2010 Final Book Report

Here's where I break down the 104 books I read last year (104!), and look at totals and trends.

In 2010 I read:

104 books total (exactly 2 per week)
80 books for the first time
59 books for children or young adults
19 fantasies
14 science fiction
12 Austen related
10 were nonfiction/memoir (5 for work)
4 classics for first time

These are good numbers compared to 2009; not only did I read 12 more books over the year, more of them were books I was reading for the first time. While last year 71% of my reading was new books, this year I reached 77%. A majority this year were for young audiences, and it was great to see the quality of writing in the genre. Not that there was ever any doubt in my mind about that, but now if anyone ever pooh-poohs YA books to me, I can say, "Yeah? Have you read X? or Y? Z? or the whole alphabet, for that matter?"

I'm not sure I'll be able to get to 100 books in 2011, although I'd like to. I'm going to be working on writing a reference book, and that means I'll be doing a lot of reading for research. So you're going to see a lot of nonfiction on my lists ... hopefully the fun stuff won't get squeezed out. In any case, here's my summary of 2010:

Favorite book of the 1st quarter: Empire of Ivory, by Naomi Novik, a dragon fantasy set during the Napoleonic Wars that does a great job of world-building and thinking of alternate cultures. 

Favorite book of the 2nd quarter: Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson, a compelling portrait of a teenage girl battling anorexia.

Favorite book of the 3rd quarter: Freewill, by Chris Lynch, an amazing experiment in second-person narration that makes the plot's central mystery even more compelling.

Favorite book of the 4th quarter:
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, by M. T. Anderson, a fresh historical approach to the American Revolution.

Favorite book of 2010: Revolution, by Jennifer Donnelly, a seamless weaving of contemporary teen trauma and fascinating historical fiction, set in modern-day New York/Paris and Revolution-era France.

Again, the majority of my best books were written for young adults. You're only young once, but you can read YAs forever—and with more people using e-readers (making it easy to hide what you're reading on the bus), I predict a continuing rise in popularity for the genre.