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Janet's Log - Stardate 2015


Janet

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Books read In 2006 - 20
Books read In 2007 - 30
Books read In 2008 - 40
Books read In 2009 - 65
Books read In 2010 - 45
Books read In 2011 - 60
Books read In 2012 - 76
Books read in 2013 - 63
Books read in 2014 - 57

FICTION

1. A Little of What You Fancy (1970) by H E Bates - 2½/5

2. How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup (1975) by J L Carr - 3½/5

3. The Dynamite Room (2014) by Jason Hewitt - 5/5

4. The Bell Jar (1963) by Sylvia Plath - 3½/5

5. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding (1932) by Julia Strachey - 3½/5
6. The Queen's Fool (2003) by Philippa Gregory - 2/5
7. Elizabeth is Missing (2014) by Emma Healey - 4/5

8. The Shadow of the Wind (2004) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón - 3½/5

9. The Spire (1964) by William Golding - 3½/5

10. Ghosting (2015) by Jonathan Kemp - 5/5

11. The Rosie Project (2014) by Graeme Simsion - 5/5

12. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry (2014) by Gabrielle Zavin - 4/5

13. Hardacre by C L Skelton (1976) - 3/5

14. The Girl on the Train (2015) by Paula Hawkins (2015) - 4/5

15. The Great Gatsby (1925) by F Scott Fitzgerald - 4/5
16. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (2013) by Karen Joy Fowler - 2½/5

17. The Secret Adversary (1922) by Agatha Christie - 4/5 (I'm not sure if this is classified as a Classic?)

18. The Red Notebook (2015) by Antoine Laurent - 4/5

19. The Rosie Effect (2014) by Graeme Simsion - 4/5

20. The Cornish Coast Murder (1935) by John Bude - 4/5

21. And Then There Were None (19) by Agatha Christie - 5/5

22. The Versions of Us (2015) by Laura Barnett - 3/5

23. How to be Both (2014) by Ali Smith - 3/5

24. The Letter (2013) by Kathryn Hughes - 2½/5

25. Dumb Witness (1937) by Agatha Christie - 4/5

26. Peril at End House (1932) by Agatha Christie - 4/5

27. Appointment with Death (1938) by Agatha Christie - 4/5

28. The Pursuit of Love (1945) by Nancy Mitford - 5/5

29. Midnight's Children (1981) by Salman Rushdie  3/5

30. The Lake District Murder (1935) by John Bude - 3½/5

31. Love for Lydia (1952) by H E Bates - 3/5

32. Crime at Christmas (1934) by C H B Kitchen - 4/5

33. Requiem for a Wren (1955) by Nevil Shute - 3½/5
34. The Humans (2013) by Matt Haig - 4/5

 

CLASSICS 

1. The Time Machine (1895) by H G Wells - 5/5

2. Middlemarch (1871-71) by George Eliot - 4/5

3. Prester John (1910) by John Buchan - 4/5

4. Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brontë - 5/5

5. Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) by Thomas Hardy - 5/5

6. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens - 5/5

7. A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens - 5/5

CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT FICTION
1. A Bear Called Paddington (1958) by Michael Bond - 5/5
2.The Enormous Crocodile (1978) by Roald Dahl - 3/5

3. The Family from One End Street (1937) by Eve Garett - 3/5

4. Five Children and It (1902) by E Nesbit - 4/5

5. Five Children on the Western Front (2014) by Kate Saunders - 4/5

6. King of Shadows by Susan Cooper - 3½/5

7. The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow (2015) by Katherine Woodfine - 4/5

8. Stig of the Dump (1963) by Clive King - 3/5

9. The Vicar of Nibbleswicke (1991) by Roald Dahl - 3/5

10. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1964) by Ian Fleming - 3/5

11. The Phantom Tollbooth (1961) by Norton Juster - 2½/5

12. The Happy Prince and other stories (1888) by Oscar Wilde - 5/5

13. The Wombles (1968) by Elisabeth Beresford - 3/5

14. Christmas with the Savages (1955) by Mary Clive - 3/5

15, Swallows and Amazons (1930) by Arthur Randsome - 3½/5

16. Flambards (1967) by K M Peyton - 4/5

 

NON-FICTION 
1. The Young Ardizzone (1970) by Edward Ardizzone - 4½/5

2. The Yorkshire Shepherdess (2014) by Amanda Owen - 4/5

3. Grayson Perry - Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl (2006) by Wendy Jones - 3½/5

4. A Boy in Kent (1938) by C. Henry Warren - 3½/5

 

PLAYS


POETRY

1. Dorothy Wordsworth's Christmas Birthday (2014) by Carol Ann Duffy - 3/5

 

 

SHORT STORY

 

Total read 62

1/5 - I hated it
2/5 - It was okay
3/5 - I liked it
4/5 - I really liked it
5/5 - I loved it

 

(or variations!)

For how to read 'highlights' on the Nook, see here (With thanks to Claire!)

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PAPER BOOKS ACQUIRED IN 2015 (TITLES READ IN RED!)
 
01. King of Shadows by Susan Cooper - £0 finished 23.06.15 (09.01.15 - bought for me by my Mum) - Children's/YA
02. The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath - £0 - finished 02.02.15 (14.01.15 - swapped for a book with Brian) - Fiction
03. The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory - £0.60 finished 24.02.15 (23.01.15 - Lion's Bookshop Warminster) - Fiction
04. The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett finished 03.03.15 (23.01.15 - Lion's Bookshop Warminster) - Children's/YA
05. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey finished 07.02.15 (29.01.15 - Waterstone's Trowbridge) - Fiction
06. Dorothy Wordsworth's Christmas Birthday by Carol Ann Duffy - £2.85 finished 10.11.15 (31.01.15 - Amazon Online) - Short Story
07. Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey - £3.49 finished 26.02.15 (31.01.15 - Amazon Online) - Fiction
08. The Spire by William Golding - £0 finished 14.04.15 (08.03.15 - Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights Bath) - Fiction
09. Jamilia by Chingiz Aitmatov - £1.99 (11.03.15 - AGE UK, Warminster) - Fiction
10. Requiem for a Wren by Nevil Shute - £0 finished 25.11.15 (11.03.15 - Given to me by my Mum) - Fiction
11. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion - £1.99 finished 24.04.15 (12.03.15 - Dorothy House Hospice Shop) - Fiction
12. The Yorkshire Shepherdess by Amanda Owen - £3.85 finished 18.03.15 (18.03.15 - Tesco) - Non-fiction
13. Ghosting by Jonathan Kemp - £0 finished 16.04.15 (04.04.15 - Waterstone's Gift Voucher, Bath store) - Fiction
14. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin - £0 finished 01.05.15 (01.05.15 - Waterstone's Gift Voucher, Bluewater) - Fiction
15. Meadowland by John Lewis-Stempel - £0 (01.05.15 - bought with Waterstone's Gift Voucher, Bluewater store) - Non-fiction
16. Grayson Perry: Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Girl by Wendy Jones - £0 finished 03.06.15 (01.05.15 - Waterstone's Gift Voucher, Bluewater) - Non-fiction
17. The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude finished 29.07.15 (30.05.15 - Present from my Mum) - Fiction
18. The Enchanted Places by Christopher Milne - £1 (02.06.15 - Bookbarn Hallatrow) - Non-fiction
19. A Boy in Kent by C. Henry Warren - £0.60 finished 06.08.15 (17.06.15 - Lion's Bookshop Warminster) - Non-fiction

20. Stig of the Dump by Clive King £0 finished 27.07.15 (30.06.15 - Present from Mum from Waterstone's Bath) - Children's/YA

21. The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow by Catherine Woodfine £0 finished 15.07.15 (30.06.15 - Present from my Mum) - Children's/YA

22. The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion - £2.09 finished 18.07.15 (11.07.15 - bought with Waterstone's Gift Voucher, Wells store) - Fiction

23. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming - £2.70 finished 29.08.15 (25.07.15 - Awesome Books, online) - Children's/YA

24. The Wombles by Elizabeth Beresford - £0.99 finished 28.10.15 (11.08.15 - CLIC Shop,Trowbridge) - Children's/YA

25. The Vicar of Nibbleswicke by Roald Dahl - £0 finished 14.08.15 (11.08.15 - Library, Westbury) - Children's/YA

26. The Lake District Murder by John Bude - £1.49 finished 03.11.15 (11.08.15 - AGE UK   Westbury) - Fiction

27. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster - £0.99 finished 04.09.15 (12.08.15 - Oxfam, London Portabello Road) - Children's/YA

28. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie - £1.25 finished 24.10.15 (05.09.15 - Blue Cross Shop Frome) - Fiction

29. Mystery in White by J Jefferson Farjeon - £2.00 (18.09.15 - British Heart Foundation Shop Chichester) - Fiction

30. Love for Lydia by H E Bates - £1.75 finished 03.11.15 (22.09.15 - Red Cross Shop Warminster) - Fiction

31. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome - £1.80 finished 21.11.15 (26.09.15 - Book Sale, Wells) - Children's/YA

32. Crime at Christmas by C H B Kitchen - £3.50 finished 17.11.15 (30.09.15 - Any Amount of Books, London) - Fiction

33. Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie - £5.99 (28.10.15 - Waterstone's, Bath) - Fiction

 

Total new books acquired in 2015: 33
Number of these read: 28
Books abandoned:
Total cost* of books acquired: £47.17
Library Books: 0
Library Books Read: 0

* Taking into account money off/vouchers/gift cards etc - so price paid, not necessarily cover price

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PAID-FOR KINDLE BOOKS 2015 (BOOKS READ IN RED!)
 
1. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton - 06.01.15 - £1.80
2. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro - 07.01.15 - £0.99 - finished 15.12.15
3. Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders - 27.04.15 - £1.69 - finished 06.05.15 - 4/5
4. Hardacre by C L Skelton - 12.05.15 - £0.99 - finished 18.05.15 - 3/5
5. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins - 18.05.15 - £5.69 (purchased for book club - not available in paperback yet) - finished 20.05.15
6. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler - 26.05.15 - £1.99 - finished 16.06.15
7. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain - 14.06.15 - £1.09 - finished 15.07.15
8. The Letter by Kathryn Hughes - 23.07.15 - £0.49 - finished 01.09.15
9. The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett - 02.08.15 - £0.99 - finished 14.08.15
10. Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch - 02.08.15 - £1.99
11. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson - 03.08.15 - £0.99
12. How to be Both by Ali Smith - 14.08.15 - £3.79 - finished 26.08.15
13. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - 31.08.15
14. South Riding by Winifred Holtby - 22.10.15 - £0.99
15. The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers - 28.10.15 - £0.99
16. Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes - 07.11.15 - £0.99 - finished 30.12.15
17. Lucky by Professor Green - 24.11.15 - 2.19 - finished 08.12.15
18. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters - 06.12.15 - £0.99
 
Titles read = Red
 
Total new paid-for Kindle books acquired in 2015: 18
Number of these read: 11
Books abandoned: 0
Total cost* of books acquired: £29.53

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TOTAL TO READ PILE 2014 and before (total left = 87/98)

2014

The House at Pooh Corner by A A Milne
The Weather in the Streets by Rosamund

When We Were Very Young by A A Milne  
Now We are Six by A A Milne  

How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A.Cup by J L Carr - finished 17.01.15

Pies and Prejudice by Stuart Maconie

A Little of What You Fancy by H E Bates - finished 11.01.15

The Young Ardizzone by Edward Ardizzone - finished 05.03.15

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

Round the Christmas Fire by various

Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch
A Literary Christmas by various

The Dynamite Room by Jason Hewitt - finished 22.01.15

Stephen Fry presents Oscar Wilde's Stories for All Ages - audio book - finished 23.09.15

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald - finished 28.05.15

2013
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
Dombey and Son Charles Dickens
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - finished 21.11.15
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens

~
Web by John Wyndham
The Diary of a Provincial Lady (all four volumes) by E M Delafield
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
A Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers

The Battle of Pollocks Crossing by J L Carr
The Misses Mallet by Emily Hilda Young

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón - 04.04.15
A Life in Letters by George Orwell
Letters of Note by Shaun Usher
2012
The Day the Ceiling Fell Down by Jenifer Wayne
The Merchant of Venice (Cambridge School's Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
English Journey by J B Priestley
Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl

2011
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The Life and Death of King John by William Shakespeare
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
The Mysteries of Glass by Sue Gee
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Girl Who Kicked a Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson
The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry
The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson
Shakespeare's Wife by Germain Greer
The First Wife by Emily Barr
A Song of Sixpence by A J Cronin
The Green Years by A J Cronin
The Minstrel Boy by A J Cronin
The Northern Lights by A J Cronin

Peril at End House by Agatha Christie - finished 16.09.15
Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie
Journals of a Somerset Rector (1803 to 1834) by Rev'd Skinner
Hitchhiking to Heaven by Lionel Blue
Family Life by Sally Magnusson
A Kind of Loving by Stan Bristow
The Travel Books of W Somerset Maugham by W Somerset Maugham

2010
The Chrisalids by John Wyndham
The Comedy of Errors (Cambridge School's Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare

The Lost Daughter by Diane Chamberlain - given to Diane
The Children of Knowle Green by Lucy Boston
Boogie up the River by Mark Wallington
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Cambridge School's Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
Trumpet by Jackie Kay

Pre-2010
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg
The Rye Man by David Park
The Bolter by Frances Osbourne
Mister God, This is Anna by Fynn
Inside the Whale by George Orwell
Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell
The Man Who Was Thursday by G K Chesterton
The Third Man/The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene
King Soloman's Mines by H Rider Haggard
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K Jerome
The Chrisalids by John Wyndham
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield
The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker
The Ghost Road by Pat Barker
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - finished 20.09.15
The Common Reader by Virginia Woolf
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Hamlet (Cambridge School's Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
The Merry Wives of Windsor (Cambridge School's Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night (Cambridge School's Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare

 

Total read 10

Abandoned 0

Given Away 1

Edited by Janet
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MONTHLY BOOK SUMMARY 2015

 

January -
A Bear Called Paddington (1958) by Michael Bond - 01.01.15

The Time Machine (1895) by H G Wells - 04.01.15

A Little of What You Fancy (1970) by H E Bates - 11.01.15 - 3/5
How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup (1975) by J L Carr - 17.01.15 

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ENGLISH COUNTIES CHALLENGE - (TITLES READ IN BLUE!) PROGRESS = 20/48

 

01. My Uncle Silas by H. E. Bates (Bedfordshire) – 5/5

02. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (Berkshire) – 4/5

03. The Misses Mallett by E. H. Young (Bristol)

04. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (Buckinghamshire) - 5/5

05. The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers (Cambridgeshire)

06. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (Cheshire)

07. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (City of London) - 5/5 - (I might read an alternative for this as I’ve read it on numerous occasions already)

08. Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier (Cornwall) - 5/5

09. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome / The Maid of Buttermere by Melvyn Bragg (Cumbria) - 3½/5

10. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (Derbyshire) – 5/5 - I have already read this so may look for an alternative

11. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (Devon) - 5/5

12. Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (Dorset)

13. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (Durham) – 5/5

14. South Riding by Winifred Holtby (East Riding of Yorkshire)

15. Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne (East Sussex) – 5/5

16. Flambards by K M Peyton  [alt.Essex] – 4/5

17. Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee (Gloucestershire) – 5/5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative

18. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Greater London)

19. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (Greater Manchester)

20. Watership Down by Richard Adams (Hampshire) – 4/5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative

21. On The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin (Herefordshire) – 4/5

22. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Hertfordshire) – 5/5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative

23. England, England by Julian Barnes (Isle of Wight)

24. The Darling Buds of May by HE Bates (Kent) – 5/5

25. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson – /5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative (alt) Mist Over Pendle by Robert Neill (Lancashire) - suggested alternative from Willoyd

26. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend (Leicestershire) – 5/5

27. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (Lincolnshire)

28. An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge (Merseyside) – 3/5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative

29. The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley (Norfolk)

30. All Creatures Great and Small by James Heriott (North Yorkshire) - 5/5

31. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (Northamptonshire)

32. The Stars Look Down by A. J. Cronin (Northumberland)

33. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence (Nottinghamshire) (currently reading)

34. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford (Oxfordshire) - 5/5

35. Set In Stone by Robert Goddard (Rutland) – 4/5

36. Summer Lightning by P. G. Wodehouse (Shropshire) – 3/5

37. Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore (Somerset)

38. A Kestrel For A Knave by Barry Hines (South Yorkshire) – 4/5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative

39. The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett (Staffordshire)

40. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald (Suffolk)

41. Emma by Jane Austen (Surrey) – 5/5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative

42. Another World by Pat Barker (Tyne and Wear)

43. Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes (Warwickshire)

44. Middlemarch by George Eliot (West Midlands) - 4/5

45. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (West Sussex) – 4/5

46. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (West Yorkshire)

47. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope (Wiltshire)

48. The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (Worcestershire)

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Thomas Hardy

 

(From Wikipedia:)

 

Hardy divided his novels and collected short stories into three classes:

 

Novels of Character and Environment

 

The Poor Man and the Lady (1867, unpublished and lost)

Under the Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School (1872)

Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) - Finished 20 September 2015

The Return of the Native (1878)

The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character (1886) - Finished 26 September 2011

The Woodlanders (1887)

Wessex Tales (1888, a collection of short stories)

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented (1891) - Finished 7 January 2013

Life's Little Ironies (1894, a collection of short stories)

Jude the Obscure (1895)

 

Romances and Fantasies

 

A Pair of Blue Eyes: A Novel (1873)

The Trumpet-Major (1880)

Two on a Tower: A Romance (1882)

A Group of Noble Dames (1891, a collection of short stories)

The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament (1897) (first published as a serial from 1892)

 

Novels of Ingenuity

 

Desperate Remedies: A Novel (1871)

The Hand of Ethelberta: A Comedy in Chapters (1876)

A Laodicean: A Story of To-day (1881)

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Thanks, Julie.  You too.  :)

I have still got some reviews for 2014 to write, but I wanted to get my review of last year's reading posted, so I thought I'd post it here instead, as my very, very mild OCD doesn't want to post it before I the end of my reviews! 

 

My stats are as follows (where applicable, last year’s totals in brackets):

 

Total books read – 57 (63)

Total pages read – 16,371 (16,530)

Average number of pages – 287 (262)

 

Fiction32 (39) - General fiction = 29 (31), Classic = 3 (7)

Non-fiction11 (9) - Business 1, Letters 1, Crime 1, Memoir 5, Humour 1, Essays 1, Semi-autobiographical 1

Children’s/YA12 (10)

Plays1 (0)

Short Stories1 (5)

 

Female authors – 21 = 36.8% (36 = 38.3%)

Male authors – 36 = 63.2% (27 = 61.7%)

M/F collaboration – 0 (1 = 1.58)

 

Authors new to me = 33 (41)

 

Multiple books by single author read:

H E Bates – 5

Sue Townsend – 3

Charles Dickens – 2 (1 re-read)

Susan Hill – 2

 

the remainder were individual authors.

 

I had some challenges which were to read:

 

3 from my 'World Challenge' - 2 read
‘some’ Classics (to include a Dickens) - 3 read - two were Dickens but one was a re-read
‘some books from’ my English Counties Challenge - 8 read
‘some books from’ my Roald Dahl's children's books plus Boy and Going Solo (not going to specify a particular number) - 1 Read

 

Of my books read:

 

4 were audio books

8 were my English Counties Challenge (Berkshire, Leicestershire, East Sussex, Kent, North Yorkshire, Rutland, Shropshire, West Sussex)

7 for my ‘real life’ book club

4 were Book Club Forum ‘Reading Circle’ reads

1 read as part of my Dahl challenge

2 were ‘World Challenge’ books (Ethiopia and Lesotho)

1 was my annual Christmas re-read of A Christmas Carol

The remainder – just because!

 

Country of birth of author

England = 42, USA = 4, Ireland = 2, Scotland = 2

1 each from Ethiopia, France, Morocco (not counted towards World Challenge as set in France, but I may add it to that challenge at some stage!) The Netherlands, Britain (I can’t find which country within Britain!) and Wales.

 

Main setting of book

England 35, various locations 13, US 3, France 2, Basutoland (Lesotho) 1, Fictional locations 1, Scotland 1, The Netherlands 1

 

Number of books per month

January - 6 Books (3)

February - 6 Books (6)

March - 4 Books (7)

April - 6 Books (4)

May - 7 Books (7)

June - 5 Books (4)

July - 6 Books (4)

August - 3 Books (6)

September - 3 Books (4)

October - 2 Books (5)

November- 1 Books (5)

December- 8 Books (8)

 

Score out of 5

2/5 = 2 books

3/5 = 16 books

3½/5 = 7 books

4/5 = 19 books

5/5 = 13 books

 

Shortest book was the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw which was 96 pages long.  Longest was Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens at 838pages. Understandably the former was my quickest read.   The book that took me the longest to finish was Nicholas Nickleby but that’s because I read it in instalments with two other readers (I actually finished the last instalment early – we aren’t due to finish it for a couple more weeks but I didn’t want to leave it any longer). 

 

The earliest in terms of publication date was also Nicholas Nickleby published in 1839. I read one book published in 2014.

 

My years are too many to list individually, but broken down they are:

 

1800s – 3

1900s – 29

2000s – 8

2010s – 17

 

Favourites (all rated 5/5):

My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier

The Darling Buds of May by H E Bates

On the Beach by Nevil Shute

A Very Long Engagement by Sébastien Japrisot

Buster's Diaries (as told to) by Roy Hattersley

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Murder at Wrotham Hill by Diana Souhami

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Winnie-the-Pooh by A A Milne

 

Since finishing I would now only classify the ones in bold as 5/5, but it's too fiddly going back to change things on here and Goodreads/Shelfari  :)

 

Least favourites:

The Dinner by Herman Koch – 2/5

Longbourn by Jo Baker – 2/5

 

New books acquired 2014

48 (72) – this includes library books and gifts (24 fewer than last year!)

Of these, number read = 31 (one is not a book to sit and read - and one book was abandoned)

 

This leaves 15 still to read

 

Total cost of books acquired 2014 = £88.72 (2013 = £123.59)

Value if purchased from Amazon (prices as at day of purchase) = £280.19 (2013 = £360.03)

 

Of the new books acquired, 6 were gifts, 5 were borrowed from friends, 11 came from charity shops, 10 were bought for Book Club or the reading circle on BCF.co.uk (I like to annotate) and 1 was bought with a gift card

 

2 were Library books (I also borrowed some audio books and downloaded some Nook books)

 

I also bought 11 Kindle books, most of which were the 99p Deal of the Day books

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Janet

 I'm impressed with your statistics from the past year .

 

You stayed pretty consistent with the number of books read per month, reading close to the same each month except one !

 

You also seemed to have the ratio I do of male vs female authors . I don't keep exact numbers, but I'm pretty sure I read more male than female each year . Not sure why ?

 

Anyhow, you are much more organized than me to keep track of so many different things. I'm lucky if I remember to write down a book I finish .

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Thanks, Julie. :)

 

I have several spreadsheets and I complete them when I buy a book and then when I finish a book - I have others too for other things - challenges, Kindle books (I don't count them in my 'to read' pile as they aren't physical and therefore don't take up space in our home) old books acquired lists. 

 

If I didn't do them when I bought or finished a book then I probably would get behind and give up, but I'm quite disciplined and make myself keep them up to day. :)

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