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 30th 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 31st 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.
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.
