- 24 books (so pretty much a quarter) were re-reads - mostly old favourites (the Abhorsen series, the Daine and Alanna quartets from Tamora Pierce, a couple of the Tiffany Aching books and Northern Lights). These were either books I simply couldn't resist re-reading when I happened across them in the library, or ones that I actively sought out to re-read as I feel like I didn't appreciate them the first time (as in the case of Pullman). The Abhorsen series is like a comfort blanket to me and I definitely reached for it this year when I was desperately unhappy. If I could take this down to maybe 10-15% of my reading being re-reads then I'd be happy.
- I actually read much more in the second half of the year than in the first half. I read 13 books between January-April, and then powered through 30 during May and June (I blame the Vampire Academy series, and the fact that I did have a week on holiday in Scotland), and then a fairly steady 59 between July-December. I do remember being particularly focussed on work during May and June, and I tend to read as a form of productive procrastination, using books to bribe myself to work and alternating between typing and reading to give myself a break from the screen light.
- Unsurprisingly, only 6 of the books I read for fun were non-fiction, and 3 of those were memoirs/essay collections from my favourite female comedians. 2 others were memoirs from Roald Dahl, and only one was straight non-fiction - 'Feet in the Clouds', which I loved, cried over, and would thoroughly recommend to anyone who enjoys sports and definitely anyone who enjoys running. This is definitely something I'll be looking to change in 2016.
- There is no poetry on there at all, and only three short story collections. All 3 were bought because I especially wanted to read the Abhorsen and Tortall stories included within them, and although I did enjoy some of the other stories, it reminded me how much pot-luck collections can be, and how they should be dipped in and out of rather than powering through. A different style of reading, and one I'd like to embrace in 2016.
- I would classify a mere 15 of the books read as being intended for the adult market, and only 2 of those I would classify as being literary fiction. The others were crime capers or chick lit. So my knowledge in a pub quiz will highly tend towards...
- Children's literature. This isn't exactly a shocker, but almost all of the books I read in 2015 were to be found in the children's/YA section of the bookshop. I would say that 16 were for a more middle-grade or younger audience, and 66 were for the teen or YA reader. Oh dear, that's really quite biased. In my defence, I read a fair few YA series which really ratchets up the numbers (3 in the Abhorsen series, 4 each for Alanna and Daine, 6 in the Vampire Academy...that's 17 already) but still, that's a fair bias and something easily correctable to broaden what I'm reading.
- Only 24 of the books I read had male authors, and of those, 2 were co-authored (Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg). This is probably a side-effect of reading so much children's and YA literature, given the general biases of the publishing industry.
- However I wouldn't exactly say that just because I'm reading books by women, I'm reading very diverse material by exciting authors with characters more representative of the world around us. I'll do a little round up of my best books later but I didn't exactly make the effort to read lots pushing boundaries or with a very diverse cast of characters. This is laziness on my part, just buying things based on what publicity pushes me towards, and I'd like to make a change to try and encounter different and better YA especially.
If you want to keep up with what I'm reading, you can find me on the 50 Book Pledge website. I'm not sure why I use this rather than Goodreads, but I quite like the badges, and the different recommendations that often appear, as it's largely slanted towards a Canadian audience. This year I'll be aiming towards 100 books again, with a larger proportion of non-fiction, literary fiction, short stories and new reads - this year maybe I'll focus on quality over quantity. Good luck for your own reading and writing resolutions, there are some good ideas over here at the Grauniad. The blog is undergoing a major revamp and will soon feature reviews of all the books I've read over the past three years instead of the previous haphazard review system which I have removed, as well as bits of writing, race reports from any running/swimming I've done, and some more general posts. I am also always open to reading recommendations and would love some nudges in the right direction towards those genres which I'd love to explore more.
Happy New Year!
