Kids, Craft and Chaos

Yesterday I jokingly suggested to my husband that I should put all the books I'd read into an excel spreadsheet and see what trends emerged. Oh how he mocked me, perhaps implying that it would be less than riveting for other people to read about the statistical analysis of my reading habits. I was, frankly quite disappointed to think that you wouldn't be desparate to read the delights of my number crunching. But then I realised that Kateri had done exactly that. So I've decided that my blog, my rules and I think perhaps there may be something in my analysis that's interesting.

Actually, analysis is probably going a bit too far. Generally vague conclusions from a limited data set but hey ho.

In my head I think I read a lot of non-fiction. I wondered how true it actually was or did I just think the fictional worlds I read about were the same as the one that I live in (slightly alarming giving the kinds of places I read about). Turns out 20 of my 93 were non fiction. I'm not sure it constitutes "a lot" but it's an okay proportion, at least I'm mixing some fact with the giant quantitiy of dubious standard of fiction I read.

I strongly suspected that my reading this year has been on a very single minded genre bent- yes, Crime. I have read almost every Janet Evanovich this year plus a healthy (or unhealthy depending o how you look at it) dose of Agatha Christie. And when the numbers were crunched...

I so indeed read a LOT of crime. Hmmm, maybe a bigger mix next year. Maybe. Although, what did prove surprising is the quantity of sci-fi and fantasy- I really feel I haven't read much of that this year but it was quite varied- from Discworld to Artemis Fowl to Harry Potter to Harry Dresden. But look, at the genuine wedge sized section of Science and Economics. I'm reading lovely worthy things I am.

I read something last year that suggested that you tend to read books written by your own gender- that women read books written by women and men read books written by men. I found this an intriguing thought and I suppose if you read firmly within your gender sterotype genres then it probably is mostly true - there are not many men out there writing chick lit or women writing fantasy or war books - although this is changing. I wondered if it would hold true for someone like me who reads across several genres. I knew I'd be lucky to get 25% male authors given the giant quantity or Christie and Evanovich this year so when all was said and done I have been rather impressed with the balance:

Just slightly under a third of the books I read were by men. And if I exculded my two obsessions this year it would be at least 50/50. Nice to know I don't fit in that gender sterotype. Well, not entirely.

And finally, in this year where there have been two giant debates about books- the rise and rise of the ebook and the potential demise of the public library. I've written before about my love of my local library and my great admiration of my favourite librarian so it will come as no surprise that I am a great supporter of the public library and all it can offer. I've mostly stayed away from the debate on ebooks- each to their own is my mantra and surely anything that gets people (especially young people, and BOYS) reading is a wonderful thing. What I think will be missing in a world of e readers and what not is the sharing of books, the way a well read book can be passed around a family, work colleagues, neighbours and friends before eventually resting happily on a bookshelf next to it's equally loved companions full of memories or donated to charity to be loved elsewhere. Oh the joy of a shared book.

I wondered just how many of the books I read would be borrowed from friends and family or from the library. I'm lucky enough to have a disposable income big enough that I can buy books regularly without having to think too much about it (that isn't to say I can be trusted in a bookshop with a credit card).

Of the books I read this year, less than half came from my (and my husband's) own collection - which probably explains the ever growing "unread" pile. Around a quarter were borrowed from friends, family and work colleagues- and duly returned. But even in this day and age of cheap books and my own obsession with buying I still borrowed over half of the books I read from the public library. Oh, and what isn't shown here is the one e book I did read. I'm not a complete luddite.

I'm not planning to read quite so many books this year but I hope that there is variety in genre, gender and their sources. How does your reading list break down?

And the first book on the list.... The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.