Tag Archives: year in review

Audiobook Recap 2011

Posted by melydia on January 2, 2012 None comments

I participated in two audiobook reading challenges in 2011, and I think I did fairly well, all told.

Books listened to: 34 (plus the last bit of Spook by Mary Roach and the first bit of The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly)

Total discs: 309 (though I did listen to a few on mp3)

Total time: 16 days, 13 hours, 29 minutes (aka 397 hours, 29 minutes). Most of that was in my car.

Male/Female Authors: 23/11

Male/Female Readers: 20/19

Shortest: Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith at 3 hours.

Longest: I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb at 32 hours, 15 minutes.

Full list: here

I don’t think I’ll be getting any awards, though as far as I can tell I’ve earned the “obsessed” and “singing it from the mountaintops” badges. I was so close to the highest badge on Bewitched Bookworks, but oh well. I would have made it had I driven to Illinois this summer instead of flown, but my busted ankle changed my life in a lot of ways.

You may have noticed that I didn’t mention which books I liked best or least. That’s just too hard. I really enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy by Collins, the Uglies series by Westerfeld, and of course everything by Gaiman and Funke and Hill. Most of the readers were excellent, with extra props to Corine Montbertrand and the cast of The Help in particular.

I won’t be signing up for any challenges this year. I’m tired, man! But I wish everyone the best of luck in whatever challenges they pursue in 2012. Happy New Reading Year! :D

Year-end Book Roundup: 2011

Posted by melydia on December 31, 2011 4 comments

Books Read in 2011:
1. Death from the Skies! by Philip Plait
2. Original Sin by Beth McMullen
3. Expiation by Greg Messel
4. The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by Bobby Henderson
5. The Animal Review by Jacob Lentz and Steve Nash
6. Lodestone: The Sea of Storms by Mark Whiteway
7. First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells
8. Exchange by Dale R. Cozort
9. Storm Front by Jim Butcher
10. The Talisman of Elam by Jim Mastro
11. Rin-Tin-Tin: The Movie Star by Ann Elwood
12. The Dog Park by Ann Elwood
13. Borneo Tom by Tom McLaughlin
14. The Dark City by Catherine Fisher
15. 1,001 Things You Didn’t Know You Wanted to Know by Anna Mantzaris
16. Threadbared by Kimberly Wrenn and Mary Watkins
17. Whom God Would Destroy by Commander Pants
18. How I Stole Johnny Depp’s Alien Girlfriend by Gary Ghislain
19. The Demon Queen and the Locksmith by Spencer Baum
20. The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark
21. Lodestone Book Two: The World of Ice and Stars by Mark Whiteway
22. The Torah Codes by Ezra Barany
23. Releasing Gillian’s Wolves by Tara Woolpy
24. Otherworld Tales by C.T. Markee
25. The Meowmorphosis by Coleridge Cook and Franz Kafka
26. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
27. The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
28. Neopets Ghoul Catchers #1: The Creeping Danger by Vivian Larue
29. Finders Keepers by Russ Colchamiro
30. Waterwoman by Lenore Hart
31. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
32. The Two Dead Girls by Stephen King
33. The Mouse on the Mile by Stephen King
34. Coffey’s Hands by Stephen King
35. The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix by Stephen King
36. Night Journey by Stephen King
37. Coffey on the Mile by Stephen King
38. White River Junctions by Dave Norman
39. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
40. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
41. The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
42. The Last Cowgirl by Jana Richman
43. The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
44. The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick
45. Grover G. Graham and Me by Mary Quattlebaum
46. River Rat: The Storm Treasure by Joseph Fleck
47. Lodestone Book Three: The Crucible of Dawn by Mark Whiteway
48. Highlander: The Captive Soul by Josepha Sherman
49. The Patron Saint of Eels by Gregory Day
50. Revenge by Mark Young
51. Ireland (Little-Known Facts about Well-Known Places) by David Hoffman
52. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
53. Jennifer Government by Max Barry
54. The Prestige by Christopher Priest
55. Hounded by Kevin Hearne

Books Listened to in 2011:
1. Spook by Mary Roach
2. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
3. Don’t Know Much About Mythology by Kenneth C. Davis
4. Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult
5. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien
6. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
7. The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
8. Dune by Frank Herbert
9. Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
10. Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith
11. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
12. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
13. Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules edited by David Sedaris
14. 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
15. I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
16. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
17. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
18. Divergent by Veronica Roth
19. The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
20. The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov
21. The Collectors by David Baldacci (abridged)
22. The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov
23. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
24. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
25. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
26. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
27. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
28. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
29. Specials by Scott Westerfeld
30. Extras by Scott Westerfeld
31. Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life by Douglas T. Kenrick
32. Trackers by Deon Meyer
33. Horns by Joe Hill
34. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
35. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Books Started but not Finished:
* Creative, Inc. by Joy Deangdeelert Cho and Meg Mateo Ilasco (just didn’t interest me)
* Fractured Time by Michael D’Ambrosio (I just…couldn’t.)
* Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov (Had too much trouble following the story)
* Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami (Couldn’t understand it and didn’t care enough to try)

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2010 Stats

Posted by melydia on December 31, 2010 4 comments

Does anybody really read these? I don’t, but since blogs are all about celebrating narcissism, I’m going to do some year-end navel-gazing for my own amusement. Enjoy.

From a stats point of view, it’s been an interesting year. I received an substantial bump in hits this fall, probably because that’s about when I started branching out into art journaling and my notebook obsession. I’m still primarily a book blogger (not something I set out to do, but reviews do make up the vast majority of my entries) but it’s fun to post about other things too. This was also my first year as a “real” book reviewer – that is, where I am contacted more or less regularly by people seeking a review.

My top page, as should come as a surprise to no one, was my list of writing prompt websites. It received almost three times the hits as my main page. This is awesome, by the way: I’m happy to provide a service that so many find so useful.

My most popular review in terms of page views was, oddly enough, Number the Stars. I guess people were looking for help on their homework.

Lastly, I am sad to announce that not a single person from Iceland visited my blog all year. Clearly I am doing something terribly, terribly wrong.

Okay, that’s enough of that. What would you like to see more or less of in 2011?

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