End of 2010 Book Survey

End of 2010 Survey stolen from Perpetual Page Turner.


Best of 2010?
Can't choose just one! The Help, Almost Perfect, Ballad and Lament were my favorite reads of the year.


Worst of 2010?
I couldn't finish Blindness by Jose Saramago. I know other people enjoyed it. Perhaps it was the translation. Maybe I'll try it again later.

Most Disappointing Book of 2010?
Justine by The Marquis De Sade. I'd wanted to read the Marquis for a long time. For his time his writing was probably very risque but I found it slightly dull.


Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2010?
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Once I discovered that it was a thriller/mystery, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. But I loved it.


Book you recommended to people most in 2010?
Both The Help, Almost Perfect and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I couldn't stop talking about these books for weeks after I read them.

Best series you discovered in 2010?
I seriously hope that Maggie Stiefvater continues The Books of Faerie series because that was the best series I read in 2010. I also read 3 more books in the Women of The Otherworld series and am loving it even more! I'm also looking forward to the next in the Newsflesh series after reading the first one.


Favorite new authors you discovered in 2010?
Maggie Stiefvater, Jane Yolen, Midori Snyder, Cherie Priest. I can't wait to read more by them.

Most hilarious read of 2010?
It's a toss up between When You Are Engulfed In Flames or I Was Told There'd Be Cake. I laughed out loud at both of them. 

Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2010?
Most thrilling? Yeah that goes to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire. Both of them equally engaging and not the kind of book I would usually pick up. I'm really glad i did though.

Book you most anticipated in 2010?
I was excited for The Second Short Life Of Bree Tanner. I loved Twilight and I was excited to have more of that world. I wasn't thrilled by the book but enjoyed a dip back in the Twilight pond. I was also really excited about Radiant Shadows and loved being back in The Wicked Lovely world. I can't wait for Darkest Mercy to come out!

Favorite cover of a book you read in 2010?
Probably my favorite cover is Luxe:

I love the dress.

Most memorable character in 2010?
Lisbeth Salander from the Millennium trilogy. I've never read anything like her. I find her fascinating. I couldn't stop thinking about Sage and Logan from Almost Perfect. After I finished Almost Perfect, I couldn't stop thinking about them and what would have happened to them. James and Nuala from Ballad also got stuck in my mind for days after I finished the book.

Most beautifully written book in 2010?
The Secret Life of Bees was a beautifully written story with fabulous characters. The Language of Trees had fantastically wonderful prose.

Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2010? 
There wasn't one book that had a great impact on me. I took away a lot from many books I read.

Book you can't believe you waited UNTIL 2010 to finally read?
The Secret Life Of Bees. It was the last book I read in 2010. Such a great book. I can't believe it took me til now to read it.

December Book Tally & Year End Wrap Up

Books read in December:
An Artificial Night-Seanan McGuire
The Bleeding Dusk-Colleen Gleason
The Fall-Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Wishin' And Hopin'-Wally Lamb
It's Always Something-Gilda Radner
Kind-Holly Black
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
Industrial Magic-Kelley Armstrong
The Secret Life of Bees-Sue Monk Kidd (review coming next week)

Fantastic month. Nine this month. Bringing my yearly total to 78 books or 26,775 pages. I didn't meet my goal of a 100 books but I beat my last year total (52).
I read 20 off my Fill In The Gaps Challenge this year. I've read 30 so far off that list.

I love this wordle of the books I read in 2010.
Tomorrow I'll post about my favorites and not so favorites of 2010. But today I'll post about stats. This year, I kept better track about the books I read.
I had this fantasy of making up charts showing the different stats I kept track of (pages, gender of author, genre, year published) but the charts I made were a mess. The only one worth showing was the gender of authors:

The majority of books I read in 2010 were written by women. At the beginning of the year I wasn't sure how this would skew. It'll be interesting to see if it's similar next year.
The majority (92% or 72) of the books I read were written in the last decade (2000-2010). A lot of the books on my Fill In The Gaps challenge are older but I tend to read a lot of newer books (whatever catches my eye).
Sixteen of the books I read were nonfiction (memoirs, food, self help or general nonfiction). I've been noticing that nonfiction tends to be catching my eye a lot more than it used to. In 2010, I read more general fiction (10) and paranormal romance (11) than any other genre.  Seven of the books I read were graphic novels. I hope to double that number next year.
It was a great year. I'm looking forward to another fantastic year.