My reading this past year: 2011

If you know me, you know that I love to read. It seems when I find out someone else likes to read, I feel an instant bond. When I find out that we like to read similar genres, that person feels like a long lost cousin. When I find out that someone has read some of the same books I have, especially a novel or two that I really enjoyed, I declare that person my adopted sibling. I know. I take it too seriously.

Just to be weird, I’d like to break down what I read this past year. I have been keeping lists of what I read since 2003, and here is the latest.

I’ve rated the books by giving them five points, five being the best possible score. Here is the list broken down by genre:

Science Fiction:

A Player of Games, Iain M. Banks (3/5)
Awakening: Dead Forever Book 1, William Campbell (1/5)
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (5/5)
Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins (3/5)
Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (4/5)
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card (5/5)
Ariel, Steven Boyett (3/5)
Use of Weapons, Iain M. Banks (4/5)

Urban Fantasy:

Play Dead, John Levitt (3/5)
Uncertain Allies, Mark Del Franco (4/5)
River Marked, Patricia Briggs (4/5)
Death Masks, Jim Butcher (4/5)

Books on Writing:

How Not to Write a Novel, Howard Mittelmark (4/5)
The Nighttime Novelist, Joseph Bates (3/5)
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Renni Browne (5/5)

Non-fiction:

American Government, Paul Soifers (3/5)
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to World Religions, Brandon Toropov (4/5)
Quitter, Jon Acuff (3/5)
Pocket Guide to 2012: Your Once-in-a-Lifetime Guide to Not Completely Freaking Out, Jason Boyett (5/5)

Drama:

The Importance of Being Ernest, Oscar Wilde (3/5)

Contemporary Fiction:

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, Stieg Larsson (5/5)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer (5/5)
The Help, Kathryn Stockett (5/5)
Memoirs of an Antihero, Drew Blank (2/5)
Choke, Chuck Palahniuk (4/5)

Classics:

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (5/5)

Notes about my reading this year:

Without intention, I began and ended the year reading one of Iain M. Bank’s novels from his Culture series: A Player of Games and Use of Weapons. I have five more to go and I have decided to go ahead and begin 2012 by reading the rest of the series.
For the first time, I read books on a Kindle! I still read several of the books listed above in hard copy and even checked some of them out from the library.
I read about one book every two weeks. Wish I could read faster.
Rereads: Ender’s Game. This is at least the third time I’ve read it.
Worst book of the year: Awakening. Sorry, it was just too juvenile.
Favorite book of the year: The Hunger Games. I know this book is hyped, but it really kept me in suspense. I can’t wait until the movie.