2011: The Year in Books

Each year, I like to do a post looking back at the books I read in the previous year. In past years, this hasn't told regular readers much they didn't know, because I was religious about posting book reviews. This year, not so much. So if you see anything on the list that you want to know my thoughts about, just ask. 

Thanks in large part to the iPods that Lauren and I gave each other last Christmas, my numbers are way up, though most of them are audiobooks. Last year was a record low (since I started keeping records in '99) 24 books read. This year marks a record high: 64. Of those, 50 (!) were audiobooks (the rest included 3 ebooks and just 11 dead tree books). A few different factors go into this: the low number of "real" books comes in part from the lack of reading time that having a young child involves and in part from the fact that I was re-reading the first eight doorstops of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series; the high number of audiobooks is because my iPod lets me listen to them faster than normal (and I can get them for free from a whole bunch of Indiana libraries via direct download). Speaking of re-reads, 11 of the 63 books I read were re-reads (Erikson's plus the first four books of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire in preparation for reading the new one).

Below, I've listed all the books I read by category, indicating which were audiobooks (aud) and which we re-reads. As I wrote above, if you're interested in hearing more about any of these, let me know, because I haven't reviewed very many of them.

Fantasy and Science Fiction (34)

Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay (aud)
Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice (re-read)

Orson Scott Card, Pathfinder (aud)

Steven Erikson, House of Chains (re-read)

Orson Scott Card, The Lost Gate (aud)

Steven Erikson, Midnight Tides (re-read)

Orson Scott Card, Empire (aud)

Orson Scott Card, Hidden Empire (aud)

Steven Erikson, The Bonehunters (re-read)

Scott Lunch, The Lies of Locke Lamora (aud)

Patrick Rothfus, The Name of the Wind (aud)

Scott Lynch, Red Seas Under Red Skies (aud)

Patrick Rothfus, The Wise Man’s Fear (aud)

Guy Gavriel Kay, Under Heaven (aud)

Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (aud)

Janny Wurts, Stormed Fortress

George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones (aud, re-read)

George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings (aud, re-read)

George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords (aud, re-read)

Jasper Fforde, Shades of Grey (aud)

George R.R. Martin, A Feast for Crows (aud, re-read)

China Mieville, The City and the City (aud)

Steven Erikson, Reaper’s Gale (re-read)

George R.R. Martin, A Dance With Dragons

Jim Butcher, Ghost Story

Steven Brust, Tiassa

Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children (aud)

Albert Brooks, Twenty-Thirty (aud)

S.M. Stirling, Island in the Sea of Time (aud)

Steven Erikson, Toll the Hounds (re-read)

S.M. Stirling, Against the Tide of Years (aud)

Janny Wurts, Initiate’s Trial

S.M. Stirling, On the Oceans of Eternity (aud)

Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl (aud)

General Fiction (7)

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (e-book)

John Green, Will Grayson, Will Grayson (aud)

John Green, An Abundance of Katherines (aud)

Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader (aud)

John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany (aud)

William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (aud)

Vladamir Nabokov, Lolita (aud)

George Pelecanos, The Way Home (aud)

History (1)

Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror (aud)

Humor (2)

Roy Blount Jr., Long Time Leaving (aud)

Stephen Colbert, I Am America And So Can You (aud)

Non-fiction, Self-Help, Leadership, Business (19)

Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Work Wrrk (aud)

Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (aud)

Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Body (e-book)

Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step (e-book)

Brooks Landon, Building Great Sentences (aud)

Joshua Foer, Moonwalking With Einstein (aud)

Nicholas Carr, The Shallows (aud)

Malcolm Gladwell, Blink (aud)

Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (aud, re-read)

James Hunter, The Servant Leadership Training Course (aud)

Adele Faber, How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk (aud)

Daniel H. Pink, Drive (aud)

Chip Heath, Switch (aud)

James O. Toole and George Guidall, Leadership A-Z (aud)

Daniel Amen, Change Your Brain, Change Your Body (aud)

John Medina, Brain Rules (aud)

Douglas Mason and Spencer Smith, The Memory Doctor (aud)

Novella Carpenter, Farm City (aud)

David Brooks, The Social Animal