2012 - My year of reading

2012 was the National Year of Reading in Australia, so I decided to make it my year of reading too and read 366 books: one for every day of the (leap) year.

I started with a few basic rules, the first being that a book is a book.  So for tally purposes, an 800 page fantasy epic equalled a 20 page children’s picture book with just a few words on each page. Given the number of times my children demand I reread their favourite books to them, the word count probably evens out.

In the case of cooking, knitting, interior design and decorating books, a quick flick through the pages to admire the illustrations would not constitute a “read”.   As enjoyable as this is, I believe it qualifies as a “browse”.  I’d count as read books that I examined in enough detail to work out the structure of the knitted object, or the palatability of the recipes.  Preferably, I’ll knit or cook from them.  I wouldn’t promise to decorate or design – anyone who has ever seen my home can attest that this is highly unlikely to happen ever – let alone in a year of reading.

Other rules I’d make up as I went along: I was reasonably sure that an album of lyrics and extensive liner notes should count as a book, as would reading a play or volume of poetry.  I wouldn’t generally count a magazine as a book, as much as I enjoy flicking through an issue of a Who or OK magazine at the hairdresser, but an edition of McSweeney’s, or The New Yorker might be the exception.

I wasn’t proposing to read evenly and complete a book a day, but cumulatively 366 over the (leap) year. I often have 3 or 4 books on the go at a time – a book I’m reading a chapter at a time with my daughters, a cook book I’m examining for the magical recipe everyone in the family will eat, and a novel to escape.

In 2011 I read over 200 books – surely 366 in 2012 won’t be too much of a stretch?

So what happened?  I did completed the first 6 months of my self imposed challenge.  At 30^th June, I’d read 182 books and decided to grant myself an honourable retirement.

Reading to a target required sacrifices.  I was happy to sacrifice exercise and housework time, reasonably happy to sacrifice television and blogging.  I wasn’t so happy to sacrifice my reading choice.

I use Goodreads to record the books that I read.  As I became increasingly focussed on my overall reading tally, I found that I was cutting down on the reading – news, articles, blogs – that could not be recorded on Goodreads.

I also found that I was forcing myself to complete books that I’d normally abandon as unenjoyable simply so that I could add them to my tally.

By 31^st December I’d completed 323 books: 122 adult fiction, 14 teen fiction, 20 junior fiction, 104 picture books, 59 adult non fiction and 4 junior non fiction.

Among the 122 adult fiction books read, I categorised 35 as literary, 23 romance, 21 historical and 16 crime. I also read a smattering of steam punk, fantasy, science fiction, ghost, graphic novels and short stories.  Many of the novels I read straddled a couple of genres, literary crime, historical mysteries, romantic steam punk.

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Of the adult non fiction books I read, 13 were biographies (mostly historical), 11 were cook books and 10 knitting.

I discovered new (to me) authors, read new books by favourite authors, and slogged through a few unenjoyable reads.  I won’t be setting myself such a  huge reading challenge again (I’d like to get back to some of the things I sacrificed last year) but I’m glad that I gave it a go.  I might not have achieved 366 books, but 323 is over 85%, and that’s a high distinction.