Mt TBR report: December 2014 & Yearly Wrap-up

[calissa]

Happy New Year! I hope it has been treating you well so far. As you can see, I’m back from my holiday. I had a lovely time with family and friends. My only complaint is that I didn’t get enough reading time (but when is that ever the case?).

With 2014 officially over, it’s time for me to take a good look at my reading stats for the year.

I read 56 books in 2014, which is a little on the slow side for me but within the trend of recent years. The overwhelming majority were fantasy and romance, with non-fiction trailing a distant third.

2014 was the first year I started tracking the gender of authors. I expected to discover I was reading a high percentage of male authors, since conventional wisdom says this is what most people default to. Instead, it turned out the other way around, with 69% of the books I read in 2014 written by women.

I also started tracking the number of books written by Australian authors. The figures came in at a disappointing 23%.

I read 24 new-to-me authors and 18 e-books.

I’m looking forward to seeing how 2015 stacks up against these stats.

 

Mt TBR status

Mt TBR @ 1 January: 191
Mt TBR @ 31 December: 216

Mt TBR finished much higher than I would have liked. Perhaps 2015 will be the year I finish with less books than I started.

I instituted a cull of Mt TBR on New Year’s Eve (which I may make a tradition), so there is some discrepancy between numbers from 31 December 2014 and 1 January 2015.

Mt TBR @ 1 January 2015: 202

 

Books read

54. Running Deer and Hidden Badger by K.D. Sarge. Reviewed here.

55. Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski. Review forthcoming.

56. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Brilliant writing on themes still relevant today. However, not an easy read emotionally or all that likeable.

 

 Books acquired

Earthrise by M.C.A. Hogarth
The Art of Mindful Walking by Adam Ford

 

Online Reading

Quindrebel by Helen Stubbs. A short story in which the eponymous character seeks to escape her coal-furnace prison. Based on Cinderella, the mixture of fairytale and technology gave it a curious steampunk feel.

Her Words Like Hunting Vixens Spring by Brooke Bolander. After Rosa is left at the altar, she hunts down her fiancé. I can’t tell you how much I loved this story. It’s a classic Wild West vengeance story with some gorgeous turns of phrase and lots of heart. Quite possibly my favourite short story of 2014.

Spoils of the Spoiled Ch 1, 2 by Pia Foxhall. Foxhall takes the characters from her Court of Five Thrones and places them in a Hogwarts-style academy in this alternate-universe story. I’ve enjoyed seeing how the characters translate to the new setting.

Why Wouldn’t She Be My Friend? I’m Fantastic by axolotlsGambit. From the summary: In which a bored hacker and an AI with a terrible job strike up a conversation, and determine that they are flirting. (Algorithmically.) Told via tweets and chat logs. Very amusing.

 

So that’s it from me on 2014. How did you fare with your reading for the year? I’m also curious to hear what sort of statistics you track in relation to your reading, so please stop in and let me know.

Mirrored from Earl Grey Editing.

Comments

[onewhitecrow]

I admit to nervy curiousity about Sapkowski, is this wise (it's probably not)?

[calissa]

I suppose that depends on what you're looking for. It's a pretty standard fantasy setting. Have you played any of the Witcher games?

The review is scheduled to go up next week.

[onewhitecrow]

Fantasy worth reading, 'cause I've really fallen out of the loop...I tend to avoid high fantasy because I'm aware of just how lucky I was growing up and what most of the genre is like, but I still love elves. To the point, unfortunately, that I get very annoyed if a book says it has real live wild elves and then has a) pointy-eared humans b) D&D elves (fine if one's setting is based on D&D, otherwise...no.) or c) glittery celery-eating luddites fading for no good reason. *hem* No, I haven't, sorry.

I will wait.

[calissa]

I would probably err to the side of skipping it, then. While there is a decent reason for the decline of the elves, they are very much in that D&D paradigm.

[clare_dragonfly]

Ooh, those first two online stories sound awesome! Thanks for sharing!

I didn't have any particular goals for my reading last year (other than shrink the paper TBR before moving). This year I'm... well, I guess again going to try to shrink the paper TBR before, hopefully moving again!

[calissa]

My pleasure! The first was written by a friend, the second was an awesome tip from onewhitecrow. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

How did you go with shrinking your paper Mt TBR last year?

[clare_dragonfly]

Hmm, I'm afraid I didn't keep very good track, but I'm pretty sure I got it smaller. I still had a lot of books to move, though!

[winterbird]

I love reading what you're reading (and tend to make screeching sounds that you're still reading some of my stuff. *blush* Sorry I go on so much!!!) - But it's so interesting seeing what you're looking at, how you feel about it. Thank you for sharing these.

As for me, I don't tend to track stats, but I probably consumed over 100 books, which is surprising, given I didn't think of it as a high reading consumption year. (And I easily consumed several million words of fanfiction, but I don't track that at all). Most of my book reading was research for publishers like Dreamspinner and Riptide, so it felt more like work in some ways - and I wasn't always reading the things I'd naturally be drawn to, I was scoping out their bestsellers and so on to see what worked for them.

I want to do more personal reading this year, and consume more non-fiction.

[calissa]

You don't go on that much. Hardly at all, in fact. And anyway, I think that kind of excitement is an important reward of being an author. <3

I confess I'm way behind with what you have posted so far. I really need to get onto that (so many books, so little time!)

I've been noticing you're keeping better track of what you've been reading on Goodreads. It really is an impressive volume! Have you thought about doing a recommendation post? (Not that my Mt TBR needs it)

Do personal reading and non-fiction coincide for you?

[winterbird]

Yeah personal reading and non-fiction often coincide for me. You know, subjects on clouds or weather, or biology and evolution, and things on science and physics. I also have a ton of pagan books to get through, since I have a terrible habit of acquiring them and never reading them.

But the convenience of the Kindle has also made me less likely to pick up a physical book as well. The exception was largely Rainbow Rowell - who is wonderful.

I might do a recommendation post one day. Especially as my review system on GR isn't accurate (I'm not comfortable giving anything from publishers I'm looking to publish with, a star rating of under 3 stars - so my review system for Riptide / Dreamspinner / Loose Id etc. is definitely not accurate, lol). Reviewing is hard! And I am a coward.

[calissa]

I thought your personal and non-fiction reading might coincide. I confess I've got a backlog of pagan books to get through, too.

I've heard good things about Rainbow Rowell. I really must give her a go. One year...

Reviewing is hard! It's such a difficult path to navigate when you're involved in the publishing industry, so I hope you won't be hard on yourself.

[winterbird]

I have to say, re: Rainbow Rowell, pick up Eleanor and Park and I swear to you, you'll get through it in less than two hours, even if you're not normally a fast reader. That book is designed to be read quickly, and it goes by *fast.* I'm not sure if that's an incentive, since I put off reading Fangirl for ages (and then devoured it in an afternoon, lol - but I swear, she writes like you just want to suck the words up off the page. :D

[calissa]

I'm definitely going to have to check her out now!

[lark_ascends]

A couple of years ago I did keep track of my reading, but it was EFFORT, so I stopped. I think I did pretty well with reading last year - I'm not reading fanfic really anymore, so pretty much all my time is back into reading books.

Mostly been reading chick lit or fantasy. Greatly enjoyed the Eragon books and been reading Brandon Sanderson's books which I've also really enjoyed.

[calissa]

It is a bit of effort to track everything, which is fine if you like that sort of thing (as I do) but otherwise...

I've not yet read anything by Brandon Sanderson but I think I'm going to have to fix that. Any recommendations for a place to start?

[lark_ascends]

The Mistborn series. Three books, and it's finished. He is intending to set some books further in the future in that world (and has already put out one), but the first three stand by themselves. Otherwise, it looks like he's starting big series. My only problem with that is that I have a pretty terrible memory for storylines/details, so I prefer to wait until a series is finished before reading. Yeah, the other series, The Stormlight Archive, is going to have something like 11 books. The first book, split over two, is out. He seems a fairly fast writer, though, which is good. I'd be dreading it if it was more like Isobelle Carmody (I read the first two books in the Obernewtyn series when I was 12. I'm now 32 and still waiting for the last book. I haven't even bothered reading the second to last as I'll need to reread the entire series).

[calissa]

Thanks for that. I've heard the Mistborn series mentioned quite a lot and it sounds like it is worth checking out. Looks like the library has a copy, too.

I'm in the same boat in relation to Isobelle Carmody. I'm not really holding my breath on that last book.

[lark_ascends]

I'm also not holding my breath on ever seeing last book in the Legendsong series, either, from Isobelle. I'd say we may get the last book in the Obernewtyn, but that's about it.