The Books I Read in 2010

I decided to keep track of all the books I read in 2010.   I read thirty: twenty fiction and ten non-fiction.  It seems that I am old school - I don't read ebooks or listen to audiobooks.  And I didn't count any books that I didn't finish (except one).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/austinevan/1225274637/
Thanks to austinevan for this stack of books photo

I posted the entire lists of what I read, together with my impressions of each one (fiction, non-fiction).  But, just in case you don't want to read about all thirty, I think that these were my favourites:

Fiction
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned
Kavalier & Clay
Valley Of Bones
Super Sad True Love Story

Non Fiction
Consider The Lobster
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
How to Become a Scandal
The Age of Paradox

Of course, I feel that I should have read more.  Maybe I'll follow the advice in How to Read More Books and aim for more than 100 books in 2011?  Probably not, though.

It is interesting that I read twice as many fiction as non-fiction.  I used to never read novels; but then I made an effort to change that.  Maybe I've now over-shot?  The non-fiction books I read are not (directly) to do with my work (whatever that is).  Though maybe that's because there are not many books about that?  Or maybe because I already read plenty about that stuff online?  I found it interesting that so many of the books I read were by chance (given as gifts or in a library-sale-bag).  I notice that I like novels that are set in places I know (London, Edinburgh, Princeton) or am visiting (Rome, Edinburgh).  And I like to read lots of mysteries and sci-fi, but none of my fiction favourites are exactly any of those genres (although three of the four sort of are).

But assembling these lists and writing my little reviews was a lot of fun - almost like reading a year's worth of books all over again.