didn't have room in my backpack to take it with me, and partly because it wasn't all that good.

Oldest book read?
They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie (1951)

Newest?
The Doomsday Prophecy by Scott Mariani (12 January 2009)

Longest and shortest book titles?
Longest: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Shortest: Temple

Longest and shortest books?
I didn't keep track of the number of pages in the books I read in Australia, but longest has to be The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by G.W. Dahlquist. The shortest is probably L'oeil du loup by Daniel Pennac.

How many books from the library?
None... The books on my own shelves will last me a long time.

Any translated books?
3 translated from English to Norwegian and 1 from German to English.

Most read author of the year, and how many books by that author?
3 books by Scott Mariani, 2 by Neil Gaiman, 2 by Rosamunde Pilcher, 2 by Janet Evanovich and 2 by Clive Cussler.

Any re-reads?
Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher. I love reading that book over Christmas (started it in December 2008, but didn't finish it until January).

Favorite character of the year?
Locke Lamora from The Lies of Locke Lamora and Dustfinger from Inkheart.

Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?
Oh dear. I don't remember all of them, but here are some: Scotland, England, USA, Australia, Italy, Germany, Iraq, Greece, Israel, Austria, Slovenia, France, Switzerland, Peru, Camorr, Discworld.

Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation?
I don't think anyone specifically recommended any of the books, but I had heard good things about some of them on BookCrossing, and would probably not have checked them out if not for that.

Which author was new to you in 2009 that you now want to read the entire works of?
Cornelia Funke

Which books are you annoyed you didn’t read?
I'm not annoyed, but I wish I had gotten around to finishing Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?
Define "always". There were a couple I had been planning to read for maybe two or three years, but no longer than that.

Booking Through Thursday

The northern hemisphere, at least, is socked in by winter right now… So, on a cold, wintry day, when you want nothing more than to curl up with a good book on the couch … what kind of reading do you want to do?

In the weeks leading up to Christmas I like reading Christmas-themed books; you know, the ones with love and family and miracles that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside just because it's Christmas. Through the rest of winter I like to curl up on my exceptionally comfy sofa with a blanket and a huge book of some sorts. I find winter a great season for historical fiction (especially gothic), epic fantasy and general thrillers. Oh, and Harry Potter.

Examples of "winter books" are The Historian, The Thirteenth Tale, The Other Boleyn Girl, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Jim Rollins' Sigma series and Scott Lynch's The Gentleman Bastard sequence.